Hi All,
I am an experienced Java developer with a love for music and a desire to work in audio plugins.
I have downloaded JUCE and I am getting started with the demos and getting back into C++ etc…
I was wondering is this platform the right one to be learning in 2019?
Thanks in advance for your input/opinions
Welcome!
YES!
you want to keep an eye on SOUL also, that might best choice to write plugins in a couple of years
There are many ways to write audio software. You can always use the various SDKs independently, be it to talk to audio backends or to DAWs as audio plugins.
But I am not aware of an alternative, that lets you write once and run it in so many platforms at once…
So yes, it’s a good choice, and it is well established in the audio industry IMHO.
The main reason you might not want to use Juce is if none of the licensing options are suitable for you.
Thanks all for the input.
I am going to focus on audio manipulation plugins such as compressors, eqs and other ideas I have because that fits with my work as a music producer/engineer and studio owner.
I am sure you will see me around here asking dumb questions very soon 
If you only want to write a plugin (i.e, not a standalone or mobile app) you could also look at iPlug2. I think it’s more flexible in terms of graphics. But JUCE might be more friendly for beginners. @olilarkin might be able to comment further 
…and if we’re being exhaustive, you may want to look at Will Pirkle’s RackAFX and ASPiK packages that are a companion to his books on DSP and Synth design
I think the opposite is probably true, iPlug is more limited, and perhaps therefore easier. Regarding the OP, juce is the most commonest audio plugin framework for sure, but juce does a million other things as well as plugins and is more comparable to QT. In the land of plugins, iPlug, VST3SDK+VSTGUI+steinberg wrappers, ASPIK, DPF, DPlug are the public domain alternatives with quite a few companies using their own closed frameworks
