[gst-devel] Re: [linux-audio-dev] *rta* A Wish List - Open Issues

[Erik Walthinsen]

On Fri, 2 Nov 2001, Oliver Kuederle wrote:

> I'm serious with this. It would help me a lot if you commented on the
> questions listed at the end of the document. Since I'm fairly new to
> linux and audio, I'm especially interested in knowing if a framework
> like this already exists.

GStreamer (gstreamer.net) was designed to pretty much do everything you're
after, given the appropriate plugins.  Arbitrary data types are supported,
so building MIDI plugins will be quite easy (no one's needed MIDI yet,
though, so none so far).  Audio support is pretty solid, esp. now that the
ALSA plugins are nearing a useful state (still having trouble on my
hammerfall, though).  Heck, if you have spare CPU, you could set up a
second head and show neat audio-derived graphics.

As for latency, a properly arranged pipeline will have almost no latency
above that required to process the data.  GStreamer uses direct function
calls where possible, and cothreads everywhere else, which gives you
consistent, bounded trips through the pipeline.  In a more complex
environment such as the graph you suggest, it might be useful in the long
run to even write a new scheduler to more thoroughly optimize things.

If you want to discuss this some more, either email the list at
gstreamer-devel at lists.sourceforge.net or join us on irc.openprojects.net
in #gstreamer.  We can discuss MIDI stuff and maybe I can learn just
enough about it to start writing some plugins <g>

      Erik Walthinsen <omega at temple-baptist.com> - System Administrator
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