Master Audio vs OpenAL Soft
Master Audio
dtdevtools.comOpenAL Soft
openal-soft.orgSide by side
| Figure | Master Audio | OpenAL Soft |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Game Audio Middleware | 7.8 (#11) | 7.8 (#13) |
| Integrations | The maker lists integrations including Resonance Audio, Playmaker, Opsive packages, NGUI, 2D Toolkit, Atavism, Behavior Designer, and Doozy UI. | The site says loopback devices can be used for playback to interface with other audio systems. |
| Intended users | The documentation describes Master Audio as a Unity plugin and shows setup through the Unity Editor and project scenes. | The site describes a reusable audio library and provides CMake build instructions for incorporating it into projects. |
| Support | The Welcome Window links to the official forum, Discord, and email support at [email protected]. | The project directs users to its GitHub issue tracker for bugs and feature requests and to the #openal IRC channel for help. |
Plans
In their own words
Master Audio
Master Audio has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
OpenAL Soft
OpenAL Soft is a free, LGPL-licensed software implementation of the OpenAL 3D audio API for playing sound in virtual 3D environments. It handles distance attenuation, Doppler shift, and directional emitters. The EFX extension adds effects such as air absorption, occlusion, and environmental reverb. The library supports streaming audio, multichannel buffers, and audio capture, with output options including mono, stereo, 4-channel, 5.1, 7.1, HRTF, UHJ, and B-Format. Implemented audio backends include PipeWire, PulseAudio, ALSA, WASAPI, CoreAudio, JACK, SDL2, and SDL3. Developers can use loopback devices to connect playback with other audio systems and incorporate the library into projects. The latest release identified on the site is version 1.25.2, available as source and Win32 and Win64 binaries. Building requires CMake 3.13 or newer and a compiler supporting C++20; Autotools is not supported. Runtime platforms listed are Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. The project directs bug reports and feature requests to its GitHub issue tracker and points users to the #openal IRC channel for help.