28th Jan, 2021 (view commits):
Ten months of development, over 700 individual commits, loving contributions from many many people have gone into this new version of Sonic Pi. This release is also the result of a 3 month long community beta process which took place over on Patreon where supporters got access to early releases and really helped polish and shape development. Huge thanks to everyone that has supported continued development. Weâre really excited and proud to share this new release with you all.
In terms of significant changes, there have been many internal improvements, including a full rewrite of our MIDI subsystem. This shouldnât result in much change as a user (although some MIDI cue names might have changed slightly) but it really sets us up for some exciting developments in the future. Weâre essentially moving much more of the core input/output functionality of Sonic Pi into a special system called the BEAM and a language called Erlang. This is a system that has a strong emphasis on low latency, low jitter and high concurrency which is exactly what the IO of a music system requires! Weâre so excited to see what weâll be able to achieve with this new approach that the BEAM features as the codename of this release.
Another area that has seen a lot of love and attention is our strong focus on accessibility. We now have a much improved menu bar which essentially duplicates much of the functionality found in the preferences but in a format thatâs extremely easy to work with via a screen reader. Weâve also added a new context pane that displays the current line and character position as a direct result of a collaboration with Leiden Universityâs accessibility group. There have already been numerous studies that are reporting success for blind and low-vision users of Sonic Pi - so weâre confident weâre on the right track with respect to accessibility. Weâre also not stopping here and are always looking for ways to lower the many barriers to entry for creative experiences with code for everyone.
This is also the first release where we officially welcome Chris Maughan as the latest member of the Sonic Pi core team. Chris has made significant contributions over the last year including improvements to the scope and a complete reworking of our build process. I hope you join us in welcoming Chris to the team.
Finally, we have official support for macOS Big Sur, some lovely new synths and FX, improved translations, support for advanced configuration (audio and colour theming), new Turkish scales and many, many bug fixes and improvements.
We really hope you love this version of Sonic Pi as much as we do.
Happy Live Coding!
sync and get will have to be updated accordingly.use/with_random_source - change the current random stream used when selecting random values. We now have :white, :light_pink, :pink, :dark_pink and :perlin. Default is :white which is the same stream as previous releases to preserve compatibility.~/.sonic-pi/config/README.md for more information.:rodeo - emulating an electric piano.:kalimba - an African thumb piano.:autotuner FX opts note: and formant_ratio:.mix, pre_mix and pre_amp opts are now affected by slide:.play and sample on the same line such as play sample :loop_amen is now an error with an appropriately helpful description to explain that play should be removed.pulse_width_curve: and pulse_width_slide: opts which were incorrectly swapped on pulse, subpulse and dpulse synths.- symbols in their paths.use_merged_synth_defaults after a call to use_synth_defaults. This bug was triggered in the âSonic Dreamsâ example which now plays through correctly again..take_last to no longer return nil for min and max of the range.line fn. Now should always return rings of the correct length.5th April, 2020 (view commits):
This is a minor bugfix and maintenance release.
3rd April, 2020 (view commits):
This release is another maintenance release with a primary focus on increasing stability and reliability. There are therefore no major new features, but instead there are significant improvements to the internals and the packaging of the Windows installer.
Whilst there are no major new features, we have still been working hard engaging with users with accessibility requirements. We have added a number of modifications to the GUI to improve keyboard navigation which should improve things for users that do not use a mouse (for example, users working with a screen reader). As mentioned in the previous release, we will continue to work to improve accessibility support wherever possible in each release.
One core internal focus has been improving memory utilisation of the app. A number of memory leaks have been hunted down and fixed. A memory leak is where the application requests increasingly more memory from the computer and never gives it back. Over time this means that the app would waste a lot of the system memory. This might have not been too noticeable using Sonic Pi on modern computers that typically have incredibly large amounts of memory. However, it was noticeable and problematic on low-powered systems with limited memory capacity. Sonic Pi now uses a lot less memory and after a warm-up period, the memory usage stays much more constant than before. We will continue to look for and fix memory leaks going forward.
Finally, this release is the first to ship with a fully signed Windows installer. This is a major milestone as we now ship with signed versions for both macOS and Windows which should help more users and organisations (especially schools) trust the installation and running of Sonic Pi.
Now, go and get live coding!
ping_pong FX now merges the dry sound with the result of the
echo to match the behaviour of echo.piano synth had its default amplitude
accidentally altered when being updated to work with arbitrary
frequencies. This has been restored.New shortcuts and menu items for explicitly placing focus on specific areas of the app. This is primarily intended to improve accessibility for screen readers or those not using a mouse or trackpad. The new shortcuts are:
Control-shift-e - move focus to editorControl-shift-l - move focus to logsControl-shift-c - move focus to cuesControl-shift-p - move focus to preferencesControl-shift-h - move focus to help listing (e.g. the list of available help section)Control-shift-d - move focus to help details (e.g. the contents of the chosen help section)Control-shift-w - move focus to syntax/runtime error warningsControl-g.28th Feb, 2020 (view commits):
After a long 2 years without updates, we are threaded with excitement to bring you Sonic Piâs first fully independent release. Sam Aaronâs work on this release has been 100% supported by kind and generous donations from people on Patreon in addition to funds raised by delivering talks, workshops and performances. Samâs work has also been hugely assisted by many wonderful code and translation contributions both by members of the Core Team and by our growing international community of live coders. This release has truly been a community effort.
So, whatâs new? This time there are no radical new features, instead we have a much more polished, accessible and stable version than ever before. (This release has been heavily battle-tested in many performances worldwide).
This release is codenamed Tau - (an improved Pi).
One of the core focusses of this release is accessibility. Tau introduces support for screen readers. Previously the code editor was invisible to the main screen readers on both macOS and Windows and this is now fixed. There is also an accessible menu bar and a new high contrast colour theme which is WCAG 2 level AAA compliant. Accessibility is very important to us - we acknowledge that this is only the beginning and we value and encourage feedback from users who have specific accessibility requirements that we are not directly meeting. We plan to improve our accessibility support where possible in every release going forward.
Another aspect of accessibility is support for Windows devices with high resolution displays. Previously on certain displays font and icon sizes could be far too small, unreadable and out of proportion with the app in general. This has all been addressed with significant work on ensuring Sonic Pi looks great on a variety of monitors on both Windows and macOS. We believe that this release looks better and is more usable than any previous release.
Tau features two beautiful new audio visualiser scopes - a spectrum scope showing the frequency content of the audio and a beautiful mirror stereo scope. These scopes have been contributed by Chris Maughan who has also been pivotal in improving and simplying the Windows build process. We are hugely grateful for his contributions - thanks Chris!
We have two fabulous new FX - a ping pong delay contributed by Ethan Crawford and an autotuner contributed by Xavier Riley. We hope you have as much fun playing with these as we have.
Finally, this release has seen a significant improvement in translation coverage - both of the GUI and the tutorial. We truly believe that this helps us achieve our mission of lowering the barrier to entry for a creative experience with code by helping more non-English speakers start their live coding journeys.
Now, go and make some noise with code!
spread now produces identical patterns as in the
Toussaint paper.
Previously, some of the patterns had been shifted. Use the rotate: opt to
match prior behaviour if required.: separators to match the new OSC cue format.osc fn now forces all outgoing args to either be numbers or
strings (binary blobs and timestamps are not supported at this
point). If the value is neither a number or string, it is âinspectedâ
and the resulting description string is sent instead.:flanger FXâs feedback: opt to range 0->1. Values greater than 1 had the effect of increasing the amplitude which should be achieved via the amp: opt.sampleâs hpf: opt which now ensures the value is not higher than 119 as values higher than this can cause bad noise artefacts.sampleâs start:/finish:/onset:/slice: opt semantics. The start: and finish: opts for sample now work within the specified slice or onset. This allows you to easily play, say the first half of a given slice or onset by specifying a start: of 0 and a finish: of 0.5. Where both the slice: and onset: opts are specified, then the slice operates within the onset. Where the slice:, onset: and start:/finish: opts are all used, the start/finish operate within the slice which in turn operates within the onset. See the updated sample examples for more information.eval_file evaluates the contents of the specified file inline in the
current thread as if it was a function.midi_sysex for sending MIDI sysex messages..notes which takes a ring of values and returns a
new ring with each element treated as a note. This will leave numbers
unchanged but will turn note names like :C1 to their corresponding
MIDI note.ping_pong - delayed echo alternating between left and right channels.autotuner - Autotune/phase vocoder effect.gverb FX now checks to ensure that the room: opt is greater than or equal to 1.piano synth now supports fractional notes such as 70.3.tick and .look on a normal array such as [1, 2, 3] will
now automatically convert it to a ring first.set fn.rrand(:e1, :e2) will
return a random frequency between E octave 1 and 2..flac
and .ogg format in addition to arbitrary sample rates such as 48khz.:tb303 synth and possibly others. All synths should
sound and behave as they did in v3.0.1.with_sched_ahead_time now correctly sets the schedule ahead time
before running the block and returns the result of the
block itselfuse_real_time).set and cue no longer print duplicate messages which was possible
in some cases.time_warp examples which were incorrect and misleading.offset: opt for with_swing now matches documented behaviour.sample_duration to scale correctly.on: opt when playing chords to work similarly across all
notes in a given chord.defonce from being executed multiple times.take on an empty ring no longer results in infinite
recursion but instead returns an empty ring.23rd Jan, 2018 (view commits):
The major feature of this release is that it brings v3 functionality to
Windows. Windows now supports all the good stuff listed alongside
v3.0.x including live_audio, midi, osc and much more. See
v3.0.1 and v3.0.0 release notes below for more infomation.
Of course, no new release comes without new features, and there are a
number of additions and improvements on all levels. Firstly, we are
honoured to include a number of wonderful new samples kindly recorded
and released into the public domain by our friends Mehackit. If you
arenât already aware, Mehackit organise and run creative coding
workshops all around Finland and Europe and were a core part behind the
CodeBus Africa project which used Sonic Pi to engage almost 2000 African
students with creative code. Our favourite of these samples is the new
:ambi_sauna which has given us the name for this release.
We have added support for Ogg Vorbis encoded audio files .ogg and
.oga. These are lossy encoders similar to .MP3 but free from license
restrictions. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis
Another notable addition is the increase in translation coverage across a number of languages. If you still feel the translation for your language could be improved, please do consider joining in the crowd-sourced effort here: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/sonic-pi/
We have also included some styling tweaks to the GUI - to make it look even cleaner and also work better when projecting code with visuals underneath.
Finally, this release also gives me the opportunity to welcome Ethan Crawford to the Core Team. He has been a prolific contributor to the project over the years and his keen eye for detail has helped polish Sonic Pi from the rough stone it once was to the shining gem it is today.
Have fun and enjoy the new features - especially you lovely Windows users!
chip_noise now has standard default envelope opts (sustain: and release: are now 0 and 1 respectively (as opposed to 1 and 0))set_audio_latency! Apply positive or negative timing offset for audio events to allow for any timing differences between OSC/MIDI events caused by external latencies (such as wireless speakers).midi_pc for sending MIDI Program Change messages.ogg and .oga.glitch_ sample group containing sounds with a glitchy texture.mehackit_ sample group with sounds of old toys:perc_bell2, :perc_door, :perc_impact1, :perc_impact2, :perc_swoosh, :ambi_sauna, :bd_mehackit, :sn_generic, :loop_3d_printer, :loop_drone_g_97, :loop_electric, :loop_mehackit1, :loop_mehackit2, :loop_perc1, :loop_perc2, :loop_weirdo,28th July, 2017 (view commits):
This is a minor release addressing a few bugs and includes a small number of modifications.
18th July, 2017 (view commits):
This release is our most ambitious to date. The goal is to open up the code within Sonic Pi to the outside world. We want you to be able to both manipulate the real world to change the code and change the real world with the code. Input Output. IO.
We have therefore focussed on getting events and audio in and out of Sonic Pi in new ways whilst keeping to our philosophy of simple code, live manipulation, and strict, powerful timing. This release introduces a number of brand-new components:
Itâs important to mention that MIDI and OSC output functionality is possible due to a new well-timed scheduler. This was built in a remarkable programming language called Erlang which is now part of the Sonic Pi distribution. We have had the great honour of one of Erlangâs co-creators, Joe Armstrong working directly with us on the implementation of this scheduler and we look forward immensely to continuing to work with him on new functionality.
Another very important part of this release is the addition of Robin Newman to the core team. We have always been consistently impressed with his fearless and experimental attitude - pushing Sonic Pi into new areas with ease. Weâre excited that heâs decided to join our core team and hope youâre as excited by his future work with us as we are.
Finally, weâre really very excited about what new kinds of instruments people will be able to create with this new technology both in the classroom and on stage at musical festivals. Sonic Pi has now become a fully programmable music studio. Have fun live coding!
.pick now returns 1 element by default. Previously calling .pick on a ring would pick n elements randomly from the ring (including duplicate picks) where n would be the size of the ring. With this change, .pick only returns a single element. This makes it similar to choose.midi_* - many new MIDI-specific fns such as midi_note_on, midi_pitch_bend, midi_cc, midi_clock_tick. See new tutorial section for more information. These fns send MIDI messages to connected MIDI devices. Incoming MIDI is received via the new event log.with_swing - add swing to successive calls to do/end block.get - get a named value from the Time State at the current time. This will return the last value entered. Previous values can be read when within a time_warp. Has full support for OSCset - set a named value in the Time State at the current time. Future values can be set when within a time_warp.use_real_time - convenience fn for setting the schedule ahead time to 0 for the current thread. Very useful for removing latency from live loops that are working with external cues (such as MIDI or OSC).use_midi_defaults - set defaults to be used for all subsequent MIDI calls. Similar to use_synth_defaults. Also available: with_midi_defaults.
use_osc - set the default hostname and port number for subsequent outgoing OSC messages. See also with_osc.osc - send Open Sound Control messages in time with the music to default hostname and portosc_send - similar to osc but requires you to specify the hostname and portuse_sched_ahead_time - set the schedule ahead time specifically for the current thread. Also available - with_sched_ahead_time.current_time - return the current logical time.assert_error - An assertion to ensure the specified block of code raises the specified error.New synth live_audio - directly stream audio from your soundcard as a synth.
New FX record - enables you to internally record any audio into named buffers. Perfect for building looper systems.
:sound_out - stream out audio to a specific output on your sound card. This enables multi-channel audio out.:sound_out_stereo - similar to sound_out but streams out to a pair of consecutive audio card (left and right) output channels.eq - Parametric EQ with three centre freqs - low, mid & high - all with Q values and gain (-1 -> 1). Also has low and high shelves with centre freqs and slope adjustment.tremolo - simple tremolo effect which modulates the volume within the do/end block.sync, cue and get or settime_warp about input ranges. It now works similar to at in that it can now take two lists of args - times and values - which represent a list of time destinations to be visited in turn.range to work as expected with both floats and ints..scale which will return a new ring with all elements multiplied by the scale value.control now returns the node youâre controlling.:slicer, :wobble and :panslicer FX (i.e. via the probability: opt).chord_invert and sample to work with floating point args.16th Dec, 2016 (view commits)
This is primarily a maintainance release containing a number of bug
fixes and minor tweaks. The feature set remains unchanged from v2.11.
One of the core bugs fixed in this release is an issue with the return key within some Japanese layouts. Another important change is the unification of the font on all platforms to Hack. This is from the same family as Menlo and Bitstream Vera (the previous fonts for Mac and Linux respectively) and a dramatic improvement to the Courier font previously used for Windows.
chord_invertâs shift value is a whole number - otherwise it
is possible to get into an infinite recursion.clear. When a
run is created, the thread is given a set of default thread
locals. Previously clear removed all thread locals. Now, we reset
the thread locals to the defaults for a brand new thread.sync can once again handle multiple cues correctly.sample_duration now handles onsets, slices and sustain.control on a chord group.rand and rand_i to honour their arguments.3rd Nov, 2016 (view commits)
This release is the biggest and most adventurous release yet. There are as many (invisible) modifications and improvements to the internal systems as there are new external features that you can see and play with. The aim was to create a solid foundation for new and exciting features both in this release and in preparation for future releases.
We also open our arms to welcome two new Core Team members - Luis Lloret and Adrian Cheater. Both have made generous and substantial contributions to this release. Thank-you. Sadly we also say farewell to Jeremy Weatherford. Please extend your kind thoughts and gratitude to Jeremy for all of his contributions - in particular for turning the Windows release from a possibility into a reality. Luckily Luis has kindly stepped in to maintain the Windows installer.
The main visible feature is the new scope visualisers. The overall audio output can now be visually monitored by one of three wave form visualisers. Firstly there is the individual left and right channels, next is a single mono scope which is mixed down from the stereo channels using RMS and finally there is a Lissajous scope which displays phase differences between the left and right channels. Typically the mono output will be most useful. Use the preferences pane to hide and show each of these scopes. All of them may be viewed at the same time if necessary. Thanks to Adrian Cheater for the core work behind this feature.
We now have support for multi-channel input (up to 16 channels) via the
new sound_in* synths for systems that have audio in. This opens up the
possibility to use Sonic Pi as an FX unit for vocals, guitars and any
other audio source.
Another exciting new feature is the sample opt onset: - which lets you
play a specific percussive part of a sample. This uses an automatic
onset detection algorithm to determine all the points in the sample that
go from quiet to loud quickly such as a drum, synth or bass hit. For
example, this allows you to take a complex drum sample and trigger each
of the individual drums in your own order and to your own timing.
Finally, translations are now crowd-sourced and small or large
contributions for any language can be made here:
https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/sonic-pi/. If your language isnât
yet available or you would like to improve things, please join in the
effort. Thanks to Hanno Zulla for making this possible.
sample now supports the opt path: which enables the sampleâs path
to be overridden.use_sample_pack is now deprecated and no longer available. Consider
using the new filter system. See documentation for sample for more
details.current_sample_pack is now deprecated and no longer available.inspect has been removed. (Standard printing now calls
Object#inspect by default)load_sample now only loads the first matched sample. load_samples
now loads all matched samples.reboot is still supported and may
still be triggered manually if required.play, synth and sample now consume all their arguments
before testing to see if the synth should be triggered. This ensures
all declared rands are consumed. This change might therefore
potentially modify your random stream consumption. Consider using
rand_back or rand_skip to re-align the stream if necessary.reset - resets the userâs thread locals (such as ticks and rand
stream index) to the snapshot of the state as recorded at the start of
the current thread.clear - clears all the userâs thread locals to a blank state.time_warp- allows whole blocks of code to be shifted forward or
backwards in time up to the value of current_sched_ahead_time.rand_look - generate a random number without consuming a rand by
looking ahead in the random stream.rand_i_look - generate a random integer without consuming a rand by
looking ahead in the random stream.run_file - Runs the contents of file at path as if it was in the
current buffer.run_code - Runs the contents of the specified string as if it was in
the current buffer.Numeric#clamp - max and minimum bound (will clamp self to a value <=
other and >= -1*otherset_recording_bit_depth! - set the bit depth for WAV files generated
by recording the audio. Default is 16 bits, and can now be set to one
of 8, 16, 24 and 32. Larger bit depths will result in better quality
audio files but also much larger file sizes for the same duration.scsynth_info - obtain information about the running audio synthesis
server SuperCollider such as the number of available busses and
buffers.:tech_saws - an implementation of a slightly modified
supersaw.:sound_in - reads audio from the sound card.:sound_in_stereo - reads audio from the sound card.pre_mix: opt. This allows the audio flow to
completely bypass a given FX (unlike mix: which passes the audio
through the FX but modifies the amplitude afterwards).control to manipulate the last triggered synth by default. For
example, control amp: 3 will set the amp: opt of the last
triggered synth to 3. However, control foo, amp: 3 will still
specifically control synth foo.slice: - lets you play a specific slice of a sample. The
default number of slices is 16 which may be changed with the
num_slices: opt. Sample is divided equally into the number of slices
without regard for audio content and onset points. The slice: opt
also works with pick for triggering random sample slices: sample
:loop_amen, slice: pick.onset: - lets you play a specific percussive part of a
sample. Uses automatic onset detection to determine the points in the
sample that go from quiet to loud quickly. Unlike slice:, onset:
does not necessarily divide a sample into equal onsets - some onsets
will be smaller or bigger than others and the number of onsets is
determined by the algorithm and isnât known in advance.https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/sonic-pi/live_loop.pulse_width: opt to flanger FX doc.~/.sonic-pi/logplay_chord when notes isnât list like.pick now returns a lambda if no list is given as the first argument
(which makes it useful for using with sampleâs onset: and slice:
opts.buffer 0.:loop_tabla so that it correctly loops. (Length
reduced to 10.674 seconds).:reverb FXâs mix: opt to ensure itâs in the range 0 to 1.sample nil now no longer plays a sample - it was incorrectly
defaulting to the first built-in sample (:ambi_choir)pickâs skip: opt now works as expected: pick(5).drop(1) == pick(5, skip: 1)sample now prints a âno sample foundâ message with both sample nil and sample [] rather than incorrectly playing the first built-in wav file.:piano synth to notes less than 231 as higher values crash the audio server.Friday 15th April, 2016 (view commits)
âI gotta have more cowbell!â - The Bruce Dickinson
The main feature in this release is the completely new sample system for
working with large folders of samples. You can now easily index into and
filter over whole folders of samples with a simple yet powerful filter
system. This system has been in development for over a year now and has
been tuned and tweaked over many performances and practice sessions. See
the documentation and examples for sample as well as the new tutorial
section 3.7 for details.
We also have a number of exciting new sounds to play with including some beautifully sounding chiptune synths, fun retro FX and new drum samples including a full tabla set and a cowbell.
Finally, even more boot issues on both OS X and Windows have been fixed, making this the most polished and stable release to date.
Now go and get your live code on!
use_sample_pack_as and with_sample_pack_as have been removed.nil now no longer resolves to 0.0. Instead it
masks any defaults and ensures the downstream default (for the actual
synthdef itself) is honoured. This allows you to override any existing
synth defaults specified via use_synth_defaults for a given synth
trigger.current_random_seed - Get the current seed value of the random generator.set_cent_tuning! - global tuning.on - similar to if but behaves the same as the on: opt for
synths and samples.halves - create a ring of successive halves.doubles - create a ring of successive doubles.pick - similar to shuffle but allows duplicates. You may also
specify how many items to pick.fx_names - create a ring of all available FX.:dtri - detuned triangle waves.:pluck - a lovely synthesised plucked string.:chiplead - retro NES style lead synth.:chipbass - retro NES style bass synth.:chipnoise - retro NES style noise synth.:whammy - low-tech transposition effect similar to the
Digitech Whammy guitar pedal.:octaver - low-tech octave effect similar to early guitar
pedals.:vowel - modifies incoming signal to match human vowel
sounds.:mono - mono effect for summing stereo channels.:tanh FX is now more crunchy by default.:compressor and :krush FX now correctly honour the mix: opt.sample fn gained source and filter pre-opts. You may now specify
a number of parameters directly before the opts which describe both
folders containing samples and filters over those folders to allow you
to easily and quickly work with large sample sets. See Section 3.7 of
the tutorial for more information.hpf: and lpf: opts. Any cutoff: opts are
automatically switched to lpf: and any errors will be reported with
an lpf: prefix.compress:
opt. This means you can now compress any triggered sample directly
without the need to reach for an FX.pre_amp: opt which applies the amp at the
beginning of its internal signal chain. You can use this to overload
the new compressor.hpf_ and lpf_ prefix (such as
hpf_attack, lpf_decay_level and friends).load_samples will now load all the
samples within that directory.free_samples will now free all the
loaded samples within that directory.:tabla_ sample group with a range of tabla drum sounds.:vinyl_ sample group with a range of vinyl scratches and
hisses.:drum_cowbell, :drum_roll, :misc_crow,
:misc_cineboom, :perc_swash, :perc_till, :loop_safari,
:loop_tabla.C-k now nukes over trailing whitespace.load_sample now has sample autocompletion.RETURN now auto-indents the buffer - ensuring that the
cursor is moved to the correct indentation on the following line.sample fn have been completely rewritten and extended.scale and chord can now handle being passed no tonic such as:
(chord :minor) which will return a ring of offsets from 0.chord learned new variants: add2, add4, add9, add11,
add13, madd2, madd4, madd9, madd11, madd13.take method can now take more elements than the original
ring by wrapping around:
(ring 1, 2, 3).take(5) #=> (ring 1, 2, 3, 1, 2)(ring 1, 2, 3) + (ring 4) #=> (ring 1, 2, 3, 4)(ring 1, 2, 3) - 1 #=> (ring 0.0, 1.0, 2.0)(ring 1, 2, 3).take(0) will now return an empty ring.density now complains if it isnât passed a do/end block.use/with_synth when accidentally passed opts.C-i doc lookup shortcut to work with :tb303 synth docs.C-i now always displays docs where available (previously it was
possible for docs not to be displayed).Thursday 31st December, 2015 (view commits)
Hot on the heels of the previous release comes v2.9 codenamed
Venster (Dutch for window). This release has a specific focus on
fixing all the known issues with Sonic Pi running on Windows. If youâve
tried Sonic Pi on Windows before and had issues, make sure to try it
again with v2.9. If youâre still having issues on Windows please do
let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.
For all you Raspberry Pi and Mac OS X users - youâre not left out. Sonic
Pi is just as stable as it was before (if not more stable) and v2.9
comes with a surprising amount of tweaks and features for its short 1
month development cycle. Thereâs two new FX to play with: tanh and
gverb as well as a heavily revamped logging system which is much
clearer about printing which opts are actually being used for your
synths and samples. Finally, we now include of all the published MagPi
magazine articles in the tutorial. We also now have Hungarian and
Norwegian translations of the GUI.
Happy Live Coding!
invert_chord to chord_invertrate: and pitch_stretch: opts. Itâs now
possible to set the rate: independent of the pitch: modification
caused by pitch_stretch.block_duration - returns the duration of the given block in seconds (not scaled with the BPM).block_slept? - returns true if the contents of the block slept or synced.synth_names - returns a list of all the available synthsreset_mixer! - resets the main mixer back to its default values.sample_free - unload a sample from memory to free up memory usage.sample_free_all - unload all samples from memory.use_octave - similar to use_transpose but for whole octaves.with_octave - similar to with_transpose but for whole octaves.use_merged_sample_defaults - similar to use_merged_synth_defaults
but for sampleswith_merged_sample_defaults - similar to
with_merged_synth_defaults but for samplesuse_cent_tuning - uniformly tune all subsequent notes in centswith_cent_tuning - uniformly tune all notes in cents within the blocktanh - for more distortion goodness.gverb - a different reverb FX to play with.use_synth_defaults
and friends.C-k will now kill multiple lines if lines end with ,..txt extension is automatically added to the
file name if none specified.sync: opt to live_loop and in_thread. This now syncs the
live loop once on creation. Similar to the delay: opt. If both
sync: and delay: are specified then the delay happens before the
sync.synth fn can now play chords with the notes: opt such as:
synth :dsaw, notes: (chord :e3, :minor). This will return a single
controllable synth node representing all the notes similar to
play_chord.on: opt is now honoured when playing chords.with_fx "my_shiny_effect". This needs to be
loaded manually via load_synthdefs.~/.sonic-pi/init.rb on launch if it exists.SONIC_PI_HOME is set it will be used over
~ as the root of the userâs .sonic-pi directory (used to auto-save
files and store logs).sample_duration now correctly takes account of TL defaults set by
use_sample_defaults.pitch_stretch, beat_stretch and rpitch can now be
used in TL defaults.Friday 20th November, 2015 (view commits)
This release, named after Karlsruhe, one of the home cities of live coding, is mainly a maintenance release with a strong focus on both performance, stability and documentation. This is therefore the fastest and most stable release of Sonic Pi ever with a massive 10% performance improvement on the original Raspberry Pi 1. It also ships with new translations in Polish, Japanese and French. Many of these improvements (such as the complete rewrite of the OSC stack) are not documented in this release list but can instead be found in the commit logs over on Github.
However, not to go unnoticed are a number of exciting new features. For
example we now have a new Band EQ FX, the ability to use MIDI note names
such as :e5 as values for opts such as cutoff:, and new powerful
cutoff envelopes on the sampler.
M-{ and
M-} for switching left and right respectively.sync no longer inherits BPM by default. Set the bpm_sync: opt to
true to enable BPM inheritance.use_random_seed.octs - returns a ring of successive octaves.assert - for raising an exception if the argument is not true.assert_equal - for raising an exception if the two arguments are not
equal.bt - converts the specified time w.r.t. the current BPM.inspect - similar to print but prints the inspected version of the argument.M-RET is now a duplicate shortcut for running the code.sample_duration.cutoff_ prefix
(such as cutoff_attack, cutoff_decay_level and friends).cutoff opt.on: for both sample and synth. This acts like
if but ensures all the opt vals are evaluated (useful if wanting to
keep the consumption of random streams or ticks consistent even when
not triggering a synth.cutoff: can now accept note names such as :c4.slide: opt to match synths.play_pattern_timed to handle rings.current_transpose now returns 0 if there is no current
transposition.with_fx* fns now return the result of their block.spark now handles rings correctly.spark now treats booleans as 1s and 0s so you can now spark rings of bools.puts, print and mc_message now handle multiple message argumentswith_fx doesnât swallow TL modifications such as
transposition, current synth etc.with_fx doesnât affect random seed.pre_amp: opt is no longer scaled w.r.t. the current BPM.Thursday 10th September, 2015 (view commits)
This release brings a substantial change to the random number
generator. This has the unfortunate side effect of breaking backwards
compatibility. If you have been using rand, choose, shuffle and
friends to create predictable patterns for your riffs, your code will
produce different results in this release. Please let me apologise and
say itâs for a good cause. So what is this good cause? Well, you can
now jump backwards and forwards through the random stream giving you way
more creative control than before! The random stream is now also unified
with the random stream on the synthesis server allowing you to sync
behaviour between synths and code. Exciting times.
The sampler has also been super charged. We can now easily change the
rate via MIDI note intervals with rpitch: and stretch the sample whilst
preserving pitch via pitch_stretch: (although with variable results
;-)).
Finally you can now control the global mixer with set_mixer_control!
for those full filter sweeps over the entire soundâŠ
Have fun and happy live coding!
use_random_seed with randomisation to create
predictable melodies/rhythms/timbral manipulations you will
unfortunately get different results in v2.7. This change is to
synchronise both the Ruby rand stream with the one in SuperCollider as
well as enabling the reversal of calls to rand via rand_back.sync now causes the BPM to be inherited from the thread calling the
matching cue. This may be disabled with the new bpm_sync: opt.rrand and rand now return 0 if called with 0.invert_chord now handles negative inversions in a more musically
appropriate manner..ratio_to_pitch which provides the inverse of pitch_to_ratiomidi_notes - returns a ring of numbers (mapping the source
ring/array through the fn note).rand_back - reverse the random stream and âundoâ calls to randrand_skip - skip forward through the random stream.rand_reset- reset the random stream to the last seed.M-/.decay_level opt to allow the sustain phase to
shift between two distinct values. The default value for decay_level
is to mirror sustain_level: thus preserving current behaviour.play and synth have now learned the pitch: opt to match
sample. This just increments or decrements the final note.sample now correctly validates opts.sample learned the pitch_stretch: opt which combines rate:
modification (similar to beat_stretch: with pitch:. Attempts to
maintain the pitch whilst simultaneously changing the rate. The
underlying implementation is very basic and can easily destroy the
sound.sample learned the rpitch: opt for simple rate pitch
modulation. This modifies the rate to match the specified number of
MIDI notes relative from the current pitch. For example, a rpitch:
of 12 would double the rate.:echoâs decay: opt is now beats and the value
is scaled with the BPM.live_loop learned the seed: opt which will set the new thread with
the specified seed prior to initial run.density has now been taught to handle values between 0 and 1 which
will now stretch time for the specified block.in_thread and live_loop have now learned the delay: opt
which will delay the initial execution by the specified number of
beats.sample_duration now understands all the opts that you can pass to sample:r + 3 returns :r (a rest plus any MIDI note shift is still
a rest).note_info now correctly handles octaves.C-v.invert_chord how to properly handle out of range index ranges.Thursday 30th July, 2015 (view commits)
The laser beams sliced through the wafts of smoke as the subwoofer pumped bass deep into the bodies of the crowd. The atmosphere was ripe with a heady mix of synths and dancing. However something wasnât quite right in this nightclub. Projected in bright colours above the DJ booth was futuristic text, moving, dancing, flashing. This wasnât fancy visuals, it was merely a projection of Sonic Pi running on a Raspberry Pi. The occupant of the DJ booth wasnât spinning disks or playing MP3s, she was writing, editing and evaluating code. She was live coding and this was an Algorave.
This release is codenamed Algorave to
celebrate that Sonic Pi is now ready to be performed within nightclubs
as well as still being a fantastic tool for learning how to code
creatively. There are many improvements as detailed below. However,
letâs just take a brief look at some of the most fun. Firstly we have
the new error reporting system to make it easier to find and debug your
errors. Syntax errors are now blue and runtime errors pink. We also have
a new look and feel including a new dark mode for performing in dark
places. We also have some fantastic new synths, FX and have even
improved the standard synths. For example, sample now lets you stretch
to match the beat with the beat_stretch: opt and change pitch with
pitch:. The slicer FX now sports a fantastic deterministic
probability: opt for creating and manipulating rhythmic structures
with ease. Finally thereâs the new thread local tick/look system
which will revolutionise the way you work with rings within
live_loops. Of course thereâs so much more too!
Enjoy this release and happy Algoraving!
res: opt for all synths and FX now has range 0->1 rather than
1->0. This means that a higher res value results in more
resonance. This will hopefully be more intuitive to beginners and less
surprising for people with existing synth knowledge.stop has been renamed to kill for killing specific
synths. In its place a new fn stop has been added to stop a given
thread or live_loop.invert_wave opts are now inverted. The default is now 0 which
has the same behaviour as the old 1. This means that itâs more
intuitive to use the opt as to invert the current wave, you now
specify: invert_wave: true, rather than invert_wave: false. This
shouldnât affect any code which doesnât explicitly set the invert_wave:
opt. Pieces which have explicit inversion need to swap all 0s for 1s
and vice versa.res: opt for rrand and rdist has been renamed to step: to
avoid confusion with the resonance opt for cutoff filters.pitch_ratio to pitch_to_ratio to keep in line with other
similar fns such as midi_to_hz.tick
and look.vector which creates a new kind of Array - an immutable
vector (SPVector) which is now the default base class for all rings.use_sample_defaults and with_sample_defaults which act
similarly as their *_synth_defaults counterparts but for samples not
synths.use_tuning and with_tuning for exploring other tuning
systems such as :just, :pythagorean, and :meantone.invert_chord for chord inversions.current_beat_duration for returning the duration of the
current beat in seconds.note_range for returning a range of notes between two notes
with a pitches: opt for constraining the choice of filler notes.scale_names and chord_names for returning a ring of all
chords and scales.rerezzed - strongly influenced by Daft Punkâs track
derezzed.reich phase - a nice way of combining live_loops and
tick to create sophisticated polyrhythms.use_cue_logging and with_cue_logging for enabling and
disabling the logging of cue messages.krush for krushing the sound.panslicer similar to slicer and wobble but modulates
the stereo panning of the audio.subpulse for a full range pulse with extra bass.blade - a moody Blade Runner-esque synth violinpiano - a basic piano emulation. Only capable of whole notes.slicer and wobble now have a wonderful new probability: opt
which will only slice on (or off depending on wave inversion) with the
specified probability. The behaviour is deterministic, so repeated
calls with the same seed: and probability: opts will result in the
same behaviour. Great for adding interesting rhythmic variation to
sound.slicer and wobble now have smoothing opts for even more
control over the resulting wave form.sample the opt beat_stretch: for modifying the rate of the
sample to make sure the duration of the sample is n beats long (with
respect to the current bpm). Note: stretching the beat does change
the pitch.sample the opt pitch to enable pitch shifting on any sample.flangerâs feedback mixing is now more fair and is less likely to
hike up the amplitude.note_info to also handle a number as its param.factor? to handle division by 0.load_sample to throw exception when passed an empty path.use_sample_bpm the opt num_beats: to indicate that a given
sample consists of a specific number of beats.comment and uncomment to require blocks.chord the new opt invert: as a shortcut to the new
invert_chord fn.sample_duration about the opts start: and finish: and
envelope opts such as attack: and release:. This allows you to
replace any call to sample with sample_duration to get the exact
duration of that call.chord the opt num_octaves to enable the easy creation of
arpeggios.with_sample_pack_as to now correctly accept a block.mc_surface_teleport no longer throws an error.Array#shuffle now works correctly with the random seeds for
deterministic behaviour.*_sample_bpm.Monday 13th April, 2015 (view commits)
This release comes with support for Minecraft: Pi Edition installed on the Raspberry Pi. You can now create music with Minecraft visuals or even code up a synth score in Minecraft blocks and read and play the score from Sonic Pi! Another exciting aspect of this release is much improved editor functionality for navigating around and manipulating code via keyboard shortcuts. This means that live coding just got a lot more fun. The keyboard shortcuts are based on the standard shortcuts provided by GNU Emacs - the oldest and most powerful text editor in use by wizard programmers today.
invert_wave now defaults to 1 everywhere. I found I always inverted
the wave every time I used a synth/fx where wave inversion was
key. This seemed like such a better default Iâve broken compatibility
for it. Apologies if this has affected you.flanger FX now defaults the optional arg stereo_invert_wave to
1.ring to ring_mod to reduce the potential for confusion
with the ring datastructure.Tab now indents current line or selection rather than inserting a
useless tab character.sync now accepts multiple cue ids and will sync on the first matching id.pitch_ratio for converting a midi note to a frequency
ratio. Useful for tuning samples.line for creating a line from start to finish with a specific
number of slices.spark for displaying lists of numbers in a fancy text-graph
(âââ
â) in the log.sample_duration now scales result based on current BPM.range now accepts optional args: inclusive: and step:.M-< and M-> for switching workspaces.:pitch_shiftreverb FX caused a serious audio overload.*_sample_bpm:bpf.use_sample_pack_as(ring 1, 2, 3) rather than [1, 2, 3].C-k keyboard shortcut now copies text into the clipboard.rings rather than ring-like
things.with_fx are now raised correctly.Wednesday 11th February, 2015 (view commits)
A quick release following v2.3 to address an issue with the GUI
freezing on specific CPUs. However, although this release has had a
small development cycle, it ships with three fantastic features. Firstly
we now have the spread fn which provides an amazing way to create
interesting rhythms with very little code. Secondly we can now use
cutoff: on any sample massively increasing their timbral range and
finally we have three exciting new synths for you to play with. Have
fun!
spread for creating rings of Euclidean distributions. Great
for quickly creating interesting rhythms.: to the FX opt autocomplete listââ ââ characters when printing in the log
on RP.:dark_ambience, an ambient bass trying to escape the
darkness.:hollow, a hollow breathy sound.:growl, a deep rumbling growl.rlpf and normaliser FX. These
are disabled by default (i.e. wonât affect sound of the sample) and
can by enabled via the new cutoff:, res: and norm: opts.Wednesday 28th January, 2015 (view commits)
chord now divides the amplitude of each
resulting synth by the number of notes in the chord. This ensures the
resulting amplitude isnât excessive and is normalised.at from
being identical.range is now exclusive: (range 1, 5) #=> (ring 1, 2, 3, 4)density for compressing and repeating time Dr Who style. For
example, wrapping some code with a call to density of 2 will double
the bpm for that block as well as repeating it twice. This ensures the
block takes the same amount of time to execute while doing double the
work.with_bpm_mul and use_bpm_mul which will multiply the
current bpm by a specified amount. Useful for slowing down and
speeding up the execution of a specific thread or live_loop.rdist - generate a random number with a centred distributionsquare skit, shufflit and tilburgcontrol nil, amp: 3 will do
nothing.3.4.times {|v| puts v} will yield 0.0, 1.0 and 2.0.true
resolves to 1.0 and false, nil resolve to 0.0. This allows you
to write code such as: play :e3, invert_wave: trueat to handle varying block arities differently. See docs for
more detail. Original behaviour is preserved and only extended.:reverb FX to extend its kill delay time with larger room
sizes to reduce the chance of clipping.bitcrusher - for crunching and destroying those hi-fi sounds.flanger - a classic swhooshing effect typically used with
vocals and guitars.ring - ring modulation for that friendly Dalek soundbpf - a band pass filterrbpf - a resonant band pass filternbpf - a normalised band pass filternrbpf - a normalised resonant band pass filterperc_snap - a finger snapperc_snap2 - another finger snapbd_ada - a bass drumguit_em9 - a lovely guitar arpeggio over Em9live_loop fn and thread names to stop them clashing with
standard user defined threads and fns.with_fx now returns the result of the blockThursday 18th December, 2014 (view commits)
This release brings a number of nice enhancements. However the main feature is the accurate timing for triggering FX. This means you can now reliably use FX for accurate rhythmic purposes such as wobbling, slicing and echoes.
use_sample_pack_as now uses a double underscore __ as a separator
between the user-specified alias and the sample name.play 50, {amp: 0.5}, {release: 2}, amp: 2with_fx FX synths are now triggered using virtual time rather than
real time. This means that FX can now be used for rhythmical purposes.RingArray datastructure. This is essentially an array
that wraps its indexes so you can use indexes larger than the array size.ring - (ring 1, 2, 3) creates a new ring array.knit - (knit :a1, 2, :c1, 1) returns (ring :a1, :a1, :c1)bools - (bools 1, 0, 1) returns (ring true, false, true)range - (range 70, 100, 10) returns (ring 70, 80, 90, 100)sample_loaded? - to detect whether a specific sample has been loaded:tb303 synth - sound is reverted to v2.0 behaviour:square - Pure square wavebd_tek - Bass drumone_in now returns false if num is < 1live_loopâs no-sleep detector works within nested with_fx blockschord now returns a ring.Tuesday 25th November, 2014 (view commits)
Friday 21st November, 2014 (view commits)
The focus of release is very much on technical improvements, efficiency and general polish.
The most obvious and exciting change is the introduction of the
live_loop which will change the way you work with Sonic Pi. For more
information on live_loop take a look at the new section in the
tutorial. Another very exciting development is that v2.1 marks the
official support for Windows thanks to the excellent work by Jeremy
Weatherford. Finally, this release is also the first release where Sonic
Pi has a Core Team of developers. Please give a warm welcome to Xavier
Riley, Jeremy Weatherford and Joseph Wilk.
live_loop - A loop for live codinginc - incrementdec - decrementquantise - quantise a value to resolutionfactor? - Factor testat - Run a block at the given timesdegree - for resolving a note in a scale by degree such as :i, :ivchord_degree - Construct chords based on scale degreesuse_sample_bpm - for changing the BPM based on a sampleâs durationrest? - Determine if note or args is a restvt - Get virtual timeset_control_delta! - Set control delta globallywait now handles both sleep and sync functionalityplay to be a proc or lambda. In which case simple call it and use the result as the noteplay to accept a single map argument (in which case it will extract :note key out if it exists.play and synth now treat ânotesâ nil, :r and :rest as rests and donât trigger any synths.C-i over a function name now opens up the doc system at the relevant placerand_i and rrand_i now correctly return integers rather than floatsmod_range: opt to have negative values (for oscillating with lower notes)_slide_shape and _slide_curve args.cutoff_attack:,cutoff_sustain:,cutoff_decay:,cutoff_release:,cutoff_min_slide:,cutoff_attack_level:,cutoff_sustain_level:,cutoff_env_curve:Tuesday 9th September, 2014 (view commits)
alt-* prefixedcmd-* prefixedcue/sync messages are more clearly highlighted)Tuesday 2nd September, 2014 (view commits)