Embedded Comparo: Small DSP Systems Side-by-Side

This paper presents a comparative analysis of four embedded platforms designed for real-time audio processing: Bela, Daisy, OWL, and Raspberry Pi. These platforms have become integral tools in the field of digital musical instrument design, offering a variety of workflows, programming environments, and deployment methods. Although each system carries its own distinct strengths and constraints, the current workflow to embed DSP code across multiple devices lacks standardized approaches. To address this challenge, we develop a methodology that focuses on deploying Pure Data patches across all four platforms. Our study is structured around four test patches. Our findings highlight the trade-offs in latency, processing power, and memory constraints across the selected platforms.

@inproceedings{DiMaggio2025a,
  title = {Embedded Comparo: Small DSP Systems Side-by-Side},
  author = {Maggio, Francesco Di and Hengeveld, Bart and Tanaka, Atau},
  booktitle = {NIME '25: International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Canberra, Australia},
  year = {2025}
}