Software Alternatives & Reviews

RtAudio VS OpenAL Soft

Compare RtAudio VS OpenAL Soft and see what are their differences

RtAudio logo RtAudio

RtAudio is a set of C++ classes that provide a common API for realtime audio input/output across...

OpenAL Soft logo OpenAL Soft

OpenAL Soft is an LGPL-licensed, cross-platform, software implementation of the OpenAL 3D audio API.
  • RtAudio Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-24
  • OpenAL Soft Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-18

RtAudio videos

How to Install RtAudio on the Raspberry pi

OpenAL Soft videos

F.E.A.R. w/ EAX & 3D spatial sound 🎧 (OpenAL Soft HRTF)

More videos:

  • Review - F.E.A.R DirectSound3D: Creative Alchemy vs OpenAL Soft (Headphone only)
  • Review - Counter-Strike 1.0 WON w/ 3D spatial sound (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio) 20th Anniversary!

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to RtAudio and OpenAL Soft)
Development Tools
46 46%
54% 54
Game Engine
39 39%
61% 61
Rapid Application Development
Game Development
27 27%
73% 73

User comments

Share your experience with using RtAudio and OpenAL Soft. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, OpenAL Soft seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

RtAudio mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of RtAudio yet. Tracking of RtAudio recommendations started around Mar 2021.

OpenAL Soft mentions (11)

  • Audio Library
    OpenAL is probably the best middle ground. Source: 10 months ago
  • Prey (2017) Director: Using That Name Was A Mistake
    OpenAL Soft - Greatly improves audio. (Enable EAX effects in SS2 settings after this OpenAL Soft is installed). System Shock 2 used hardware accelerated audio effects and those work only if you have sound card that supports them. OpenAL Soft implements all those effects in software so you get good audio. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Death lamp worth?
    .MHR cannot be opened without a file viewer (Binary data). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Anyone know a good OpenAL alternative or wrapper which works on Apple platforms?
    Sounds like you want OpenAL Soft a cross platform LGPL software implementation of OpenAL. Source code and issue tracker are [on Github](0https://github.com/kcat/openal-soft). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Latest versions of Creative ALchemy and OpenAL
    OpenAL. I found OpenAL v1.1 Windows Installer from OpenAL: Cross Platform 3D Audio but OpenAL Soft v1.21.0 from here https://openal-soft.org/. What is the difference and which should I download? Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing RtAudio and OpenAL Soft, you can also consider the following products

PortAudio - PortAudio is a cross platform, open-source, audio I/O library.

JUCE - JUCE is a wide-ranging C++ class library for building rich cross-platform applications and plugins...

OpenAL - OpenAL is a cross-platform 3D audio API appropriate for use with gaming applications and many other...

FMOD Ex - FMOD is a proprietary audio library that plays music files of diverse formats on many different...

Qt - Powerful, flexible and easy to use, Qt will help you not only meet your tight deadline, but also reduce the maintainable code by an astonishing percentage.

FMOD - FMOD Studio is an audio middleware solution and engine for games.