This paper describes a new rapid development environment for digital audio applications and computer instruments, AIDE (Audio Instrument Development Environment). The system is designed to help users build signal processing applications for use in music, multimedia and sound design. Based on a graphical patching principle, this system generates software using the V and Sound Object libraries. These provide the graphical interface/application framework and sound processing elements, respectively, for standalone programmes generated by AIDE. It is envisaged that the system will also generate application components in addition to stand-alone programs. The paper outlines in some detail the elements involved in the software. It discusses how the system is aimed at different types of users with different levels of interaction. The paper concludes with an overview of the typical application development cycle using the system.

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This text looks at the computer instrument development work and its influence on the composition process. As a preamble to the main discussion, the different types of software for sound generation and transformation are reviewed. The concept of meta-themes is introduced and explored in the context of contemporary music. Two examples of the author’s computer music work are used to discuss the complex relationship between software development and composition. The first piece provides an example of such relationships in the context of ‘tape’ music. The second explores the use of computer instruments in live electroacoustic music. The activities of composition and instrument creation will be shown to be at times indistinguishable and mutually dependent.

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