Much of my personal research (and teaching) is performed using the Pure Data (Pd) dataflow programming language.
Pd provides a real-time graphical programming environment (authored by Miller Puckette – “The diagram is the program”) that is designed to operate on audio, graphical and video signals.
Pd is a free alternative to Max/MSP, and not only does it make it easy to implement real-time audio input/output, but it is especially efficient for rapid prototyping and creative research.
Find out more here:
Note that the example programs shown on this page may require pd-extended (rather han pd-vanilla). Also, ‘Voice Factory’ will only run under Windows .