WolfTalk: Podcast About Audio Programming (People, Careers, Learning)

Ilias Bergstrom is a software engineer, researcher, and musician from Sweden. For most of his professional career, spanning over 20 years, he has been working on, as he describes it, “time-based media software.” In the audio programming world, this means digital audio workstations, video editors, and live audio-visual performance software. He generously shared his experience in Audio Developer Conference talks, two of which discuss the much underrepresented topic of the software architecture of digital audio workstations. Software architecture and software design are fascinating topics to me, so I naturally devoured both of these talks 😉 In this interview, we explore not only Ilias’s journey but also go into the details of what makes audio software design hard. He discusses how he connects the dots between different types of media software through his long-running personal project, TWO, which is best described as a Media Control Workstation. It enables the simultaneous interactive combination of digital media control signals (such as OSC and MIDI) from multiple sources. Finally, we don’t shy away from discussing our favorite books on audio software development! Given that Ilias shares a ton of valuable tips and resources, you don’t want to miss this one! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents From this episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on January 15, 2025.

Geraint Luff is a seasoned audio DSP developer and the founder of Signalsmith Audio. Geraint’s presentations, such as “Let’s Write a Reverb” and “Four Ways to Write a Pitch Shifter,” are among the most popular talks at the Audio Developer Conference (ADC) thanks to Geraint’s clarity of explanation and easy-to-understand visuals (not to mention the accompanying open-source repos). In the interview, Geraint shares his insights on his career path, freelancing in the audio industry, and digital signal processing (DSP). He discusses how he gained traction as a freelancer by joining a community, delivering audio-focused technical talks, and sharing open-source repos. We can also learn his approach to learning DSP, problem-solving, and the significance of visualization in explanations. Theory first of practice first? Listen to the podcast episode to find out! 😉 Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏

Orchisama Das is an outstanding audio researcher known for her work in virtual acoustics, artificial reverberation, and immersive audio. She holds a PhD from Stanford University’s prestigious CCRMA and has contributed to groundbreaking research at leading universities and major tech companies. During this interview, we talk about her path in academia and industry. Orchisama shares her thoughts about the realities of audio research, offering great insights and a very frank and honest perspective on her journey. We dive into technical topics such as artificial reverberation, virtual acoustics, immersive audio, and open problems in DSP, as well as topics like the gender imbalance in the audio research industry and how to stay productive and motivated during research. The episode is scattered with many resources and tips for anyone interested in learning the mentioned topics. It is a very inspiring and informative talk for people who are doing audio research, or curious about getting started. Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents From this podcast, you will learn: This episode was recorded on November 21, 2024.

Julian’s career is incredible: from natural sciences through a master’s in physical modeling, a PhD in virtual analog modeling, an almost decade-long position at Native Instruments, all the way to TikTok and Stability AI, where he’s working now on generative music algorithms. There are few people who have such a rich background in audio research and industry and even fewer who are willing to share the details of it publicly. That makes this episode all the more exciting! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents From this podcast, you will learn:

Jatin Chowdhury is quite well known in the audio programming community for his numerous contributions: The list could go on on and on but you get the point: he’s both incredibly productive and highly successful while being very generous to the community with his knowledge. That’s why it was amazing to have him on the podcast! Jatin currently leads his own audio plugin company ChowDSP which provides consulting and contracting as well. During the podcast we discuss his story (which is a kind of “from hero to superhero” tale, if you ask me…), what he learnt along the way, all his current strategies, and most importantly: how you can become someone like a Jatin, a successful audio plugin developer and freelancer. I was incredibly inspired during the recording of this episode and revisiting it brought up those feelings again. ⚠️ WARNING ⚠️ Listening to this podcast episode will leave you highly motivated to do more audio programming. Listen at your own risk. Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents From this podcast episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on June 14, 2024.

Dave Rowland is the CTO of Audio Squadron: a group of audio-related companies. More specifically, he’s the architect and the lead developer of the Waveform digital audio workstation (DAW) and an Audio Manager of Prism Sound (which focuses on audio hardware manufacturing). He’s also a very successful speaker, having given talks at conferences like Audio Developer Conference or C++ on Sea. Given the popularity of Dave’s talks and his 11-year long (as of 2024) experience in developing the Waveform DAW and its open source engine, I am incredibly excited to have him on the WolfTalk podcast. During the interview, we learn not only Dave’s story but we also discuss the challenges of building real-time audio software including DAWs and learning C++, software architecture, and high-performance real-time programming concerning audio. Dave shares a ton of highly useful tips and resources so you don’t want to miss out on this one! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents From this podcast episode, you will learn: This podcast was recorded on March 25, 2024.

Gustav Andersson is a Swedish senior C++ audio developer at Elk Audio. He has worked on their Sensus guitar featuring a rich set of controls, Elk Audio OS for embedded platforms, Sushi digital audio workstation, and Elk Live software for live music collaboration over the internet. Having studied Electrical Engineering and Digital Signal Processing, Gustav had been looking for a very long time to get into the audio industry. As for many developers, getting his first audio-related job was like a dream come true. In his free time, Gustav plays and composes his own music. In the interview, we discuss Gustav’s story, his journey to learn audio programming in C++, and his software projects, including his own plugin. We don’t shy away from software engineering details and architectural challenges of complex software like DAWs. We mention a ton of resources and tips for learning real-time & scalable audio C++, so stay tuned for these! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents From this podcast episode, you will learn: This podcast was recorded on January 30, 2024.

In this podcast episode, I was delighted to be able one of the most prominent people of the audio developer landscape: Fabian Renn-Giles. Fabian is a former lead developer of JUCE, currently working as an independent contractor. He has worked with many great companies (e.g., iZotope, Behringer) and has an incredible portfolio. He is regarded as an expert of real-time, low-latency C++ audio programming. You may know him from his talks at the Audio Developer Conference or at CppCon. He’s also an incredibly kind and modest person; anyone that I’ve talked to about Fabian only had praise for his skills and his very down-to-earth attitude. In the light of all the above, this interview is a real treat for everyone who’d like to become a real-time audio C++ expert! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on January 26, 2024.

Eric Tarr is a professor at the Belmont University where he teaches Audio Signal Processing. In the audio programming community, he’s most famous for his book “Hack Audio” on the basics of digital signal processing using Matlab and his point-to-point modeling library for analog audio circuit emulation. Eric’s work has definitely been an inspiration for starting the WolfSound blog and the YouTube channel so it’s really exciting to have him on the show! In the podcast, we’ll delve into his story, how he learned audio signal processing, how he managed to work with some amazing audio companies (Sennheiser, Epic Games, Skywalker Sounds), and top tips on how to learn DSP coming from Eric’s teaching experience. We also discuss in detail how to model analog audio circuits for audio plugins (so called virtual analog modeling). Here, Eric describes which state-of-the-art methods are available and how you can learn them. He also shares the details of this point-to-point modeling library which allows you to easily emulate analog audio circuits. As a special feat, I’d asked my coachees who follow Eric’s work to provide questions to him concerning a variety of different topics, including the impact of AI on the virtual analog modeling space. All in all, it’s an episode that you don’t want to miss! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on January 19, 2024.

In this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Chase Kanipe: a cybersecurity professional, a musician, and an audio programmer (formerly C++ with JUCE, currently Rust). Chase is most widely known through his incredible Audio Developer Conference talks: Tips From a Hacker on License Checking at ADC22 Both were really insightful and of incredibly high quality. One could not overlook Chase’s personal culture and the depth with which he explained the concepts. Not to mention that both of his talks made it into my “Top 10 ADC Talks” videos for both ADC22 and ADC23! Chase is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Machine Learning at the University of Maryland. At the same time, he’s working on his breakthrough audio project in a self-grounded company Procedural Audio. In the podcast, we discuss his path of being a classically trained musician, a passionate cybersecurity specialist, and then transitioning into audio programming with Rust and into AI. He’s an incredibly inspiring individual and I have learned a lot from interviewing him! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on January 3, 2024.

In this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Ruurd Adema: a freelance audio developer from the Netherlands working primarily in JUCE and C++ (but not only). I met Ruurd at the Audio Developer Conference 2023 and I believe his story is incredibly inspiring; he went from being a live sound engineer doing front-of-house (FOH) mixing at the biggest events in the Netherlands to contracting as a freelance audio developer. In the interview, he shares his story and a ton of useful resources and tips to help others follow his footsteps. If you’re looking for inspiration and a clear learning path to become an audio developer this is an episode for you! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on December 13, 2023.

In this podcast episode, I was very pleased to guest Linus Corneliusson: a mixing engineer and editing assistant at Fascination Street Studios who has shifted towards audio plugin development. I met Linus (and his colleague Jacek) at the Audio Developer Conference 2022 and he’s definitely one of the most friendly and funny people in the community. What is even more amazing, he’s worked in the studio with top-notch heavy metal bands, like James LaBrie, Soilwork, DragonForce, Haken, Leprous, Dark Tranquility, Between the Buried and Me, and Fates Warning (basically most of the major names in the progressive metal genre). In the podcast, we discus how Linus started creating simple audio plugins on the side which led him to pursuing a full-blown career as an audio programmer for Bogren Digital. We also discuss tools, tips, and resources he used and recommends for starting in audio programming. Are you a mixing engineer looking for a way to transition into audio development? Are you seeking advice on which path to take and which resources are the best to reach out for? Do you need inspiration and motivation? Then this episode is for you! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. You can do so on Spotify as well. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. You can also subscribe and give a like on YouTube. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: This episode was recorded on November 29, 2023.

For this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Ian Hobson: a former DJ who transitioned to audio programming, worked at Ableton, and then launched a successful freelancing career. Ian is well-known in the community for his talks on Rust at the Audio Developer Conferences and on YouTube. He’s also created his own programming language: Koto. We met at the Audio Developer Conference 2022 and he was kind enough to agree on recording an interview with him. I must say that after recording the podcast, I respect his drive to continuously learn and improve even more! Ian shares a ton of useful knowledge on I highly encourage you to listen to the podcast in full! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: The episode was recorded on November 3, 2023.

In this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Oliver Larkin: an audio programming legend from the UK. Starting with a passion for music, going through Max, SynthEdit, PureData, then C++ to JavaScript and others, there is no audio technology that's not known to him. He has worked on projects with Arturia and Focusrite (among many more) and nowadays works for Ableton. He has conducted research in spatial audio, and has created successful plugins, like the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer emulation. He is most widely known as the co-author of Web Audio Modules and iPlug2: an C++ framework for creating audio plugins and web-hosted audio apps. It allows you to have a single codebase that builds various plugin formats out of the box, e.g., VST, AAX, and AU. Sounds familiar? That's because it is an alternative to the JUCE framework. With 20 years of experience in audio programming, he can be a role model for aspiring audio programmers. All this and more, including Oli’s learning path is discussed in this podcast episode! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn:

In this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Christoph Guttandin: a web audio developer from Berlin, Germany. Chris is a self-taught programmer with a formal training as an audio-visual technician. He’s a freelancer who deals with playing back sound in the browser, sometimes on multiple computers simultaneously. He’s a member of the W3C Audio Community Group where he gives feedback regarding the new standards. He’s especially careful about the compliance of browsers to standard updates. He regularly answers questions regarding web audio on StackOverflow. He was a speaker at the Audio Developer Conference 2022. In the podcast, we not only discuss his background and his story of how he became a web audio developer but we also uncover how you can become one. I specifically ask him about the best resources on web audio programming and which languages, tools & frameworks to use. Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn:

In this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Jay Pocknell; a production and mixing engineer from the UK. Not only is he a skilled sound engineer and a lovely person to talk to but also a proactive member of the audio community. He founded the Sound Without Sight organization and currently works at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) advocating for music software, music hardware, and music instruments accessible to everyone: including musicians and sound engineers with disabilities. Basing on his lived experience with sight loss, he gives invaluable advice on how any audio programmer can make their software accessible. This is a gold mine of first-hand information! In the podcast episode, we discuss his path to becoming a sound engineer, which obstacles he needed to overcome, and how we as the audio community can remove some of these obstacles permanently. Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: This podcast was recorded on April 5, 2023.

In this podcast episode, you will learn:

In this episode, I was honored to interview Andrew Fyfe; a musician, a software engineer, and a researcher in the field of deep learning applied to audio. In particular, Andrew is working on an exciting new technology, Neutone. Neutone allows quick deployment of trained neural networks to audio plugins and running them in the digital audio workstation for verification, testing, up to full-blown product releases for users. At the same time, Andrew is wrapping up his PhD while working full time from Japan. He was kind enough to share his story and his journey to becoming an audio researcher. Don’t forget to submit your plugins for the Neural Audio Plugin Competition until March the 17th of 2023! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: Episode notes: https://thewolfsound.com/talk011/

In this episode, I was lucky to interview two members of GPU Audio: Jonathan Rowden and Alexander “Sasha” Talashov. GPU Audio is a software company that promises to deliver real-time audio processing capabilities to GPUs in the form of an easily usable Software Development Kit (SDK). It’s their goal to allow audio programmers to utilize the power of all GPU cores for faster and more performant audio processing. If you are interested in why it is not easy to process audio on the GPU and how it can be done, then this episode is for you! Don’t forget to submit your impulse response for their IR Competition until February 23, 2023! Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn:

In this episode, I was incredibly excited to interview Stefano D’Angelo: a freelancer in the field of audio programming. Episode notes: https://thewolfsound.com/talk009 Stefano comes from Italy and is well known in the field. He’s completed his PhD thesis at the Acoustics Lab of the Aalto University, then worked for Arturia for some time, and then decided to start his own freelance gig, which eventually led to him grounding the Orastron company. During this time, he’s been incredibly active in the programming field as well as in the research field. Many WolfTalk listeners ask “how to become an audio programming freelancer?” Well, in this podcast episode, you will learn a way of how this could be done 😉 Episode Contents In this podcast episode, you will learn: