So, I know OpenAL's been a popular API for feeding audio data to the speakers in applications and even used for some OS features, but is it still around? I heard that Creative made it proprietary after its 1.1 release, and its website seems almost nonexistent. I know it's supported well on Mac, Linux and there's still a Windows installer on its website, but is that a good way to go? Should I be using OpenAL Soft? OpenAL Soft seems like what Freeglut is to GLUT haha.

I'd like to keep my programming initiatives multi platform (Linux, Windows and Mac), but should I be using DirectSound for Windows?

Some of the FMOD stuff, FMOD Studio and FMOD Studio programmer’s API, is free for indie projects with less then $100,000 budget. Its also free for non commercial/educational, and the pricing isnt bad for commercial license.

Ok, I'd be happy to look at Wwise. I have looked at FMOD before, but I know little about audio. I wanted to get into lower-level audio programming, and learn the theory so I could properly use higher-end tools like the two listed :) The other point for going low-level is so that I could at better understand how the data moves from the client application to the hardware. I was also hoping to find a widely-supported API though, so I wasn't constrained to any OS specific. It looks like OpenAL Soft is what I'm currently looking for!

I will return to something like FMOD or Wwise though, once I have the fundamentals in audio down.

I'd like to keep my programming initiatives multi platform (Linux, Windows and Mac), but should I be using DirectSound for Windows?

Interesting, I didn't even know that there are different OpenAL. I simply used the default on Linux/OSX and found some installer for Windows. Checking back in synaptic, it already uses by default openalsoft. So I'll check someday what I'm actually using on Win/Mac...