Faust Language Documentation

This website centralizes all the documentation of the Faust programming language. It contains tutorials, the Faust manual, various examples, etc. It is meant to be used in tandem with the Faust Web IDE.

The main Faust website can be found at the following URL:

https://faust.grame.fr


What is Faust?

Faust (Functional Audio Stream) is a functional programming language for sound synthesis and audio processing with a strong focus on the design of synthesizers, musical instruments, audio effects, etc. Faust targets high-performance signal processing applications and audio plug-ins for a variety of platforms and standards. It is used on stage for concerts and artistic productions, in education and research, in open source projects as well as in commercial applications.

The core component of Faust is its compiler. It allows us to "translate" any Faust digital signal processing (DSP) specification to a wide range of non-domain specific languages such as C++, C, JAVA, LLVM IR, WebAssembly, etc. In this regard, Faust can be seen as an alternative to C++ but is much simpler and intuitive to learn.

Thanks to a wrapping system called "architectures," codes generated by Faust can be easily compiled into a wide variety of objects ranging from audio plug-ins to standalone applications or smartphone and web apps, etc.


Getting Started

If You're In a Hurry

If you’re in a hurry and just wanna have a look at how Faust programs look like, you can simply check the Faust Examples.

If You Wanna Get Started With Faust

If you’re looking for a step by step tutorial of approximately 2 hours that will walk you through writing simple Faust programs and give you an overview of what Faust can do, have a look at our Quick Start Tutorial.

If You’re Looking For the "Manual"

Faust’s syntax and features are thoroughly documented in the Faust Manual. This resource contains hundreds of code examples and many short tutorials.

If You’re Looking For the Documentation of a Function In the Faust Libraries

The documentation of Faust's standard libraries is automatically generated directly from the libraries' source code.

If You Prefer Video Tutorials

Check out the Faust Kadenze course.

If You're Looking For Something in Particular

You can use the Search function of this website if you're looking for something specific.

Other Resources to learn Faust