Noade

Noade is a lightweight, open‑source framework designed to provide real‑time audio signal processing and analysis. It was created in 2016 by developer Alex Mercer as a response to the growing need for flexible audio tools that could be integrated into both research and commercial projects. The architecture of Noade is built around a modular plugin system, allowing developers to write small, reusable components that can be combined to form complex audio pipelines. Each module conforms to a simple set of input and output interfaces, which enables easy mixing of modules from different sources.

One of the distinguishing features of Noade is its focus on low‑latency performance. The core engine is written in C++ and utilizes lock‑free buffers to reduce jitter, which makes it suitable for applications such as live music performance, telecommunications, and hearing aid signal processing. The framework also offers a Python API that wraps the C++ core, providing rapid prototyping capabilities for researchers and educators. Documentation, unit tests, and a continuous integration pipeline are hosted on GitHub, where the community contributes bug fixes, new plugins, and language bindings.

Noade’s design is inspired by earlier audio engines such as JUCE and Faust, but it deliberately eschews heavy graphical user interfaces in favor of script‑based configuration. This gives users fine‑grained control without a steep learning curve. In addition, the framework integrates with popular multimedia libraries, including PortAudio for cross‑platform audio I/O and FFmpeg for format conversion. As of early 2025, the project has received multiple awards at open‑source software conferences and is used in educational settings across several universities. Noade remains maintained under the BSD‑3 clause, encouraging widespread adoption and modification.