Giles Bowkett wrote:
> I've got some code which needs to operate in a time-sensitive way. It
> makes a simple drumbeat, and needs to hit the notes at the right time.
> Currently this doesn't happen. Every time you run the code you'll get
> slightly different timing fluctuations. It's not subtle, either. The
> effect is obvious and ruins the beat.
> 
> Is there a way to solve this problem without abandoning my preferred language?
> 

That I think is platform-dependent, but it could be something as 
"simple" as building an interface to an audio library. I only know 
Linux, so that's the approach I'd take. There are at least three Linux 
distros -- JAD, Studio64 and dyne:bolic -- dedicated to real-time audio 
processing. I haven't done anything with dyne:bolic, but I have used 
both JAD and Studio64.

I can't really tell which of the two is "better" -- both of them seemed 
to be excellent, and neither of them had anything I couldn't get on 
Gentoo. That may change if I don't get CSound running on Gentoo soon, 
however. :)

Another place you might want to look is Planet CCRMA. This is a 
Fedora-based collection of audio software, some of it coming from the 
Lisp-based CCRMA project at Stanford.