The aRts Handbook

The aRts Handbook

Stefan Westerfeld (stefan space.twc.de)

Jeff Tranter (tranter kde.org)

Revision 1.00.09 (2001-06-10)

Copyright © 1999-2001 Stefan Westerfeld & Jeff Tranter

This handbook describes aRts, the Analog Real-time Synthesizer.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

What is aRts?
Using This Manual
History

2. aRts Tools

KControl
artsd
artswrapper
artsshell
artsplay
artsdsp
artscat
artscontrol
artsc-config
mcopidl

3. aRts-builder

Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5: Starting to beam data around ;)
Step 6: Beaming for advanced users
Step 7: Midi synthesis
Suggestions

4. aRts in Detail

Architecture

Modules & Ports

What Is Latency?
Latency in Simple Applications
Latency in Streaming Applications
Some CPU usage considerations
Some Hard Numbers

Namespaces in aRts

Introduction
How aRts uses namespaces
Internals: How the Implementation Works

Threads in aRts

Basics
When/how to acquire the lock?
Threading related classes

References and Error Handling

Basic properties of references
The case of failure
Internals: Distributed Reference Counting

GUI Elements

Overview
The MIDI Manager
Using aRts & Brahms
midisend
Creating Instruments
Mapped Instruments

6. MCOP: Object Model and Streaming

Interfaces and IDL

Streams
Attributes
Methods
Standard Interfaces
Example

More About Streams

Stream Types
Using Asynchronous Streams
Default Streams

Attribute change notifications

Sending change notifications
Applications for change notifications

The .mcoprc file

MCOP for CORBA Users

CORBA Features That Are Missing In MCOP
CORBA Features That Are Different In MCOP
MCOP Features That Are Not In CORBA
The MCOP C++ Language Binding
Implementing MCOP Objects

MCOP Security Considerations

MCOP Protocol Specification

Introduction
The MCOP Message Marshalling
Messages
Invocations
Inspecting Interfaces
Type Definitions

Why aRts Doesn't Use DCOP

7. aRts Application Programming Interfaces

kaudioplayer

sound server

Introduction
Quick Walkthrough
Compiling and Linking: artsc-config
Library Reference

8. aRts modules

Introduction

Synthesis Modules Reference

Arithmetic + Mixing
Busses
Delays
Envelopes
Effects
Filters
Midi + Sequencing
Samples
Sound IO
Tests
Oscillation & Modulation
Wave Forms
Miscellaneous

Visual Modules Reference

9. Porting Applications to aRts

Using artsdsp
Adding Native aRts support

10. Contributing to aRts

How You Can Help
Mailing Lists
Coding Standards

11. Future Work

How Interfaces Work
Codecs - Data Decoding
Video
Threading
Synchronization
Dynamic Composition
GUI
MIDI

12. References

13. Questions and answers

14. aRts Copyright and Licensing

A. Installing aRts

Installing a Precompiled Binary Release
Building From Source

B. Introduction to Digital Audio

C. Introduction to MIDI

Introduction