Ask HN: Audio Programming
I'm a self-taught web developer without college degree. I know PHP, Python, and a little Scheme. I'm not a very good programmer to be honest.
But recently I became interested in creating audio apps for iphone, particularly I'm interested in virtual instruments, synthesizers and such. I use dozens of audio apps on my iphone all the time, so I thought why not try creating one?
Well, I purchased couple of books on audio programming but they are very difficult right from the start. Core Audio is also very complex. And they use C or C++ which are very foreign to me. As far as I understand this is a difficult field in general, so it requires low level programming, math and all these advanced topics.
I was wondering if it's possible to learn all these things by myself? For the last month I've been studying some math at Khan academy, and I also got Kernighan and Ritchie book on C, but I feel like there's very little progress and it gets harder and harder (currently learning about pointers and memory for the first time).
I'm really looking for some sort of roadmap, so if anyone could recommend more gentle approach to audio programming, or some books for very beginners, or provide some guidance in this field I'd really, really appreciate it.