Sound libraries
category: code [glöplog]
This really depends on what you want to achieve. It goal is simply to have MP3 replay on many platforms - then I'd say that SDL_Audio is fine. However, if you need it for a game or something similar then SDL_Audio comes short as it's pretty unstable and lacks functionality, e.g. all samples must be in IFF or WAV, it can only play 1 music-chunk at the time (music-chunk being mp3, ogg, etc).
So, for cross platform demos, I'd stick with the SDL-family (audio, video, image loading, etc).
For cross platform games or slightly more advanced applications I'd either make a generic wrapper and choose an audio library for each platform or go for something like OpenAL or FMOD (and perhaps use other means of timing that what's provided by FMOD).
For Windows demos, I'd use BASS for audio replay if you need to interact with data within the audio stream and SDL_Audio if you just need to play the audio stream with no interaction.
So, for cross platform demos, I'd stick with the SDL-family (audio, video, image loading, etc).
For cross platform games or slightly more advanced applications I'd either make a generic wrapper and choose an audio library for each platform or go for something like OpenAL or FMOD (and perhaps use other means of timing that what's provided by FMOD).
For Windows demos, I'd use BASS for audio replay if you need to interact with data within the audio stream and SDL_Audio if you just need to play the audio stream with no interaction.
Why only Windows? BASS is also available for Mac OS and Linux.
BASS!
