Looking for a software-project related to audio... Any suggestions?

[thesurfingalien]

Hi All,

 

This maybe is a strange question, but I am looking for an interesting software-project related to audio that I can work on in my free time.

 

I used to be a professional software-developer, mostly for ERP-systems. During that time I also wrote various tools for other people, just for the fun of it.

 

About 10 years ago, I quit that job, and went into another direction, only doing coding when I really needed to; the fun was gone.

 

But lately I have been toying around with a free (opensource, from SourceForge) BASIC-compiler called FreeBasic. You know what? The fun is back! It is all pretty old-school, and I admit I am pretty rusty, but I think/wish/hop I can get back to my former level

 

Anyway, if anyone has ideas, let me know. It can be something small ("Gee, I have always been looking for a tool that ...") or something a bit more elaborate.

 

I have to disappoint MAC-users though... FreeBasic only compiles for Windows and various Linux-variants, but rumors are the developers are aiming for a late 2014 release for MAC.

 

Kind Regards,

Peter

[wgscott]

You can get Xcode 5 free from Apple, and as a warm-up, could you write a piece of software to take the measurements from REW and make an AU plugin?

[iago]

This maybe is a strange question, but I am looking for an interesting software-project related to audio that I can work on in my free time.

 

There are some members of this community still looking out for the CA Linux edition of a music server to complement the C.A.P.S. models ;-)

[thesurfingalien]

You can get Xcode 5 free from Apple, and as a warm-up, could you write a piece of software to take the measurements from REW and make an AU plugin?

 

I forgot to mention I do not have a MAC (donations are welcome )

 

Peter

[wgscott]

The other thing is almost anything you develop on Linux will be portable to other unix systems like OS X.

 

Speaking of which, I just compiled jconv, zita-convolver and jack on OS X 10.9.1 this morning.

 

I'm not sure, but it looks like it is no longer maintained. This could be a great contribution and cross-platform. I think the code is mostly C++

[wgscott]

I hate to say this, but the much hated hydrogen audio talks about all manner of open source audio stuff with pointers to the source repositories. You might need linux, but there are always ways to move them to windows.

 

UTSL (points for anyone who knows what those initials mean)

 

It isn't the website, it is the gate-keepers.

 

UTSL: use the source, Luke

[Snowmonkey]

Diverging slightly from your original question, have you had a look at Microsoft Visual Studio? It's free for non-commercial use and is a comprehensive development environment, including access to Microsoft's extensive graphic interface library. It's a meta-compiler, so you can choose to write code in Visual Basic, C# or C++ and get much the same result. If you come up with something of commercial value, you can always shell out a few grand for the commercial licence.

I wrote an app a few years ago using this environment (and C#), which enabled an intellectually handicapped adult to access their movie library unassisted. It proved a minor hit and I still get requests from families wanting a copy. It's a bit naughty, because it requires you to rip movies to disk, or use torrents. (I officially recommend it only be used for non-copyright material).

Anyway the point is, I was also rusty, not having written any software for years, and I was able to produce a quite slick, professional-looking programme, using this tool.

[thesurfingalien]

The other thing is almost anything you develop on Linux will be portable to other unix systems like OS X.

 

Speaking of which, I just compiled jconv, zita-convolver and jack on OS X 10.9.1 this morning.

 

I'm not sure, but it looks like it is no longer maintained. This could be a great contribution and cross-platform. I think the code is mostly C++

 

Hi Bill,

 

Not sure here, but I think the problem lies in the used GUI. I believe the FreeBasic compiler works with KDE and Gnome. OS-X in that respect is another matter. But without the ability to test, it is a dead duck

 

I thought about getting a copy of OS-X and run it on a virtual machine though... VirtualBox supports OS-X.

 

Regards,

Peter

[thesurfingalien]

Diverging slightly from your original question, have you had a look at Microsoft Visual Studio? It's free for non-commercial use and is a comprehensive development environment, including access to Microsoft's extensive graphic interface library. It's a meta-compiler, so you can choose to write code in Visual Basic, C# or C++ and get much the same result. If you come up with something of commercial value, you can always shell out a few grand for the commercial licence.

I wrote an app a few years ago using this environment (and C#), which enabled an intellectually handicapped adult to access their movie library unassisted. It proved a minor hit and I still get requests from families wanting a copy. It's a bit naughty, because it requires you to rip movies to disk, or use torrents. (I officially recommend it only be used for non-copyright material).

Anyway the point is, I was also rusty, not having written any software for years, and I was able to produce a quite slick, professional-looking programme, using this tool.

 

Hi Snowmonkey,

 

Yes, I worked with Visual Studio and the free versions of it as well. I also toyed around with Mono on Linux. However, I prefer more basic development-tools myself. FreeBasic's IDE and compiler are just a few MB in size and do not use the .NET framework. Executables are very small and performance is excellent although limited to Win32. To me it is more fun to work with

 

Most of the professional development I have done was using Business Basic, and I really liked it, even though it was pretty limited at first and required a low of lower-level coding to get things done.

 

I recall sitting in a train and discussing my progress on software that allowed me to search & retrieve data using balanced-tree indexed files with a friend. Our conversation was overheard by some guy, and he mentioned that what I was working on could be bought for something like US$ 50 or so... I told him I just liked to figure out how it worked. He thought I was completely nuts

 

So, yes, I like to work with limited resources...

 

Regards,

Peter

[wgscott]

Hi Bill,

 

Not sure here, but I think the problem lies in the used GUI. I believe the FreeBasic compiler works with KDE and Gnome. OS-X in that respect is another matter. But without the ability to test, it is a dead duck

 

I thought about getting a copy of OS-X and run it on a virtual machine though... VirtualBox supports OS-X.

 

Regards,

Peter

 

All the X11 stuff will run on OSX.

[thesurfingalien]

I hate to say this, but the much hated hydrogen audio talks about all manner of open source audio stuff with pointers to the source repositories. You might need linux, but there are always ways to move them to windows.

 

UTSL (points for anyone who knows what those initials mean)

 

I have a special fondness for open-source. If you look on SourceForge, there are many projects to be found that are joined efforts of developers, as well as one-man projects, that are of excellent quality. It is not uncommon for these projects to offer better quality than commercially available comparable products.

 

I think the key here is that these guys do not work on a set schedule to get things done, which is often very different from commercial software; the release-date of a new version becomes more important that the quality/stability.

 

 

While using the source and compile it works quite well, you still need a cross-platform compiler that is capable of handling the specifics of an operating-system, especially the GUI.

 

Kind regards,

Peter

[Paul R]

Hey Peter- you really might like LiveCode. It's fun, multiplatform - including iOS and Android, as well as Windows, MacOS, and Linux - and there is a free version of it.

 

-Paul

[thesurfingalien]

Hey Peter- you really might like LiveCode. It's fun, multiplatform - including iOS and Android, as well as Windows, MacOS, and Linux - and there is a free version of it.

 

-Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for the link! I actually never heard of LiveCode before I will check it out!

 

Regards,

Peter