Generative Software — Low-Latency DSP, Spatialization & Live-Coding Engines

Generative software at ZIAA is performance infrastructure, not plugin commodity. The audio graph runs on dedicated AudioWorklet threads with zero-allocation loops, pooled buffers and explicit GC exclusion, verified under Chrome’s real-time tracing. Pitch detection, granular time-stretching and convolution reverbs operate at 64–128 sample frames to keep performer-perceived latency under 3 ms.

Signature outputs include a 64-point ambisonic decoder calibrated in the Salton Vault, a WebAssembly wavetable interpolator that withstands live code hot-swaps without glitches, and the SYNTHESIS//SIGNAL Three.js environment where geometry and sound share one clock. Each software prototype documents CPU load, memory ceiling and browser matrix (Chromium baseline, Firefox/Safari advisory).

This stack also powers the archive’s curiosity engine: the four browser instruments are its most linked and longest-dwell pages. Their SoftwareApplication JSON-LD, live consoles and shareable presets give search engines and recommendation systems durable behavioral signals that generic text pages cannot.

Real-time constraints are treated as first-class research claims. AudioWorklet kernels are profiled under Chrome tracing with allocation sampling enabled; zero-allocation is verified, not asserted, and GC pauses are measured across 10-minute runs. The 64-point ambisonic decoder’s calibration in the Vault includes per-speaker impulse responses and a 0.9 ms worst-case inter-channel jitter budget. Published prototypes list CPU load (e.g., 8.2% at 48 kHz on M2), memory ceiling (12 MB), and failure mode (browser tab suspension) so results are reproducible.

Hot-swap live coding is not a metaphor for “reload the page.” Wavetable code is compiled to WASM, swapped under an audio-rate crossfade while the AudioContext runs, with a 64-sample rollback buffer if compilation fails. This is why SYNTHESIS//SIGNAL can change synthesis topology during performance without glitching — a claim that is testable in the browser instrument and documented as a SoftwareApplication featureList, not as marketing copy.