what is the best path to take?

hello everyone,

I am a composer, audio engineer and sound FX designer. I already have a very firm background in all things audio.
I want to learn programing, but only the very specific area of audio programing.

Have already learned that I will need to have some C++ skills, learn about directX and audio API's and other things.

can anyone help me out with some advice on the most direct path to this goal? How hard is audio programing compared to other areas? How long could this take to be semi-profesional at it? Or at least be able to share the workload with a more experienced audio programer in game development if I am only mostly providing the audio content.

Right now I am at a point in life were going to get a 2-4 year degree in school is just not an option.

If you are an audio engineer then this stuff should be a breeze. Most people would consider audio programming harder than programming graphics. This is because most people don't know squat about sound. They see words like Samples Per Second, Bits per sample and Average bits per second and they freak. Everyone can program 2d graphics because they know what x and y coordinates are. They know what a pixel is. That's basic math. You should download the latest version of directx and download the SDK to go with it. Then you should read the section on DirectSound then the section on DirectMusic. You will probably want to get your hands on a good 'Windows programming' book. Don't be fooled by 'C++ programming' because now there are about 3 kinds of it. 1. Dos basic c++. 2. MFC C++. 3. Windows C++. You want Windows C++. It is the one that talks about creating a Window and all that stuff.

DirectSound and DirectMusic may tickle your fancy, but you may want to also check out some other API's such as FMOD. If you're going for just audio programming, the key advice I would give would be to stay away from getting entangled in the bits and bytes mumbo jumbo, and stick with what you ultimately want to do, make noise that sounds good.

thanks guys! I apreciate it.

I did the basic tutorials with the dev C++ compiler today. Haven't done any "programing" since the 80's, when you could look in the back of computer game magazines and they had those programs that would draw squares and stuff on the screen. heh

yea, so I guess im going to try and see what can be found out about direct sound and direct music. Not sure in what order I should attempt all this stuff, but it is alot of fun in a very strange way.