SHOW / EPISODE

Oli Larkin: Creator of iPlug2 and Web Audio Modules | WolfTalk #015

Season 1 | Episode 15
1h 47m | Nov 9, 2023

In this podcast episode, I was lucky to interview Oliver Larkin: an audio programming legend from the UK.

Starting with a passion for music, going through Max, SynthEdit, PureData, then C++ to JavaScript and others, there is no audio technology that's not known to him. He has worked on projects with Arturia and Focusrite (among many more) and nowadays works for Ableton. He has conducted research in spatial audio, and has created successful plugins, like the Casio CZ-101 synthesizer emulation.

He is most widely known as the co-author of Web Audio Modules and iPlug2: an C++ framework for creating audio plugins and web-hosted audio apps. It allows you to have a single codebase that builds various plugin formats out of the box, e.g., VST, AAX, and AU. Sounds familiar? That's because it is an alternative to the JUCE framework.

With 20 years of experience in audio programming, he can be a role model for aspiring audio programmers.

All this and more, including Oli’s learning path is discussed in this podcast episode!

Note: If you like the podcast so far, please, go to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review there. It will benefit both sides: more reviews mean a broader reach on Apple Podcasts and feedback can help me to improve the show and provide better quality content to you. Thank you for doing this 🙏

Episode Contents 

In this podcast episode, you will learn:

  • how Oli has learned audio programming thanks to his passion for music
  • how his carreer path unfolded from the university up until today when he’s working full-time for Ableton in Berlin
  • how he collaborated with Plugin Boutique at its very start
  • how he came up with the idea of iPlug2 and what are the challenges involved
  • how he came across the idea of Web Audio Modules and helped develop them further
  • how to be a successful freelancer in the field of audio programming
  • how indie developers can make their audio plugins successful
  • what’s his tech stack
  • best resources on learning music DSP
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WolfTalk: Podcast About Audio Programming (People, Careers, Learning)
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