Hi there, fellow monks!

My name is Joost and I'm going to talk about audio processing in perl.

I've been playing with "live" (not really realtime, but close enough) audio generation/processing in perl for some time now and I'm not really impressed by the code on CPAN to do that.

For one thing, there appears to be no portable module to play or record audio with any kind of precision. I mean just some code to throw an audio buffer at the soundcard (OIW, in-process handling of data vs playing an audio file). Sure there's Audio::Play but that only supports monophonic sound and doesn't record.

Also, most audio modules use incompatible formats for their data and lots of them are badly documented and/or haven't been updated for years. In other words, coupling these modules is a mess (and slow).

More issues: reading and writing different audio file formats. I've taken a stab at that just now - but it still lacks some important formats.

Here are some of the things I feel are needed:

• One audio data interchange format. Audio::Data seems to me to be a good starting point, but it lacks low-level access (i.e. a C level interface and packed float/double strings for fast processing).
• A portable audio playback/recording library. Preferably one that will handle everything that Audio::Play handles but with unlimited channels and a JACK interface.
• Some kind of processing API that allows coupling of perl & XS code. Something like my Audio::LADSPA module, but more flexible and with an easier Perl interface.

So here's my question: is anyone interested in this kind of thing? By myself I might be able to get this stuff done in a year or so, considering the time I've got to spend, but I'd really like people to supply questions, burning needs, code and/or documentation to get this thing on the right track.

Also, if you are writing any audio modules on CPAN, I'd like to know about it.

Please let me know I'm not the only one interested in this kind of thing :-)

In other words: audio people of perl, let's hear your crazy ideas!

Cheers. J.

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