Audio C++ Architecture, Optimization & Best Practices With Gustav Andersson | WolfTalk #022

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!

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Episode contents

From this podcast episode, you will learn:

• How Gustav’s interest in music and electronics led him to study digital signal processing,
• How he landed his first (and last) job in the audio industry,
• What he needed to learn from C++ for audio programming and which resources he used,
• What are the challenges of building digital audio workstations,
• How to approach building audio software in general,
• How to learn C++ optimization (fast!),
• How to relax and disengage from focused work 😎

This podcast was recorded on January 30, 2024.