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 wasn’t quite right in this nightclub. Projected in bright colours above the DJ booth was futuristic text, moving, dancing, flashing. This wasn’t fancy visuals, it was merely a projection of Sonic Pi running on a Raspberry Pi. The occupant of the DJ booth wasn’t 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,
let’s 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 there’s the new thread local tick/look system
which will revolutionise the way you work with rings within
live_loops. Of course there’s 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 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 it’s more
intuitive to use the opt as to invert the current wave, you now
specify: invert_wave: true, rather than invert_wave: false. This
shouldn’t affect any code which doesn’t explicitly set the invert_wave:
opt. Pieces which have explicit inversion need to swap all 0s for 1s
and visa 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 Punk’s 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. flanger’s 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.mx_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 I’ve 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.1* Support for programming Minecraft Pi Edition.
* sync now accepts multiple cue ids and will sync on the first matching id.
* New fn pitch_ratio for converting a midi note to a frequency
ratio. Useful for tuning samples.
* New fn line for creating a line from start to finish with a specific
number of slices.
* New fn spark for displaying lists of numbers in a fancy text-graph
(▁▃▅▇) in the log.
* On stop, amplitude of output slides down over 1s to silence for a
smoother transition.
* sample_duration now scales result based on current BPM.
* range now accepts optional args: inclusive: and step:.
M-< and M-> for switching workspaces.:pitch_shift reverb 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 param autocomplete list └─ ├─ 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. won’t affect sound of the sample) and
can by enabled via the new cutoff:, res: and norm: params.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 isn’t 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_loop’s 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 sample’s 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 ‘notes’ nil, :r and :rest as rests and don’t 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 param 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_curveTuesday 9th September, 2014 (view commits)
alt-* prefixedcmd-* prefixedcue/sync messages are more clearly highlighted)Tuesday 2nd September, 2014 (view commits)