Sound data structures

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At the request of Don Stuart, here is some information about the formats supported by different sound libraries.

In-memory data formats

In-memory sound formats are fairly diverse.

Reading and writing sound files

Library	Sound file format
HCodecs	`(Audible a) => DiffUArray Int a`
hsndfile	`MArray` with `Float` and `Double`
HSoundFile	`[[Double]]`
ALUT	`OpenAL.AL.Buffer`
WAVE	`[[Int32]]`
Sox	Lists, Storable Vector, whatever you have a `hPut` and `hGetContents` function for.
libsox	Storable Vector
riff	`Data.ByteString.Lazy`

Playing sounds

Library	Sound file format
OpenAL	`Ptr UInt8`, `Ptr Int16`, 1-N channels
SDL-mixer	`ForeignPtr ChunkStruct`, `ForeignPtr MusicStruct`

Sound processing libraries

Library	Sound file format
dsp	`Array a, [a]`
synthesizer	`[a]`, StorableVector.Lazy a, `(StateT s Maybe a, s)` (like stream-fusion)
jack	Operates via mapping functions `mainMono :: (CFloat -> IO CFloat) -> IO ()` `mainStereo :: ((CFloat, CFloat) -> IO (CFloat, CFloat)) -> IO ()`, `StorableArray`
alsa-pcm	`(SampleFrame a) => Ptr a`
Hommage	`[a]`

MIDI-based

Library	Sound file format
HCodecs	Reads and writes MIDI files
midi	Reads and writes MIDI files
alsa-midi	Uses midi library
Haskore	Uses midi library
alsa-seq	Custom midi structures
YampaSynth	Stand-alone program

Special-purpose APIs only (FFIs, etc.)

Library	Sound file format
hCsound	`CsoundPtr`
HasSound / Haskore	`OrcExp`
hsc3	`UGen`

No public sound-buffer API

Library	Sound file format
hbeat	The relevant source files are missing!
hogg	Very low-level API for Ogg internals only
libmpd	No sound buffer API
sonic-visualizer	No sound buffer API
truelevel	Stand-alone program (uses WAVE)
wavconvert	Stand-alone program