For a little while now, I’ve been hard at work on a little side project. I almost hesitate to announce it at this point, because it’s still very early. But, what the heck. Why not. I’ve started writing a book. And no, it’s not one full of suspense and intrigue. Nor is it the next young adult break-out series. Turns out, I’m writing a programming book. The working title is “Practical Digital Audio for C++ Programmers”, which I admit is a mouthful. Henceforth (at least as far as this blog entry is concerned), I shall refer to it as PDA4CPP.
When I first started my audio programming journey, I quickly discovered there was a huge hole in the information available to newcomers to the field. There was plenty of material to be found regarding specific audio libraries. And there was even more material that discussed, in very mind-bendy ways, things like audio effects and synthesis that assumed you already had some level of comfort with digital audio programming. But there was very little in-between. And as a complete newb, I found it super discouraging. So I decided to do something about it. PDA4CPP is the fruits of my labor.
As I mentioned, the book is in its infancy. Only one chapter has been completed to date – Appendix B: Introduction to Windows Core Audio. But it’s a beast, coming in at 170 pages. In it, I talk about where Core Audio fits into the Windows story, the Windows audio architecture, device discovery, audio formats, WASAPI, audio rendering, and audio capturing.
Why did I start with Appendix B? Some of it was because of the questions and feedback I received from my blog entry, “A Brief History of Windows Audio APIs”. But mostly, I started with Appendix B because that’s where I needed to. Most of the book’s code will be implemented around a custom audio library that’s effectively a thin wrapper around platform-specific audio code. The Windows side of things provided as great a starting point as any.
Something I’m going to experiment with is making drafts of the book’s chapters available for purchase as I complete them. Not only will this help motivate me to keep writing, but it will also help me gauge interest. Appendix B is the first chapter available for purchase. Pricing for each chapter will vary based on each chapter’s size and density. More information can be found on the book’s page, which can be found under the “Pages” menu. An excerpt is available, as well as the chapter’s source code.
If you purchase the chapter and love it, hate it, or have ideas on how to improve it, please email me or leave a comment below.
Thanks!
-Shane