Developing for Avid’s Audio Ecosystem - Rob Majors - ADCx India 2026
---
Discover how to build, test, and deliver audio products for Avid’s professional ecosystem. In this session, you’ll get a practical guide to the AAX plugin format, see how to automate workflows in Pro Tools using the Scripting SDK, and learn the steps to get your products into the hands of users. You will also learn how GlobalLogic is partnering with Avid to build an engineering team in India to develop, test & maintain the Pro Tools product.
Rob Majors is a software engineer on the Pro Tools team at Avid, specializing in the AAX plugin platform and developer integrations.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon
ADC Japan - 1st - 3rd June
ADC Bristol - 9th - 11th November
---
Music Design and Systems - Achieving Inaudibly Complex Systems in Video Games - Liam Peacock - ADC 2025
---
This talk presents a data-driven case study of Marvel’s Spider-Man, forming part of my broader PhD investigation into the technical and musical systems that contribute to immersion in video game audio systems. Using original gameplay capture and a custom analytical framework, I evaluated how musical transitions are triggered during combat sequences. That method includes multiple variables: audio food grouped, functional aspects of audio, drivers of immersion, and emotional intensity. This an analysis provided a visual method of assessing how interactive music systems perform in real-time and how effectively they contribute to a player’s sense of immersion.
The analysis reveals a critical implementation issue: transitions and the musical cues associated with them are not designed to consider all musicality aspects on either side of the transition. This disregards the musical context and disrupts musical cohesion but also immersion as these repeated transition cues present an opportunity for obvious repetition at a minimum and clear musical incongruence. While subtle this disruption can weaken immersion and players achievement of flow state. These findings suggest a need for deeper collaboration between composer and technical audio teams, particularly when composers are subcontracted and removed to varying degrees from the implementation decisions and design overview.
By combining musicological analysis, system design critique, practice-led research (in the form of a prototype), and practical recommendations, the talk argues for more musically informed middleware strategies – such as aligning transitions with two-bar phrasing – to preserve both musicality and immersion. This session will appeal to audio programmers, technical sound designers and composers seeking to improve the cohesion between composition and implementation in game audio systems.
---
Liam Peacock
I am a first year PhD Creative Music Practice student at the University of Edinburgh supervised by Drs Martin Parker, Jules Rawlinson, and James cook, focusing on game audio implementation strategies, Music’s role in player immersion, and game audio pedagogy. I am also a Deputy Course Leader with teaching duties in the field of Music and Sound Production. My specialisms are Game Sound and Music and audio postproduction. I hold a BA Music, PGCE, MFA Video Game and Media Composition.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
Beyond the DAW - Designing a Procedural Sequencer Powered by Music-Theory - Romy Dugue & Cecill Etheredge - ADC 2025
---
Most music composition tools originate from either traditional sequencing DAWs or purely procedural programming environments. While many have evolved into hybrid DAWs that incorporate elements of both approaches, they remain largely defined by their origins - addressing innovation through UI enhancements rather than rethinking core architecture.
This talk explores a DAW reimagined, merging clip-based sequencing with procedural programming principles and a graph-based framework. Our approach treats music theory not as an absolute truth, but as a set of human-created toolboxes - for jazz harmony, classical composition, microtonal musics, and more - that musicians can apply creatively and procedurally while maintaining full non-destructive control within a linear timeline.
This system lets musicians navigate by ear through theoretical possibilities — trying different tools, keeping what fits, and discarding the rest. Procedural generation becomes an optional co-pilot rather than a gatekeeper, helping musicians leverage complex theoretical concepts without formal training or simply step around them altogether.
The main focus will be on combining the immediacy of traditional sequencing with the flexibility of procedural systems, where theory can shape compositions - rather than merely sketching them out. We'll examine how to architect the sequencer as a directed graph of conventional DAW elements such as tracks and clips, and combine this with composable, non-destructive operations. It will be explained how such graph-based architectures enable complex node interdependencies that formally represent and manipulate various aspects of music theory.
---
I'm a JUCE developer who builds audio plugins for clients worldwide—everything from wild effects to expressive synths. When I'm not coding or out at concerts, you'll find me making music, from stoner rock to techno. I believe the best music technology doesn't get in your way or steal the fun parts of making music; instead, it becomes part of your creative flow. That's what drives my work: building tools that understand the joy of creation and amplify it rather than complicate it.
Cecill Etheredge
In daily life, Cecill serves as the Technical Director of KoalaDSP, a European startup focused on whitelabel DSP, middleware and audio plugin development for major industry players. In the remaining hours, Cecill channels his engineering skills and artistic flair into tackling challenging and complex problems, driven by a classic hacker ethos and curiosity. With a lifelong passion for technology and music, and over 20 years of experience in areas involving hardware, games, graphics, audio & algorithms, Cecill is still on a never-ending journey to learn, to create impactful innovations, and to share the lessons learned with others.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
Integrate Your Plugin with the New AI and Automation Features in Pro Tools using SoundFlow’s new SFX Framework - Christian Scheuer - ADC 2025
---
With the release of Pro Tools 2025.10, SoundFlow, the industry leader in audio workflow automation, is now built directly into Pro Tools. It powers the new AI-based Session Assistant, interactive tutorial system, and the macro/scripting engine, as well as integrations with Stream Deck, MIDI, iOS, and Android devices.
This new deep integration is powered by SFX (the SoundFlow Extension Framework) – a cross-platform, low-latency automation SDK that allows any macOS or Windows app/plugin to make its functionality available to SoundFlow's engines. For JUCE-based plugins, SFX provides a prebuilt integration, allowing plugins to implement SFX with just a few lines of code.
In this talk, we’ll show how plugin developers can add SFX support and make their plugins addressable from the new automation and AI features in Pro Tools: selecting presets, adjusting parameters, and coordinating changes between the DAW and plugins, whether from the Session Assistant, user scripts and macros, tutorials, or decks/surfaces. At the end, there'll be a unique opportunity to enroll in SoundFlow's SFX program and become part of the initial batch of launch partners.
---
Christian Scheuer
Christian Scheuer is the Founder & CEO of SoundFlow, a platform built to eliminate friction in creative software, with deep integration with Avid Pro Tools.
Before starting SoundFlow, Christian spent over a decade as a sound editor and mixer in the Danish film industry. Experiencing first-hand how much time creatives lose to repetitive clicks and window juggling, he developed SoundFlow: a workflow automation platform for scripting actions, creating macros, and designing custom decks that control professional apps with a single click.
Under Christian’s leadership, SoundFlow has grown into the industry-standard tool for streamlining post-production and music production workflows, supported by an active community where creators share scripts and best practices. His focus remains constant: help artists stay in the creative flow by letting the computer do the busywork.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
Workshop: Accessibility in Audio Tech - Jay Pocknell, Tim Burgess, Tim Yates, Samuel John Prouse, David Shervill, Liza Bec, Tim Adnitt & Mxshi Mo - ADC 2025
---
As audio production techniques and technologies evolve, so too must the ways we think about accessibility. To improve inclusion in music-making, it is essential that access is evaluated throughout the design of audio technology, not as an add-on or afterthought.
Building on ADC24’s ‘Inclusive Design in Audio Products: Why, Why, How?’ workshop, this symposium comprises a series of sessions that will unpick the systematic barriers to accessibility within audio, and highlight solutions that you can embed into your projects.
Throughout the afternoon, disabled musicians, accessibility consultants, and representatives from organisations driving change will share insights into the opportunities for a more inclusive audio industry. Attendees will help collate a list of inclusive design principles to demystify accessible product development in future.
The concepts covered will be suitable for beginner, intermediate, and advanced audio programmers, though the sessions will not delve too deeply into code examples.
Introduction to the Social Model of Disability
Liza Bec, Tim Yates
The Social Model of Disability is a set of principles that informs our understanding of disability. It was borne from the disability rights movement, led by disabled people, in the UK. In this presentation we will give an overview of the Social Model, including the key ideas, some of the language used, as well as an insight into how the ideas apply to music making and music technology.
Structural access barriers within the audio industry, and opportunities to be part of the solution
Tim Yates, Liza Bec, Jay Pocknell, Mxshi Mo
It can be incredibly difficult for disabled musicians to navigate the music tech space, find the equipment and instruments that they need, and then get hold of them. In this discussion we will outline some of the barriers people face, and discuss some of the structural solutions that we can collectively put in place to address them. We will also explore Drake Music’s pioneering Accessible Musical Instrument Collection and DMLab initiatives.
Making software talk: screen reader implementation principles
Tim Burgess & Jay Pocknell
What makes software accessible for blind users? What do concepts like ‘focus’ and ‘tab order’ mean in practical terms? This section shares insight into how to look at an app from a blind user’s perspective, and where to start with screen reader accessibility and keyboard navigation, no matter which development framework you are using.
Usability, not just accessibility
Jay Pocknell, Byron Harden (pre-recorded presentation).
Can software really be considered ‘accessible’ if functions could take screen reader users many times longer to access? In this presentation, we explore opportunities for optimising workflows for screen reader users and replicating the glanceability that sighted users often rely upon. We also share opportunities to work with blind community members to get user experience feedback.
Spotlight: Defining a Framework for Universal Design
Sam Prouse & David Shervill
David Shervill will discuss music education’s role in supporting beginners and those returning to the creative industry, and ways we can all support inclusive development. Sam will present a universal design model for software and hardware. He’ll give an overview of key accessibility standards and how they’ve been adapted from W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (A11Y) to broader software contexts. David and Sam will conclude with a preview of their in-depth talk scheduled for Wednesday.
Spotlight: Native Instruments’ Accessibility Helper app
Tim Adnitt
- How Native Instruments’ Accessibility Helper makes NI’s hardware products accessible.
- How it enables Kontrol MK3 keyboards to additionally control non-NKS third-party plug-in and even hardware synths.
- Community-generated MIDI templates for hardware accessibility.
---
ADC is an annual event celebrating all audio development technologies, from music applications and game audio to audio processing and embedded systems.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon
ADC Japan - 1st - 3rd June
ADC Bristol - 9th - 11th November
---
Should Audio Plugins Have “Everything Everywhere All at Once”? - Exploring Modularity, Reusability, and Instrument Identity in Audio Software - Gonçalo Bernardo - ADC 2025
---
Modern plugin development often faces a central dilemma: how much feature commonality is too much? What began as a highly specific tool inside one instrument—designed to solve a particular creative need—unexpectedly gained traction among users. The overwhelmingly positive feedback raised an important question for the team: could this feature be abstracted into a flexible, reusable component across multiple instruments? This led to a deeper architectural shift.
By elevating the original feature into a generic, SDK-level module—complete with modulation systems, advanced sequencing, effects, and routing—we enable a consistent user experience across diverse plugins, while reducing development overhead. However, this raises new design questions: when does standardization enhance creativity, and when might it flatten the unique identities of individual instruments? This talk explores the balance between shared modules, features/frameworks, and product specificity in modern audio software.
---
Gonçalo Bernardo is an Audio Software Engineer at ARTURIA, where he develops and maintains core audio engine components and plugin frameworks used across software instruments and effects, shaping workflows for advanced music and sound production.
With a background in spatial audio and generative systems, his work explores the intersection of software design, creative coding, and computational acoustics, supported by publications in computational music and ambient generative systems. He previously contributed to the development of spatial sound tools and synthesizers at Sound Particles. Alongside his engineering practice, Gonçalo maintains an artistic activity under the alias “ÇALO DO MAR E DA TERRA” exploring immersiveness through interactive and generative installations.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon
ADC Japan - 1st - 3rd June
ADC Bristol - 9th - 11th November
---
Embedded Musical Signal Processing with Csound 7 - From Microcontrollers to FPGAs - Aman Jagwani
---
This talk will present new advancements in the sound and music computing system, Csound. With the newest major version upgrade, an expansion in the range of supported hardware to bare-metal and co-processing platforms has been added. These platforms include ARM Cortex microcontrollers, FPGA-based system-on-chips, and general-purpose GPUs. This provides users with the ability to design custom audio devices, pedals, synthesizers, interactive installations, etc., through abstracted hardware interfacing along with the familiarity and expansive signal processing capabilities of a mature language like Csound. In this talk, we will highlight the process of porting the system to these platforms, particularly the challenges in adapting it to environments without operating systems and, at times, with lower computational and memory resources. We then discuss implementations across different bare-metal ARM hardware platforms such as the Electrosmith Daisy. Following that, we will highlight the co-processing possibilities across general-purpose GPUs and FPGA-based SoC platforms. Lastly, we will end with a discussion of musical possibilities that these expanded platforms enable in the areas of composition, performance, and interactive installations.
---
Aman Jagwani is an audio programmer, musician and researcher from Mumbai, India, specializing in embedded audio research and open source musical programming and signal processing systems.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon
ADC Japan - 1st - 3rd June
ADC Bristol - 9th - 11th November
---
Cross-Platform Music Software with Rust - Ian Hobson - ADC 2025
---
"The Rust programming language recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its 1.0 release. A decade later, and Rust has become an increasingly popular choice for projects that require high performance and system-level control.
In this talk I'll be giving an overview of the current state of the Rust music software ecosystem, and we'll explore the latest developments in tooling, libraries, and best practices.
I'll also take you on a practical tour of a reusable project template for Rust-based music apps that can be distributed as plugins, on mobile or desktop operating systems, or in web browsers."
---
Slides: https://hobson.dev/talks/adc_25
---
Ian Hobson
Ian Hobson is an engineer who loves building audio software.
Since 2019 he has been working as a consultant with startups and organizations including Meta, Lofelt, Super Hi-Fi, Pixtunes, and INA GRM. Previously he worked at Ableton as Technical Principal for DSP and Devices.
He is also the creator of the Koto programming language, and the founder of Picotone where he's currently working on music apps.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon
ADC Japan - 1st - 3rd June
ADC Bristol - 9th - 11th November
---
Sneak Peek at ARA Audio Random Access 3.0 - Embracing Audio Synthesis - Stefan Gretscher - ADC 2025
---
Since its public release over a decade ago, ARA Audio Random Access has grown into a widely supported industry standard. While originally designed to process audio input provided by the user, a lot of interest has sparked recently to extend ARA to also support audio generators that operate on abstract musical input. Example applications include singing voice synthesizers, or intelligent samplers which provide automatic musical adoption of pre-recorded content to the song context.
ARA 3.0 will strive to cater for the needs of such generators without compromising its core designs, adding new APIs that shall be equally valuable for conventional, sample-input based ARA plug-ins. Assuming a basic understanding of ARA 2.3, the talk will present an overview of the current state of the ARA 3.0 development, inviting review of what has been achieved so far and outlining the development still ahead.
---
Stefan's career in audio programming has led him from hand-crafting bare-bones assembler on the DSP-based platforms of the late 90s to working on today's Melodyne with its roughly 250k lines of just the audio model and processing C++ code. Along that path, his focus shifted from signal processing to software architecture, programming languages and framework design.
With this background, Stefan is leading the development of the ARA Audio Random Access API at Celemony. What he maybe likes most about this is working closely with so many other devs in the industry, and he is looking forward to answering your questions about ARA at ADC.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
https://audio.dev/ -- @audiodevcon
ADC Japan - 1st - 3rd June
ADC Bristol - 9th - 11th November
---
Converting Source Separation Models to ONNX for Real Time Usage in DJ Software - Anmol Mishra - ADC 2025
---
Demucs v4 is a state-of-the-art open-source music source separation model developed by Alexandre Défossez. While it provides exceptional quality in separating audio into stems, it is currently implemented in PyTorch and therefore cannot be used directly in C++ applications or run efficiently on hardware accelerators through ONNX Runtime. Exporting the model to ONNX allows developers to integrate stem separation directly into their platforms, opening up use cases like live stem manipulation, AI-assisted mixing, and educational visualization tools. Through this talk where I demonstrate exporting, deploying and evaluating the exported model, I want to provide a reference for further integration into audio applications.
---
Anmol is a Research Assistant at the Music Technology Group (MTG) and a masters student at UPF Barcelona, working on expressive rhythms generation with flow based diffusion models. Previously he worked as a Machine Learning Research Engineer at Samsung’s Computer Vision Group in Seoul. Prior to that, he earned his Bachelors in Computer Science from IIT Bombay. He's been performing as a DJ at clubs and festivals in Seoul and Barcelona.
---
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.
Annual ADC Conference - https://audio.dev/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/audiodevcon
