[sdiy] audio microprocessors and C++

[Veronica Merryfield]

I would have to ask why as well. If it were stay on a PC, it could  
become a VST :) If it really is to go to hardware, there are ways to  
convert C++ to Verilog/VHDL to put it in an FPGA and there are plenty  
of MCUs that are more than capable doing audio work and plenty of dev  
boards that can be had for a good price (ARM, SHARC, Freescale, XScale  
even x86). Jazelle is pretty quick but is only available of specific  
flavours of processors BTW, but probably would be ok for audio work.

And, if your MAC has no serial ports, one of them USB-serial beasties  
works just fine on my mac.

Vrnc

On 5-Mar-08, at 6:01 PM, Jason Proctor wrote:

> speaking as a long-time software & synthesis geek and short-time  
> hardware geek, i'd love to have a 2U MOTM-format module which has a  
> set of analogue DC-coupled ins & out, a chunk of DSP in the middle,  
> and a USB port or ethernet or something for uploading new programs.
>
> (i know this sounds like the CVS, and that's an option, but we're  
> talking concepts)
>
> for many software people, low-level programming is the perfect  
> antidote to years spent wondering why some class library or  
> operating system feature doesn't work right, misbehaves once in a  
> blue moon, takes forever, or whatever.
>
> not to mention the space and cost required by a general purpose  
> hardware solution. how many soundcards are DC coupled? only the RME  
> ones, IIRC, and they're expensive. build a couple of these modules,  
> which sit nicely with the other modules in your rig, and instantly  
> the gaps in every modular manufacturer's product line are filled.
>
> the only thing so far holding me back has been time, the PC- 
> dependency of a lot of solutions (i don't have a serial port on my  
> Mac, hence no CVS), and my snobbishness on choice of language.  
> ideally i'd like to program it in C/C++, or even Java (Jazelle is  
> probably fast enough to run a VM for control-type modules, dunno  
> about audio processors), but if it comes to it, assembler is fine.
>
> my 2c
> j
>
>> On 6 Mar 2008, at 00:01, Julian wrote:
>>
>>> I was wondering as to how feasible it would be to convert this  
>>> into hardware?  What i should be reading, and what i should be  
>>> asking him (i have little experinace with C++ and he has little  
>>> experiance of electronics)
>>
>> Why would you want to? You can buy a motherboard, add a disk drive,  
>> install Linux or even (the horror...) Windows on it, put it in a  
>> small box or a rack, and have a wide-open real-time DSP system,  
>> either compiled from the ground up or patched together using PD,  
>> Max/MSP, Supercollider or (as a last resort) Csound.
>>
>> Or you can spend years kludging together some horrible homebrew  
>> thing that does a couple of audio tricks not terribly well.
>>
>> Quad-core PCs are affordable now and will spectacularly outperform  
>> almost any dedicated hardware solution. The only exception would be  
>> a rack full of specialised DSP hardware - something like Kyma, but  
>> more up to date.
>>
>> Richard
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