A web-based framework for distributed music system research and creation

Abstract

This paper presents soundworks, a framework dedicated to prototyping and developing distributed multimedia applications using Web technologies. Since its first release in 2015, the framework has been used in numerous artistic and research projects such as concerts, installations, workshops, teaching, and experimental setups. We first present how this diversity of contexts and objectives permitted us to identify a set of patterns able to support recurring needs of expert users in exploratory tasks. We then detail new developments that have been achieved to provide better support to these patterns. More particularly, we describe the novel distributed state management system dedicated to simplifying the implementation of remote control and monitoring interfaces and the plug-in system implemented to improve the extensibility of the framework and foster composition of dedicated functionalities. We believe that these new developments can provide a solid ground for further research and artistic practices in the area of distributed music systems. The soundworks framework is open source and released under BSD-3-Clause license.