If it targets desktop OSes or mainstream mobile devices, it's not real-time. Those appear to be JUCE's targets.
I guess in the modern era of Web devs redefining established terminology, I should say I want a hard real-time system.
I want guarantees audio will not glitch, not reasonably good odds everything will be okay if I turn off networking, only use plugins from developers who know how to write safeish code on desktop OSes, kill all nonessential programs, and pray.
Similarly, I want the engine to be able to tell me what it can do on the hardware hosting it.
If you're familiar with the Nord Modular or the Nord Modular G2 (https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-modular-g2), their audio engines met all my requirements except open source and hardware-agnostic (really, they were the source of most of the requirements).
Learning audio programming on my beloved G2X, falling in love with it, and watching the platform slowly die is why OSS and hardware agnostic are requirements now. It's been unsupported for years and Motorola hasn't made the DSP chips it uses in years.
One day, my patches will no longer be playable, in a way that just isn't true for acoustic instruments.
I don't want that to happen with the platform I move to once the G2 dies completely.
I guess in the modern era of Web devs redefining established terminology, I should say I want a hard real-time system.
I want guarantees audio will not glitch, not reasonably good odds everything will be okay if I turn off networking, only use plugins from developers who know how to write safeish code on desktop OSes, kill all nonessential programs, and pray.
Similarly, I want the engine to be able to tell me what it can do on the hardware hosting it.
If you're familiar with the Nord Modular or the Nord Modular G2 (https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-modular-g2), their audio engines met all my requirements except open source and hardware-agnostic (really, they were the source of most of the requirements).
Learning audio programming on my beloved G2X, falling in love with it, and watching the platform slowly die is why OSS and hardware agnostic are requirements now. It's been unsupported for years and Motorola hasn't made the DSP chips it uses in years.
One day, my patches will no longer be playable, in a way that just isn't true for acoustic instruments.
I don't want that to happen with the platform I move to once the G2 dies completely.
Hope that clarifies it some?