Live coding

sigint · 2022-08-09T18:34:31.753Z

I’ve done a ton of ChucK in the past, but it’s been awhile - and made a lot of very interesting ‘designer’ samples that I later integrated into tracks.

I’m also a computer scientist / software dev by profession… and for me, after evaluating a lot of things already mentioned (including Supercollider, Sonic Pi, and PureData), in addition to trying and buying a couple of commercial options (NI Reaktor and Max/MSP) I ended up going with a full license to Max – if I hadn’t I’d have probably gone to PureData. PureData (Pd) is very similar to Max and is free (Pd is an evolution of Max by Miller S Puckette, Max/MSP’s original designer.)

The reason I went with Max/MSP is that I’m already “all in” on Ableton Live Suite and it integrates into that environment so well. Your goals sound different, but Pd might be of interest at least to watch a video or two about it to see if it is

lowph · 2022-08-09T18:44:36.569Z

Oh yeah, Pd is great! I did a couple things in Pd years ago and it was fun, but the patches/programs got super messy as they grew! I remember implementing a weird reverb algorithm and it got massive. Maybe there’s a way to make it more modular, with code/program/patch reuse or inheritance, rather than having a big screen of boxes and lines that’s impossible to follow, but I never got that advanced in Pd. It’s super fun and powerful though.

I think I prefer code rather than the visual interface — it’s easier to organize for me. I also work in software development, so I’m always down to check out new language.

Dymaxion · 2022-08-10T07:26:11.860Z

Windows, but this was also when I had the Arturia Audiofuse where the windows drivers are incredibly busted.

tinara · 2022-08-10T10:53:35.496Z

Pd allows abstraction and sub-program to reduce the visual clutter and also you can use the catch/receive/send blocks.

joanq · 2022-08-10T12:46:07.914Z

I think that pd or Max are in the same group as the grid in Bitwig: they are fantastic sound design environments, but not the kind of live programming using code I am curious about.

door · 2022-08-10T13:02:14.769Z

i started out in sonic pi, really approachable, sweet thing to get your feet wet, very fine documentation, all in all a commendable project!

got into tidalcycles after that, IT friend gave me a 3h introduction to haskell during lockdown, took the tidalcycles course by Alex McLean that i highly recommend checking out, and am coding in tidal ever since — as many here have said already, working rhythms with it is a total blast!

here‘s the first finished all tidalcycles track i made back then:

https://m.soundcloud.com/dtlvdoom/kontaktperson

i would love to try orca next, but there‘s not too much (like…2?) tutorials to be found and i do totally suck at coding in general

https://100r.co/site/orca.html

joanq · 2022-08-10T13:05:21.602Z

In fact, I’m following this course. It seems like the best Tidal Cycles documentation available right now.

You are right, the documentation in Sonic Pi is delicious.

igtheflig · 2022-08-10T13:09:12.523Z

waftlord:

Haskell is pretty accessible.

I had to quote this, just because I have never ever heard it called that before

waftlord · 2022-08-10T13:20:16.676Z

haha. well in the context of tidal i found it accessible.

natehorn · 2022-08-10T13:23:23.939Z

Functional programming, so accessible that even programmers consider it nerdy and weird

Confession: I like some functional techniques so much I use them in OOP languages

igtheflig · 2022-08-10T13:34:28.805Z

I have given lectures for John Hughe’s Masters In Functional Programing at Chalmers (you know, this John Hughes Why Functional Programming Matters)

This is just a brag I was going to tie it to the discussion on Haskell, but, what can I say, 3 guest lectures to that class, plus a faculty invited talk, and I still can’t tell you how a monod is like burrito

EDIT: AS to the OP. SonicPi is very good, and the project founder is very clever about what he has included, how, and why (teaching/learning is his goal as much as music!) Also, it uses Erlang (to one up the TidalCycles weird FP angle.) If live coding is what you really want, then I think SonicPi is a great starter. As with all things, pick one tool, go deep and learn. If it is just programming (not LIVE) then I reckon SuperCollider or one of the visuals (Max or PuredData).

natehorn · 2022-08-10T13:36:02.831Z

nerd

tinara · 2022-08-10T14:09:07.180Z

Actually as much as SonicPi is a bastard DSL from Ruby, TidalCycles is an excellent DSL from Haskell. Besides functional programming yadi yada, the design make sense for basic interaction and patterns imho. (I also program but on the data analytics side so my code already looks like crap ). I am in love of the Pure Data interface, came from old-school to hipster style. I could have a laptop only running that working in a coffeeshop .

lowph · 2022-08-10T15:10:14.216Z

I use a lot of the functional tools available in python, like map(), reduce(), filter(), lambdas, list comprehensions, etc. But programming in a purely functional language is another world. I took a functional programming course for fun once and they used mostly Haskell and some Lisp and Scheme to teach the concepts – I followed the course and had fun, but afterwards I didn’t find myself reaching for Haskell to get work done! I think it did broaden my appreciation for functional tools in non-functional languages.

I also noticed there was a cult-like following of purely functional programming, among people in that sphere – which kind of makes sense because to outsiders it seems mysterious and almost impenetrable

natehorn · 2022-08-10T15:21:04.870Z

I dabbled with Elixir which I got on with very well. It’s a really nicely designed language.

Jalex · 2022-08-10T15:33:57.048Z

I am not a programmer at all, but tidal cycles have opened the doors of live code for me personally. The structure of Haskell reminds me of algebra from the school days. for a year and a half I have been studying tidal cycles and my hands are still shaking with delight.

sonic pi, it’s still for users that they know how and know what programming is. in my opinion there is a lot of superfluous in it, which is confusing in comparison with tidal cycles

lowph · 2022-08-10T17:07:22.972Z

I wonder if Haskell is easier for non-programmers!

I know that tidal cycles isn’t full-blown Haskell, but it’s still a Haskell DSL. I’m wondering if people who come from procedural programming or other non-functional paradigms have a harder time with languages like Haskell. Maybe programmers are set in their ways in a sense. Just a thought.

Either way, I think the functional paradigm makes total sense for audio/music, like tidal cycles.

license · 2022-08-10T20:48:10.442Z

As long as we’re geeking out about language features, SuperCollider’s multichannel expansion and adverbs are pretty awesome ways of playing with arrays that I haven’t seen anywhere else. It makes messing with polyphony and multichannel audio pretty fun.

rtme · 2022-08-10T21:45:21.508Z

I did not know the term “Live coding” and that this is “a thing”, so on this forum you learn every day.

The Wikipedia article was very helpful BTW

Jalex · 2025-09-15T15:14:45.816Z

github.com

GitHub - schollz/collidertracker: A terminal-based music tracker that uses...

A terminal-based music tracker that uses SuperCollider for synthesis and sample playback.