Programming as performance: Code Music with Sonic Pi

Programming is one of our most creative tools and with Sonic Pi by Sam Aaron we’ve got a new fantastic programmable instrument that everyone can use. It’s basically a programmable synth that takes code instructions to play tunes, but the live loops feature take it a step future as you can play and write code at the same time. This way Sonic Pi and programming can be used to do live performances. The software is open source and available for free for Windows and macOS and comes pre-installed on NOOBS for Raspberry Pi.

So before you move on, please Download Sonic Pi now!

I also highly recommend watching Sam Aaron’s awesome TEDx talk (25 min):

You only need to learn a few basic commands to get started making some melodies. After you’ve understood the basic commands you can remake known songs or make new songs.

Getting started with Sonic Pi

Your first beep

To play a note the only thing you need is the play-command followed by a number.

play 70

Enter this in the first buffer of Sonic Pi and hit “Play”.

TIPS: Use CMD+R (Run) as shortcut to start playing the current buffer.

Chords

To play a chord you can add a few more play-commands.

play 72
play 75
play 79

Notice how the tones are being played at once.

Melody

To play notes one after another we need to use the sleep-command followed by number of seconds.

play 60
sleep 0.5
play 62
sleep 0.5
play 64
sleep 0.5
play 60
sleep 0.5

Enter this in your buffer and run your program again. With only these two commands you can play many songs.

Loops

2.times do
  play 60
  sleep 0.5
  play 62
  sleep 0.5
  play 64
  sleep 0.5
  play 60
  sleep 0.5
end

Live Loops

live_loop :foo do
  play 50
  sleep 1
end

Multiple Live Loops

live_loop :foo do
  use_synth :prophet
  play :c1, release: 8, cutoff: rrand(70, 130)
  sleep 8
end

live_loop :bar do
  sample :bd_haus
  sleep 0.5
end

Now checkout the references and please share what you’ve create with Sonic Pi!

References

• Sonic Pi at TEDx - Watch Sam Aaron introducing Sonic Pi
• Code Music with Sonic Pi - A free book by Sam Aaron packed with fun, instantly rewarding examples
• Sonic Pi Tutorial
• Getting Started with Sonic Pi - Official tutorial