Design and language for CASA implementation

[Andrew Nesbit <alnesbit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear List,

I am currently in the process of designing an architecture for a CASA
system for automatic transcription of music. I know that many people
have used a blackboard architecture for this purpose and I have several
examples of this from various journal articles, etc. However, I would
also like to be exposed to _other_ sorts of architectures that have
been used for CASA systems so that I can make a more informed decision
about how to design mine. If anybody can give me any examples of this,
then I would be very grateful.

Furthermore, I am choosing an implementation language for this project.
I am considering the following combinations:

* Python with Numeric and SciPy extensions, plus C to implement any
time-critical algorithms not covered in Numeric/SciPy.

* Scilab plus C

* Octave plus C

(Matlab is out of the question due to cost.)

Scilab has many signal processing modules available, whereas Python and
Octave each have a more modest amount. However, I do greatly value the
fact that Python is a much more of a "real" programming language than
Scilab/Octave/Matlab.

What languages have people on this list used? Can anybody share their
experiences with me and offer some advice?

Thankyou in advance.

Andrew.