Live Coding tools on Debian

How to install, setup and play

by: Joenio Marques da Costa
and Mari Moura

Joenio Marques da Costa

http://joenio.me/about

from Brazil living in France

Mari Moura

http://marimoura.4two.art

from Brazil living in France

Schedule

• Live coding introduction
• Tools and languages
• Install and setup Sonic Pi
• Live coding practice 🎧

Live coding is a new direction in electronic music and video: live coders expose and rewire the innards of software while it generates improvised music and/or visuals.

toplap.org

TOPLAP has been collectively developing, exploring and promoting live coding since it was formed in a smoky bar in Hamburg in 2004.

algorave.com

Algorave is made from “sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive conditionals”.

Tools and languages

SuperCollider
supercollider.github.io

SuperCollider is an audio server, programming language, and IDE for sound synthesis and algorithmic composition.

Sonic Pi
sonic-pi.net

The Live Coding music synth for everyone, Sonic Pi has a Ruby-like syntax.

JACK
jackaudio.org

JACK is a professional sound server and pair of daemons to provide real-time, low-latency connections for audio and MIDI data.

PipeWire
pipewire.org

PipeWire improve handling of audio and video under Linux that can be used to support the use cases currently handled by both pulseaudio and JACK.

How to install and setup

Sonic Pi

Install Sonic Pi

Debian:

sudo apt install sonic-pi

Windows or Mac:

Download from http://sonic-pi.net

Key concepts

Sample vs Synthesizer

Sample

water-to-glass.wav

Synthesizer

Pitfall! - Atari 2600

Let’s Start

🎧

Sonic Pi language

Sample vs Synthesizer

Sample

sample :drum_cowbell

Synthesizer

play 60

Sonic Pi functions

Sample, Play and Sleep

sample :drum_cowbell
sleep 0.5
play 60
sleep 0.5
sample :drum_cowbell
sleep 0.5
play 60
sleep 0.5
sample :drum_cowbell

Sonic Pi functions

Live Loop

live_loop :myloop do
  sample :drum_cowbell
  sleep 0.5
  play 60
  sleep 0.5
end

Sonic Pi function parameters

Parameter ‘rate’

live_loop :myloop do
  sample :drum_cowbell, rate: 0.5
  sleep 0.5
  play 60
  sleep 0.5
end

• Default rate is 1
• Must not be 0 (zero)

Comments

live_loop :myloop do
  #sample :drum_cowbell, rate: 0.5
  sample :drum_cowbell, rate: 0.2
  sleep 0.5
  #play 60
  play 120
  sleep 0.5
end

• Lines starting by # are not executed

Sonic Pi function parameters

Parameter ‘amp’ (Amplitude)

sample :drum_cowbell, amp: 0.5
sleep 0.5
play 60, amp: 0.5
sleep 0.5

• amp = 0.5 means volume = 50%
• Recommended values: 0 to 1

Sonic Pi function parameters

Parameter ‘pan’ (Panning)

sample :drum_cowbell, pan: -1
sleep 0.5
play 60, pan: 1
sleep 0.5

• Value -1 means 100% on the left side
• Value 1 means 100% on the right side
• Possible values between -1 to 1

Sonic Pi function parameters

Selecting the synthesizer

use_synth :saw
play 60

Challenge!

Create 2 live loops, each one with a different synthesizer, playing alternately.

🧗

Sonic Pi language

Lists and the choose function

loop do
  play choose([60, 65, 72])
  sleep 1
end

Sonic Pi language

Other loop functions

3.times do
  play 60
  sleep 1
end

loop do
  play 60
  sleep 1
end

How to add custom sample files

How to record a Sonic Pi session

Sonic Pi alternatives

• ChucK
• FoxDot
• Gibber
• ORCΛ
• Pure Data
• Tidal Cycles

See also: github.com/toplap/awesome-livecoding

Live coding videos and documentaries

• on-the-fly.documentary (2022)
• Eulerroom Equinox TOPLAP Community (2020)
• Algorave Generation Resident Advisor (2019)
• Live-Coding programming masterly music (2018)
• Algorave: algorithmic dance culture (2017)