Show HN: SOUL Language 1.0 – A platform for writing and running audio code • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: SOUL Language 1.0 – A platform for writing and running audio code

#81

Post by sletz » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 8:14 PM UTC

Some comments on Faust and SOUL:

- you can compile Faust code to SOUL, and export it (as the .soul and .soulpatch files) from the Faust Web IDE https://faustide.grame.fr/ (or https://fausteditor.grame.fr for a simpler version)

- lower-level tools like "faust2soul" are part of the Faust distribution: https://github.com/grame-cncm/faust and https://github.com/grame-cncm/faust/tree/master-dev/architec...

- using Faust/SOUL on Bela and having SOUL as the intermediate language to JIT compile Faust code is certainly possible, but not the easiest way ! Bela developer Giulio experimented a more direct Faust JIT support on Bela (since Faust can directly generate LLVM IR code and JIT it) here: https://github.com/giuliomoro/bela-faust-jit, but this projet is a bit frozen by lack of time to improve it. Feel free to bring it to life again.

Re: Show HN: SOUL Language 1.0 – A platform for writing and running audio code

#82

Post by julesrms » Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 6:41 PM UTC

anticristi wrote: post #68

I'm definitely not the target audience for this, but I can't help wonder: Why introduce a new turing-complete language, instead of building on top of an existing language suitable for "gluing things together"? Python and Lua come to my mind.

The use-case for SOUL is about as far from a "glue" language as you can get!

It's a language for writing the absolute lowest-level, close-to-the-metal, bit-twiddling realtime code which you'd then glue together using a higher-level language like C++, javascript, python, lua, etc.

Re: Show HN: SOUL Language 1.0 – A platform for writing and running audio code

#83

Post by hootbootscoot » Sun, Jan 24, 2021, 11:45 AM UTC

Cool!

I have a few questions, I hope are not stupid. I'll confess to not having delved into the heart of SOUL source yet.

1) what are these "audio processors" that computers already have embedded in them? (DSP cores and associated extensions or an MCU controlling the audio-HW-codec state machine and providing a buffer for the computer or?)

2) Does SOUL engage in the audio sub-system hardware in any way or perform any firmware like activities? DMA engine configuration typically driving the audio engine I/O, right?

3) Do external audio DSP hardware like UAD provide, for example, pipe audio out and then back into the computer, typically? Could such hardware be addressed if it weren't proprietary?