File System Tricks for Audio Production

Not every file presented by a computer operating system needs to be an actual stream of independent bits. We demonstrate that different types of virtual files and folders including so-called “Filesystems in Userspace” (FUSE) allow streamlining audio content management with relatively little additional complexity. For instance, an off-the-shelf database system may present a distributed sound library through (seemingly) standard files in a project-specific hierarchy with no physical copying of the data involved. Regions of audio files may be represented as separate files; audio effect plug-ins may be displayed as collections of folders for on-demand processing while files are read. We address differences between operating systems, available implementations, and lessons learned when applying such techniques.