Recently I learned that the current beta release of LuaJIT, a just-in-time compiler for the dynamic language Lua for Intel architecture, now has a native foreign function interface the includes the ability to declare and access C style arrays and structures rather than Lua tables. Some benchmarks were rewritten in this style, and the performance ranges from about half has fast as compiled C to several times faster than compiled C.
All reports are not yet in, but there is a distinct possibility that with LuaJIT, dynamic languages have come into their own and can be considered for many high-performance applications. Consequently, I invite you to consider writing a sound synthesis system in pure Lua for LuaJIT + FFI, using the FFI facility to declare signal buffers as C arrays, and possibly to declare unit generators as C structs. Although there currently is no native threading implementation in LuaJIT, one could still use OS threads or pthreads via FFI. I think a LuaJIT+FFI sound synthesis system would be competitive in speed with C/C++ systems, and far superior in terms of portability, ease of writing code, and so on. Regards, Mike On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 8:02 AM, Batuhan Bozkurt <batu...@batuhanbozkurt.com> wrote: > Hi, > > I'm currently working on a library (about 85% done at the moment) that does > some of the things you want. I too am a SuperCollider user and once I wanted > to make a clean library implementation (fork) of scsynth to use with mobile > development. When I brought up the case in sc-dev mailing list, I've learned > that I can't distribute my art through Apple appstore because the GPL binary > distribution clauses aren't compatible with Apple agreement. So even if I > provide the full source with my art, I am not allowed to distribute it in > binary form if the source is GPL'ed. This was the consensus so I backed off. > > Now I've made a kind of lame audio server implementation which is heavily > influenced by scsynth. I have nodes but they are restricted to synths at this > moment so there are no groups. I've ported many of the SuperCollider UGens > (recoded all of them by hand, followed through the original sources and all). > I also do not have FFT (yet) and multichannel expansion like things but it is > not very hard to achieve. It is easy to connect UGens to parameters of other > UGens and such. I'm quite happy with it overall for the time being. > > The good part is that I've made the implementation in haXe > (http://www.haxe.org ) language so I can target the same DSP code for Flash > (Flash 10+ supports realtime audio), JavaScript (for the upcoming audio api > for js in firefox 4) and I can also emit C++ code for mobile development. The > performance is quite good (only tested in flash yet though, a very > pessimistic ballpark would be that it is half as efficient as scsynth running > in a browser with Flash). I'll open source it at some moment but not under > GPL. > > I can use some help so if anyone is interested in helping to make it release > ready, drop me a line. > > Best, > Batuhan Bozkurt > /* http://www.earslap.com */ > > > > > On Feb 8, 2011, at 3:09 AM, Morgan Packard wrote: > >> (First post to this list. Sent this a few days ago and it doesn't seem >> to have gone through, so trying again.) >> >> >> Hi There, >> I've been writing low-level code for my iOS app, Thicket, pretty much >> myself, with the exception of a sine oscillator and an envelope >> borrowed from STK. I'd like to be able to work on this platform in a >> much faster way than I have been, simply plugging unit generators in >> to one another, not having to stop and think about how to, for >> example, go from a mono oscillator signal to a stereo reverb signal. >> I'd like to be able to work more like I work in SuperCollider, writing >> higher-level code to create a "signal path", trusting that the >> connections will be efficiently managed for me. In other words, I'd >> like to spend a little less time being a fairly incompetent engineer, >> and more time being a halfway-decent artist. I'm finding that my list >> of options is surprisingly small >> SuperCollider -- GPL licence, would require that I open-source my app >> ChucK -- GPL license, would require that I open-source my app >> CSound -- the FAQ indicates that I need to make arrangements with MIT >> to put it to commercial use. Worth looking in to, perhaps. >> JSyn -- java, not gonna work on iOS >> MusicKit -- looks very interesting, but doesn't seem to be a very >> active project, and I don't think anyone has gotten it running on iOS >> yet >> Pure Data -- seems like my best option. more permissive license, but >> I'm wary of the visual programming paradigm, and have at least one >> technical detail which is making me a bit uncomfortable >> >> Am I missing something? Is there anything -- free, or not, which I >> should look at for iOS development besides Pure Data? Are there not >> hundreds of other people with the same needs that I have? Are my >> options really limited to: Pure Data or rolling my own, or >> open-sourcing my app? >> I sincerely appreciate any info or thoughts any of you are able to >> share with me. >> thanks, >> -Morgan >> -- >> ================================ >> Web: >> http://www.morganpackard.com >> Music/Art: >> Latest album: Moment Again Elsewhere >> iOS app Thicket available on iTunes store. >> ================================ >> >> >> >> -- >> ================================ >> Web: >> http://www.morganpackard.com >> Music/Art: >> Latest album: Moment Again Elsewhere >> iOS app Thicket available on iTunes store. >> ================================ >> -- >> dupswapdrop -- the music-dsp mailing list and website: >> subscription info, FAQ, source code archive, list archive, book reviews, dsp >> links >> http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/music-dsp >> http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/music-dsp > > -- > dupswapdrop -- the music-dsp mailing list and website: > subscription info, FAQ, source code archive, list archive, book reviews, dsp > links > http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/music-dsp > http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/music-dsp > -- Michael Gogins Irreducible Productions http://www.michael-gogins.com Michael dot Gogins at gmail dot com -- dupswapdrop -- the music-dsp mailing list and website: subscription info, FAQ, source code archive, list archive, book reviews, dsp links http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/music-dsp http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/music-dsp
