libsoundio vs SDL2 - andrewrk/libsoundio GitHub Wiki

Benefits of libsoundio over SDL2:

• Exposes backend support; API can choose which backends to connect to.
• Supports listing devices and choosing one.
• Supports capture devices.
• Supports channel layouts (also known as channel maps), important for surround sound applications.
• Exposes both device id and friendly name. id you could save in a config file because it persists between devices becoming plugged and unplugged, while friendly name is suitable for exposing to users.
• Callback function provides frame_count_min and frame_count_max to optimally leverage fixed-buffer backends such as JACK and CoreAudio, as well as flexible buffer backends such as ALSA and PulseAudio.
• Exposes extra API that is only available on some backends. For example you can provide application name and stream names which is used by JACK and PulseAudio.
• Ability to monitor devices and get an event when available devices change.
• Ability to get an event when the backend is disconnected, for example when the JACK server or PulseAudio server shuts down.
• Ability to connect to multiple backends at once. For example you could have an ALSA device open and a JACK device open at the same time.
• Lightweight; only does audio.

Benefits of SDL2 over libsoundio:

• Contains more functionality than just audio, it does input, windowing, and graphics.
• Supports older versions of Windows than Windows 7.