Designing a signal processing environment (RFC) - part 1

This is the first post of the thinking out loud series about the signal processing framework and modular environment I’m developing - SignalDub.

Dubbing the Signals

What’s the functionality I need most when processing audio signals in-the-box (i.e. using a computer)? Dubbing. It has multiple meaning and all those are valid in this context:

• recording
• adding effects in creative way, using them as an instrument (delay and reverb in particular)
• experimenting, using devices not-always-the-way-they-were-designed

I feel that not only music producers and sound engineers, but also visual artists, broadcast engineers… anyone working with multimedia, deserves such system allowing experimentation.

Free as in Freedom

That’s a pretty obvious requirement. You can’t have a hackable system if its core can’t be changed. Also, if the source code is kept secret, the knowledge used to develop it is wasted.

Extreme Modularity and Signal Loops

Most audio software today is modular. You can use whatever DAW you want with your soundcard, insert whatever plugin you want on the track in the DAW. But have you ever tried to insert an EQ on delay’s feedback path? Or distort it?