SoundWorks: an object-oriented distributed system for digital sound

SoundWorks, an object-oriented distributed system that lets users interactively manipulate sound through a graphical interface, is discussed. The system handles digitally sampled sounds as well as those generated by software and digital signal processing hardware. An overview of the different types of sounds and window interfaces provided by SoundWorks and of the operations that modify these sounds is presented. The high-level architecture and the design of the SoundWorks system the protocol defined between the user interface code and client application, and the sound kernel specification that manages sounds and lines, performs operations on sounds, and interfaces to the digital hardware are described. The NEWS application programming environment, which provided the necessary primitive graphic items for a graphical window-based interface and offered an object-oriented approach for development of the SoundWorks system, is also discussed.<>