Hi, I'm building an audio sound engine for a mobile game using libpd and the rjlib library. I want it to be CPU efficient so as to run on lower end android phones too without glitches

My first assumption is that playing back audio is less costly than using synths : is this a fact or am I wrong from the start ?

The idea is to build a flexible sampler with distinct attack, sustain and release parts. I can then load any synth sound I exported from my DAW and play it almost as if it were the original synth (without all the modulations of course). Kind of like the ableton sampler: I could choose the start, the sustain loop portion, and the release part of the sound. That would allow me to add portamento, amplitude, pitch and filter enveloppes, hold notes forever, instantly change the pitch, with no glitches between parts ... It would have to sound like I was playing the original synth preset from my DAW, inside PD !

However this looks a bit trickier than I thought and seems to require a bit of patching. In the end I'm wondering if it's not going to end up costing more resource from the CPU than using a PD synth ?

So before I start building this thing I'm wondering : is it a good idea, or I am missing something here ? And also, does it not already exist ?

I hope I've managed to be somewhat clear, i'd love to hear your feedback !

Cheers
Simon