libsoundio

C library which provides cross-platform audio input and output. The API is suitable for real-time software such as digital audio workstations as well as consumer software such as music players.

This library is an abstraction; however it prioritizes performance and power over API convenience. Features that only exist in some sound backends are exposed.

This library is a work-in-progress.

Features

• Supports:
  • PulseAudio
  • ALSA
  • Dummy Backend (silence)
  • (planned) JACK
  • (planned) CoreAudio
  • (planned) WASAPI
  • (planned) ASIO
• C library. Depends only on the respective backend API libraries and libc. Does not depend on libstdc++, and does not have exceptions, run-time type information, or setjmp.
• Does not write anything to stdio. I'm looking at you, PortAudio.
• Supports channel layouts (also known as channel maps), important for surround sound applications.
• Ability to monitor devices and get an event when available devices change.
• Ability to connect to multiple backends at once. For example you could have an ALSA device open and a JACK device open at the same time.
• Meticulously checks all return codes and memory allocations and uses meaningful error codes.

Synopsis

Complete program to emit a sine wave over the default device using the best backend:

#include <soundio/soundio.h>

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>

__attribute__ ((cold))
__attribute__ ((noreturn))
__attribute__ ((format (printf, 1, 2)))
static void panic(const char *format, ...) {
    va_list ap;
    va_start(ap, format);
    vfprintf(stderr, format, ap);
    fprintf(stderr, "\n");
    va_end(ap);
    abort();
}

static const float PI = 3.1415926535f;
static float seconds_offset = 0.0f;
static void write_callback(struct SoundIoOutStream *outstream, int requested_frame_count) {
    float float_sample_rate = outstream->sample_rate;
    float seconds_per_frame = 1.0f / float_sample_rate;
    int err;

    for (;;) {
        int frame_count = requested_frame_count;

        struct SoundIoChannelArea *areas;
        if ((err = soundio_outstream_begin_write(outstream, &areas, &frame_count)))
            panic("%s", soundio_strerror(err));

        if (!frame_count)
            break;

        const struct SoundIoChannelLayout *layout = &outstream->layout;

        float pitch = 440.0f;
        float radians_per_second = pitch * 2.0f * PI;
        for (int frame = 0; frame < frame_count; frame += 1) {
            float sample = sinf((seconds_offset + frame * seconds_per_frame) * radians_per_second);
            for (int channel = 0; channel < layout->channel_count; channel += 1) {
                float *ptr = (float*)(areas[channel].ptr + areas[channel].step * frame);
                *ptr = sample;
            }
        }
        seconds_offset += seconds_per_frame * frame_count;

        if ((err = soundio_outstream_write(outstream, frame_count)))
            panic("%s", soundio_strerror(err));

        requested_frame_count -= frame_count;
        if (requested_frame_count <= 0)
            break;
    }
}

static void error_callback(struct SoundIoOutStream *device, int err) {
    if (err == SoundIoErrorUnderflow) {
        static int count = 0;
        fprintf(stderr, "underrun %d\n", count++);
    } else {
        panic("%s", soundio_strerror(err));
    }
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    struct SoundIo *soundio = soundio_create();
    if (!soundio)
        panic("out of memory");

    if ((err = soundio_connect(soundio)))
        panic("error connecting: %s", soundio_strerror(err));

    int default_out_device_index = soundio_get_default_output_device_index(soundio);
    if (default_out_device_index < 0)
        panic("no output device found");

    struct SoundIoDevice *device = soundio_get_output_device(soundio, default_out_device_index);
    if (!device)
        panic("out of memory");

    fprintf(stderr, "Output device: %s: %s\n", device->name, device->description);

    struct SoundIoOutStream *outstream = soundio_outstream_create(device);
    outstream->format = SoundIoFormatFloat32NE;
    outstream->write_callback = write_callback;
    outstream->error_callback = error_callback;

    if ((err = soundio_outstream_open(outstream)))
        panic("unable to open device: %s", soundio_strerror(err));

    if ((err = soundio_outstream_start(outstream)))
        panic("unable to start device: %s", soundio_strerror(err));

    for (;;)
        soundio_wait_events(soundio);

    soundio_outstream_destroy(outstream);
    soundio_device_unref(device);
    soundio_destroy(soundio);
    return 0;
}

"Best Backend"

When you use soundio_connect, libsoundio tries these backends in order. If unable to connect to that backend, due to the backend not being installed, or the server not running, or the platform is wrong, the next backend is tried.

0. JACK
1. PulseAudio
2. ALSA (Linux)
3. CoreAudio (OSX)
4. WASAPI (Windows)
5. ASIO (Windows)
6. Dummy

If you don't like this order, you can use soundio_connect_backend to explicitly choose a backend to connect to. You can use soundio_backend_count and soundio_get_backend to get the list of available backends.

For complete API documentation, see src/soundio.h.

Contributing

libsoundio is programmed in a tiny subset of C++11:

• No STL.
• No new or delete.
• No class. All fields in structs are public.
• No exceptions or run-time type information.
• No references.
• No linking against libstdc++.

Do not be fooled - this is a C library, not a C++ library. We just take advantage of a select few C++11 compiler features such as templates, and then link against libc.

Building

Install the dependencies:

• cmake
• ALSA library (optional)
• libjack2 (optional)
• libpulseaudio (optional)

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Building for Windows

You can build libsoundio with mxe. Follow the requirements section to install the packages necessary on your system. Then somewhere on your file system:

git clone https://github.com/mxe/mxe
cd mxe
make gcc

Then in the libsoundio source directory (replace "/path/to/mxe" with the appropriate path):

mkdir build-win
cd build-win
cmake .. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=/path/to/mxe/usr/i686-w64-mingw32.static/share/cmake/mxe-conf.cmake
make

Running the Tests

make test

For more detailed output:

make
./unit_tests

To see test coverage, install lcov, run make coverage and then view coverage/index.html in a browser.

Roadmap

0. ALSA: poll instead of callback
1. ALSA: support devices that don't support mmap access (test with pulseaudio alsa default)
2. implement ALSA (Linux) backend, get examples working
3. pipe record to playback example working with dummy linux, osx, windows
4. pipe record to playback example working with pulseaudio linux
5. implement CoreAudio (OSX) backend, get examples working
6. implement WASAPI (Windows) backend, get examples working
7. implement JACK backend, get examples working
8. Avoid calling panic in PulseAudio.
9. implement ASIO (Windows) backend, get examples working
10. clean up API and improve documentation
    • make sure every function which can return an error documents which errors it can return
11. use a documentation generator and host the docs somewhere
12. -fvisibility=hidden and then explicitly export stuff
13. Integrate into libgroove and test with Groove Basin
14. Consider testing on FreeBSD
15. look at microphone example and determine if fewer memcpys can be done with the audio data
    • pulseaudio has peek() drop() which sucks, but what if libsoundio lets you specify how much to peek() and if you don't peek all of it, save the unused to a buffer for you.
16. add len arguments to APIs that have char *
17. Test in an app that needs to synchronize video to test the latency/synchronization API.
18. Support PulseAudio proplist properties for main context and streams
19. custom allocator support
20. mlock memory which is accessed in the real time path
21. instead of void *backend_data use a union for better cache locality and smaller mlock requirements

Planned Uses for libsoundio

• Genesis
• libgroove (Groove Basin)