[22c]

Thanks for the enjoyable article!

Possibly off-topic, but I am coder with hobbyist interest in the DSP space. I have never really had a "penny drop" moment when it comes to starting from nothing and generating sound.

Even generating simple sine wave seems like either a big chore or a completely abstract concept (depending on the tools/libraries/environment), I have not been able to find a middle-ground where I feel like I am learning but not getting completely lost in trigonometry or calculus. I am not sure if I'm not using the right tools or if I need to start even simpler and build up. GNU Radio comes close to scratching an itch for me of generating signal processing pipelines and a bit of intuition, but ultimately it becomes pretty easy to get lost in that as well (and it seems mostly focused on actual radio use-cases).

Do you have any advice for someone looking to build more familiarity or intuition on this front?

[signalsmith]

First, join a good community! If you're on Discord, TAP is great: https://discord.gg/aBghGGcfYs - it's beginner-friendly while also having some heavy-hitters in there, and it's generally wholesome. You're not the only hobbyist learner, and it's important to have a place you can ask questions without feeling awkward.

If you swap language/environment later, you'll carry your understanding/intuition with you, so you don't have to start with C++ if that's not your bag (even though it's still the industry standard). There are audio-specific languages with JIT runtimes (which can be used in Logic/Reaper/GarageBand/etc.), Rust/JS frameworks, etc. so find the one that feels good to tinker with, and keep that momentum/motivation going. :)

[22c]

Thank you for the advice!

[codedokode]

You could start with making sounds using a software synth or PureData. There will be no issues with generating sine waves. And there are lot of tutorials for this.

If you aim for performance, you will have to use SIMD and language that supports it (for example, C, Rust).