[HN Gopher] Sonic Pi - Code based live music creation tool
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       Sonic Pi - Code based live music creation tool
        
       Author : huseyinkeles
       Score  : 232 points
       Date   : 2021-08-23 10:38 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Some past related threads:
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi 3.3.0 (Beam)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25971096 - Jan 2021 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi is a code-based music creation and performance tool_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23066922 - May 2020 (66
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi: Compose electronic music with code_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17632999 - July 2018 (61
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi: Compose electronic music with code_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17483234 - July 2018 (3
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi - The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16888550 - April 2018 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _Sam Aaron, Joe Armstrong - Keynote: Distributed Jamming with
       | Sonic Pi and Erlang_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13036095 - Nov 2016 (4
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Aerodynamic by Daft-Punk in 100 lines of code with Sonic Pi_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11033953 - Feb 2016 (69
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi: Make Music Using Ruby_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8825017 - Jan 2015 (10
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Sonic Pi - A Music Live Coding Environment for Schools_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8344827 - Sept 2014 (28
       | comments)
        
       | rwhaling wrote:
       | I think I shared this last time Sonic Pi got posted here, but
       | Sonic Pi is also extremely flexible when you bus the MIDI output
       | to other tools - Ableton, external synthesizers, etc. I posted a
       | clip on IG a while back -
       | 
       | https://www.instagram.com/p/CKKvWP6h3xQ/
       | 
       | And I've also seen it play well with ORCA and other livecoding
       | tools:
       | 
       | https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca
        
       | eggy wrote:
       | Sonic Pi is very accessible and a great front end for
       | SuperCollider and livecoding music in general.
       | 
       | Some others worth trying depending on your personal choice and
       | bias for a particular PL:
       | 
       | Euterpea - Haskell library for music creation [0].
       | 
       | Extempore - Scheme-based livecoding environment with a low-level
       | language too - xtlang [1].
       | 
       | Grace (Common Music) - Scheme-based livecoding with crossplatform
       | IDE [2].
       | 
       | Sporth (used by AudioKit) - Forth-based, low-level livecoding of
       | music.
       | 
       | I think Grace is probably the most self-contained. The single
       | executable for Linux, Mac, and Windows comes with samples and a
       | choice of a scheme-based language, or a more simplified, more
       | Algol-like one called SAL.
       | 
       | I like extempore because of its CAAS (compiler as a service)
       | model, scheme language, and the ability to create from the note
       | up, or to create sounds from scratch (sine waves and such).
       | 
       | I splurged for the Haskell School of Music book based on the
       | Euterpea library that was originally written by Paul Hudak, but
       | finished by one of his students, Donya Quick. This is how I
       | originally learned Haskell, and it was a lot of fun and
       | educational to boot.                 [0]
       | https://www.euterpea.com/            [1]
       | https://extemporelang.github.io/            [2]
       | http://commonmusic.sourceforge.net/            [3]
       | https://pbat.ch/proj/sporth.html
        
         | zebproj wrote:
         | I appreciate the shoutout to Sporth! Admittedly, I haven't used
         | it for quite a few years. But it still works just fine.
         | 
         | In addition to being a part of AudioKit, it also has it's own
         | repository as a self-contained command line program:
         | 
         | https://github.com/PaulBatchelor/Sporth/
         | 
         | I used to use a live-coding setup with Sporth centered around
         | Vim, though it has never been added to the codebase. If anyone
         | is interested in this, please feel free to email me at
         | thisispaulbatchelor at gmail dot com.
        
       | BuboBubo wrote:
       | Another excellent Haskell based live-coding tool:
       | https://tidalcycles.org/
       | 
       | Even if you don't know Haskell, it is a delight to improvise
       | electronic music with this library. It comes with its own mini-
       | language for dealing with musical patterns and can synchronize
       | with any instrument. Very extensible, the backend uses
       | https://github.com/musikinformatik/SuperDirt, a SuperCollider
       | extension for dealing with synths / samples / effects.
        
         | inciampati wrote:
         | I'm taking the recent 8-week course now. Highly recommended.
         | https://club.tidalcycles.org/t/weeks-1-4-index/395
        
       | trollied wrote:
       | Check out the Awesome Livecoding list for similar things:
       | https://github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding/blob/master/REA...
       | 
       | Also, Algorave for live performances: https://algorave.com/
        
         | hangtwenty wrote:
         | Yes And! https://github.com/terkelg/awesome-creative-coding
        
       | voigt wrote:
       | I like the idea of sonic-pi and think its very well designed.
       | 
       | What I would like to see is a "multi-player" mode, where I can
       | collaboratively code on the same session.
       | 
       | Is there anything that would enable this with sonic-pi?
        
         | opminion wrote:
         | Version 4, currently in beta, will allow sharing the beat
         | within a local network, facilitating classroom jam sessions.
        
         | depingus wrote:
         | Not specifically for Sonic-Pi, but Troop lets you do it for
         | FoxDot and some others.
         | 
         | https://github.com/qirky/Troop
        
       | xor99 wrote:
       | Sonic Pi is great but I think some more accessible resources for
       | SuperCollider get passed over. See
       | https://github.com/brunoruviaro/A_Gentle_Introduction_To_Sup...
        
       | the-dude wrote:
       | Covered multiple times over the last 5? years :
       | https://hn.algolia.com/?q=sonic+pi with decent comment threads.
        
         | yitchelle wrote:
         | Kinda shows the interest in this subject is not ramping down.
        
       | queuebert wrote:
       | Imagine having a huge, open-source library of instruments and
       | clips for Sonic Pi. Like scipy but for music.
       | 
       | I've never understood how DAW makers have made so much money off
       | of the FFT plus a MIDI envelope.
        
         | ta988 wrote:
         | There is a bit more to DAW than just that. You need a highly
         | stable and performant piece of software that accomodates all
         | kind of plugins and hardware. Look at the Ardour source code.
         | They have done an incredible job with it.
        
       | lo0pback wrote:
       | I just finished my first sonic piece after watching a ton of
       | tutorials and seeing examples last week.
       | https://gist.github.com/pgagnidze/fd01ddb9332c336d7e853f1215...
       | 
       | I had sonic-pi bookmarked/planned for more than 5 years. It is
       | sad how most bookmarked items never get viewed or they are
       | postponed to eternity.
        
         | keeganj wrote:
         | Sounds great! I just started working through their tutorial
         | this weekend too and hope to be able to make something like
         | this soon.
        
         | psychomugs wrote:
         | I also have a bunch of 'things' that have been bookmarked for
         | years: mostly movies and articles, some projects. This
         | stockpiling has become tsundoku for more than books [1].
         | 
         | On one hand, divorcing myself from the initial impulse to
         | consume or create something helps filter down to what I am and
         | will be truly interested in. On the obvious other hand, the
         | backlog grows to the point where I get paralyzed by so many
         | options and the perfect ideas in my head that I end up not
         | doing anything.
         | 
         | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku
        
           | lo0pback wrote:
           | I struggle with the same, and I have exactly the same thought
           | process.
           | 
           | Occasionally, I have a filtering session when I am going
           | through everything and narrowing them down, however extra
           | items are appearing until the next filtering session and the
           | same goes again. It is a vicious cycle.
        
         | yardshop wrote:
         | Bookmarks are a form of technical debt!!
        
         | runevault wrote:
         | Did you save off your links for the tutorials you watched etc?
         | I've messed with SP in the past but never got comfortable with
         | it so additional tutorials would be rad.
        
           | lo0pback wrote:
           | I watched a few talks from Sam Aaron, you can find a ton of
           | them.
           | 
           | I would recommend this playlist to get started: https://www.y
           | outube.com/watch?v=4BPKaHV7Q5U&list=PLaitaNxyd8...
           | 
           | and the help > tutorial section of sonic itself.
           | 
           | Those two are just amazing: https://youtu.be/a1RxpJkvqpY,
           | https://youtu.be/GPan4gRSwZs
        
       | scns wrote:
       | Played with with it when i got my first Raspberry, it was fun.
       | There is a Vim plugin with which you get a kind of sonic-pi REPL
       | [0], there is a newer one for Neovim too [1].
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/dermusikman/sonicpi.vim
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/lilyinstarlight/vim-sonic-pi
        
       | nmstoker wrote:
       | It's worth checking out the live sessions by Sam Aaron - plenty
       | of videos on his YouTube channel. He gives an introductory talk
       | about it here: https://youtu.be/TK1mBqKvIyU
        
       | failrate wrote:
       | I've used SonicPi on my old laptop for quite a while. It is quite
       | enjoyable to just sit down and jam with it.
        
       | huskyr wrote:
       | Sonic Pi is awesome. I can highly recommend Mercury as well for
       | live coding music: https://github.com/tmhglnd/mercury
        
       | iamcreasy wrote:
       | Anybody knows any resource to learn music theory using tools like
       | this?
        
         | Synaesthesia wrote:
         | Youre better off drawing a piano keyboard or playing with one
         | to learn music theory IMO.
        
       | tailspin2019 wrote:
       | This looks rather interesting.
       | 
       | Haven't checked it out yet but the README alone is well written
       | and quite compelling. (Maybe I'm just a sucker for ASCII art...)
        
       | eythian wrote:
       | A project in a similar domain: https://supercollider.github.io/
        
         | beepbooptheory wrote:
         | there is a lot more friction in understanding sclang, but the
         | server here is the same (scsynth/supernova), and to me, Sclang
         | is really one of the most beautiful things to work with. Wish I
         | could get paid to work with it
        
         | spdegabrielle wrote:
         | Fun fact: Sonic pi uses supercollider!
         | 
         | https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi/blob/main/SYNTH_DES...
        
       | schaefer wrote:
       | Does anyone know of a way to achieve a livecoding music workflow
       | with VCV rack?
        
       | Tjanovsky wrote:
       | Also, check out https://github.com/Qirky/FoxDot It is more
       | userfriendly layer above SuperCollider, coding is in python.
        
       | intrasight wrote:
       | I went looking for some music samples done with Sonic PI but
       | couldn't find any. Does anyone know of some?
        
       | cutler wrote:
       | For Clojure lovers there's Overtone
       | (https://github.com/overtone/overtone), also created by Sam
       | Aaron. Not sure if it's still maintained, however.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-23 23:01 UTC)