Platform support overview

Overview of platforms where Csound can run

Csound is a highly portable audio programming language that runs on a wide variety of platforms, from desktop computers to mobile devices and embedded systems.

Desktop platforms

macOS, Linux, and Windows support with full features

Web assembly

Run Csound in the browser using WebAssembly

iOS

Native iOS framework for iPhone and iPad

Android

Android library with JNI and Java interface

Embedded platforms

Bela, Daisy, and other embedded hardware

Platform comparison

Platform	Audio I/O	MIDI	Real-time	Build system
macOS	CoreAudio, JACK	CoreMIDI	Yes	CMake
Linux	ALSA, JACK, PulseAudio	ALSA, PortMIDI	Yes	CMake
Windows	PortAudio	PortMIDI	Yes	CMake + vcpkg
WebAssembly	Web Audio API	Web MIDI API	Yes	CMake + Emscripten
iOS	CoreAudio	CoreMIDI	Yes	CMake + Xcode
Android	OpenSL ES	Android MIDI	Yes	NDK + CMake
Bela	Bela audio	Bela MIDI	Yes	CMake (cross-compile)
Daisy	Daisy audio	-	Yes	CMake (cross-compile)

Requirements

All platforms require:

• CMake: Build system (cmake.org)
• C compiler: Complete C development toolchain
• Flex and Bison: For the Csound parser (bison 3.8+, flex 2.6+)

Optional components:

• C++ compiler: For some components
• libsndfile: For soundfile I/O (can be disabled with USE_LIBSNDFILE=0)
• Git: For cloning and syncing with the latest source

Common build options

These CMake options work across all platforms:

# Custom installation location
-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/install

# Disable libsndfile
-DUSE_LIBSNDFILE=0

# Disable libsamplerate
-DUSE_LIBSAMPLERATE=0

# Build plugins as separate libraries
-DBUILD_PLUGINS=1

# Use custom CMake configuration
-DCUSTOM_CMAKE=custom.cmake

View all available options:

cmake -LAH

Source code

Csound source code is available on GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/csound/csound.git

Build instructions for each platform can be found in the platform-specific pages.