In this article we give a description of an environment for composition and sound synthesis. The environment is designed to handle real-time processing. We argue that the presence of a garbage collector doesn't necessarily have to compromise the real-time behaviour. This still needs some theoretical certification.
We are finalizing two implementations of the environment, one written in Java and one written in C/C++. This will allow us to do some in depth comparisons between C/C++ and the much talked about Java. In particular, we will be able to test Java for its use in digital signal processing and real-time applications.
We can now only speculate about new musical applications. We hope the tight integration and the two way communication between compositional processes in Lisp, on the one hand, and sound synthesis in real-time, on the other hand, will give rise to new musical possibilities.