Short answer: Just do it. Now that you've read a book, pick an extremely simple task and just do it. For example, maybe try writing a command-line program that

Short answer: Just do it. Now that you've read a book, pick an extremely simple task and just do it. For example, maybe try writing a command-line program that will just play a square wave through the speakers. Then, build up your skills by making options for sawtooth, triangle, and sine waves. Finally, in the callback from the audio API, poll the keyboard to decide what tones to play. ;) FWIW: A few years ago I wrote a functional keyboard and mouse synth program that just did sine, triangle, square waves and harmonics. It sounded a lot like an organ. (I later lost interest.) What helped was that I found a wrapper for MacOS CoreAudio that dramatically simplified the API so all I needed to do was provide a stream of floats. (I don't remember the name.) Don't fall under the illusion that you can just read books and at the end you'll know how to do this. You'll need to work through simplified tasks to build your skills and understanding before you can write your mini-synth.