Sonic Pi: The Free Tool That Turns Code into Live Music
Sonic Pi is a free, code-based music creation and performance tool designed for everyone—from professional musicians and DJs to students and blind or partially sighted users. It turns your computer into a fully networked live coding studio with multi-channel audio, well-timed MIDI and OSC I/O, and Ableton's Link metronome built in. Created by Sam Aaron and the Sonic Pi Core Team, it includes a friendly tutorial, a free book, and a scheme of work for UK KS3 Computing. It's been used in classrooms, on stage at Moogfest, and even aboard the International Space Station.
Sonic Pi lowers the barrier to entry for a creative experience with code.
- jyrkesh
First few lines of the tutorial linked above the fold:
> Welcome to Sonic Pi. Hopefully you’re as excited to get started making your own sounds as I am to show you. It’s going to be a really fun ride where you’ll learn all about music, synthesis, programming, composition, performance and more.
> But wait, how rude of me! Let me introduce myself - I’m Sam Aaron - the chap that created Sonic Pi. You can find me at @samaaron on Twitter and I’d be more than happy to say hello to you. You might also be interested in finding out more about my Live Coding Performances where I code with Sonic Pi live in front of audiences.
> If you have any thoughts, or ideas for improving Sonic Pi - please pass them on - feedback is so helpful. You never know, your idea might be the next big feature!
In an older age, I might have thought this overly flowery or indulgent, but it's SO refreshing to see technical prose that's so clearly written by a real human with an individualized voice, tone, writing style, etc. I'm by no means anti-LLM, but I'm becoming incredibly fatigued at seeing the same style of marketing speak as the intro text to nearly all the new software I come across. Kudos to being a human and injecting your voice into an increasingly impersonal space.
The rest of the tutorial that I read below that doesn't disappoint, I intend to run through it despite my not so Copious Spare Time. I've really been looking to get into programmed music and this seems as good as a time and tool as any. […]
- mellosouls
One notable user of Sonic Pi is DJ Dave who streams her live coding now and then.
Short example (I don't know if she's using pi/strudel/whatever here but you get the idea):
- lawik
Love Sonic Pi. I can't make music but watching someone who can is fantastic. We had Sam (the creator of Sonic Pi) on stage at Goatmire Elixir and it was glorious. This year he comes back with a free 4 hour workshop, a talk and a DJ set at the end. It is going to be a blast.
Can't wait to hear his stuff in a venue where people are actually primed to move. Something very satisfying about code turning into music live.
- dirkk0
I didn't look at it for a long time, and now I see that there is even a web version (which is probably not in sync with the main one): https://github.com/MrityunjayBhardwaj/SonicWeb
- Tbarlow
Sonic Pi is fantastic for live coding sessions. Used it once for a small demo, really intuitive and fun to noodle with.