https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon​
ADC Bristol ​- 9th - 11th November​
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Building Smartphone Instruments from Commodity Hardware - HID Controllers, Embedded Audio, and Modular Design - Calvin McCormack - ADCx India 2026
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Smartphones are by far the most popular computing platform, yet audio and music applications are still disproportionally developed for traditional computers, limiting overall access and scalability. This talk presents a modular framework for building digital musical instruments on mobile devices by pairing commodity HIDs with embedded audio on Android and iOS. This paradigm segments input handling, mapping, and the DSP engine, allowing each to be custom designed and configured. The talk surveys embedded audio options including libpd, JUCE, and Chunity (ChucK in Unity), in particular focusing on Chunity as a cross-platform development environment for integrated audio and graphics. This system is further expanded by 3D-printed augmentations, which can be used to turn standard HIDs into highly personalized controllers at low cost. Examining a recent field deployment at a nonprofit in Uttarakhand as a case study, this talk highlights how this approach enables scalable and affordable instrument building with components that can be shared, modified, and reproduced anywhere.

Slides: https://data.audio.dev/talks/ADCxIndia/2026//building-smartphone-instruments-from-commodity-hardware/slides.pdf
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Calvin McCormack is an MA student at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, his research interests include accessible musical interfaces, auditory perception, and spatial audio.
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ADC is an annual event celebrating all audio development technologies, from music applications and game audio to audio processing and embedded systems. ADC’s mission is to help attendees acquire and develop new audio development skills, and build a network that will support their audio developer career.
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Streamed & Edited by Digital Medium Ltd: https://online.digital-medium.co.uk
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Organized and produced by JUCE: https://juce.com/
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Special thanks to the ADC team:

Sophie Carus
Derek Heimlich
Andrew Kirk
Bobby Lombardi
Tom Poole
Ralph Richbourg
Jim Roper
Jonathan Roper
Prashant Mishra

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