Amplitude Audio SDK vs SoLoud
Amplitude Audio SDK
amplitudeaudiosdk.comSoLoud
solhsa.comSide by side
| Figure | Amplitude Audio SDK | SoLoud |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Game Audio Middleware | 8.4 (#6) | 7.7 (#15) |
| Purpose | Amplitude is a cross-platform audio engine designed for games and supports audio for 2D, 3D, and VR/AR environments. | SoLoud is an easy-to-use, free, portable C/C++ audio engine for games. |
| Support | The documentation directs users with installation issues to Discord and recommends Discord community support or GitHub issues for troubleshooting. | The project provides a Google Group, GitHub issue tracker and an IRC channel, while noting that it does not include the support offered by commercial libraries. |
Plans
Amplitude Audio SDK
- Amplitude Audio SDKFree
- Amplitude Studio FreeFree
- Amplitude Studio PaidPriced on request
In their own words
Amplitude Audio SDK
Amplitude Audio SDK is a cross-platform audio engine for games, supporting audio for 2D, 3D, and VR/AR environments. It runs on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows; Windows, Linux, and macOS are listed as runtime platforms. Project assets are defined in JSON and compiled into binary sound banks for runtime loading. Audio options include stereo panning, binaural rendering with user HRTF assets, and Ambisonic rendering. Developers can configure processing per runtime platform, including filters, room effects, and spatialization, and extend the pipeline with plugins. A MiniAudio-based default driver and MP3 and WAV decoding are included. Official integrations are listed for O3DE, ezEngine, Godot 4+, and Flax Engine. The SDK is free and open source under Apache-2.0, but it is in beta without an official release; nightly builds are for development, not production. Amplitude Studio is in early access with complimentary access during that phase; its planned free version has non-commercial and feature limits.
SoLoud
SoLoud is a free, portable C/C++ audio engine for games, built around a fire-and-forget playback interface. Playback handles let developers adjust volume, pan and relative speed. The engine includes multiple voices, faders, real-time filters, mixing busses, gapless looping, queued sounds and atomic operations for several sounds. It supports 3D positional audio and up to eight surround speakers.
Supported sources include several WAV variants, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, tracker formats and emulator sources. The package includes speech synthesis and an Sfxr sound-effects synthesizer. SoLoud runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and the web through Emscripten, with backends including SDL/SDL2, MiniAudio, ALSA, JACK, OpenAL and WASAPI. A C API DLL provides access from environments including Python, Ruby, C#, BlitzMax and GameMaker Studio. Its ZLib/LibPNG license permits commercial use, modification and redistribution subject to attribution and source-notice conditions. The project notes limited engine integration and no artist tools.