How to get input from a multitrack mixer connected via USB on mac os x

Question

What are the general methods and APIs (preferably for C or C++) for capturing audio input from multitrack mixers/devices? (Ie an Mbox).

So for example, say I have a guitar, bass, trumpet etc. connected to a mixer that is connected to my computer via USB/FireWire, is there an API or general method for getting that input?

Answer 1

The API is called CoreAudio. You might have noticed that "CoreAudio" was listed as being supported on that MBox you mentioned, though any class compliant device will be supported on OS X. There are also libraries built on top of CoreAudio that make CoreAudio even easier and/or more portable to work with, such as PortAudio and RTAdudio.

For a conceptual introduction to audio programming, you might want to look here:

http://blog.bjornroche.com/2011/11/slides-from-fundamentals-of-audio.html

to dive right into CoreAudio Programming, you might want to look here:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/Introduction/Introduction.html