If you want to stay in C land, go and join Paul Stoffregen in the Teensy world. They’re happy and successful there.
I think I will stay, thanks. It took me two months of pain, but I am happy and successful here now. 
It is probably good advice that others outside of the center of the C++/DSP/Microcontroller Venn diagram go the Arduindo/Teensy route, at least until E-S has some good tutorials covering how to use the LibDaisy and DaisySP objects.