I tend to get this question (or variations of it) a lot:
“What’s the best language for an aspiring audio programmer to learn?”
There are, as far as I can tell, two correct answers to this.
- Well, it really depends on what you want to do.
- C++
When I began my foray into taking audio programming seriously as a thing I intended to learn and master – I avoided C++ despite getting answers similar to that above.
Everything I “knew” (which wasn’t really anything), and was told is that C++ is a hard language to learn and work with. While there are various opinions on this, all I really understood was that once I got past the basic syntax of C++ I had no idea what the heck was going on.
It also wasn’t just because things like pointers and function pointers aren’t that prevalent/accessible in higher level languages.
So invariably I’d start some sort of project – like a VST plugin – and hit a wall that I couldn’t get past, either math or code related. I never really understood why, and it was consistently frustrating.
Today, I get to sit next to some brilliant software developers and ask them questions while I go through an “advanced” C++ course – and the answer to “why is C++ so hard?” really hit me.
So if you’ve ever found yourself in that spot of wanting to create something truly mesmerizing, but getting stuck consistently – I think I can help you out.
Continue reading Why C++ is so “Hard” to Learn
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