One of the most exciting aspects of Sonic Pi is that it enables you to write and modify code live to make music, just like you might perform live with a guitar. This means that given some practice you can take Sonic Pi on stage and gig with it.
Before we get into the real details of how Sonic Pi works in the rest of this tutorial, I’d like to give you an experience of what it’s like to live code. Don’t worry if you don’t understand much (or any) of this. Just try to hold onto your seats and enjoy…
Hadi başlayalım, takip eden kodu boş bir kanala kopyala:
live_loop :flibble do
sample :bd_haus, rate: 1
sleep 0.5
end
Now, press the Run
button and you’ll hear a nice fast bass drum beating away. If at any time you wish to stop the sound just hit the Stop
button. Although don’t hit it just yet… Instead, follow these steps:
Make sure the bass drum sound is still running
Change the sleep
value from 0.5
to something higher like 1
.
Press the Run
button again
Notice how the drum speed has changed.
Finally, remember this moment, this is the first time you’ve live coded with Sonic Pi and it’s unlikely to be your last…
Ok, that was simple enough. Let’s add something else into the mix. Above sample :bd_haus
add the line sample :ambi_choir, rate: 0.3
. Your code should look like this:
live_loop :flibble do
sample :ambi_choir, rate: 0.3
sample :bd_haus, rate: 1
sleep 1
end
Now, play around. Change the rates - what happens when you use high values, or small values or negative values? See what happens when you change the rate:
value for the :ambi_choir
sample just slightly (say to 0.29
). What happens if you choose a really small sleep
value? See if you can make it go so fast your computer will stop with an error because it can’t keep up (if that happens, just choose a bigger sleep
time and hit Run
again).
Try commenting one of the sample
lines out by adding a #
to the beginning:
live_loop :flibble do
sample :ambi_choir, rate: 0.3
# sample :bd_haus, rate: 1
sleep 1
end
Notice how it tells the computer to ignore it, so we don’t hear it. This is called a comment. In Sonic Pi we can use comments to remove and add things into the mix.
Finally, let me leave you something fun to play with. Take the code below, and copy it into a spare buffer. Now, don’t try to understand it too much other than see that there are two loops - so two things going round at the same time. Now, do what you do best - experiment and play around. Here are some suggestions:
Try changing the blue rate:
values to hear the sample sound change.
Try changing the sleep
times and hear that both loops can spin round at different rates.
Try uncommenting the sample line (remove the #
) and enjoy the sound of the guitar played backwards.
Try changing any of the blue mix:
values to numbers between 0
(not in the mix) and 1
(fully in the mix).
Remember to press Run
and you’ll hear the change next time the loop goes round. If you end up in a pickle, don’t worry - hit Stop
, delete the code in the buffer and paste a fresh copy in and you’re ready to jam again. Making mistakes is how you’ll learn the quickest…
live_loop :guit do
with_fx :echo, mix: 0.3, phase: 0.25 do
sample :guit_em9, rate: 0.5
end
# sample :guit_em9, rate: -0.5
sleep 8
end
live_loop :boom do
with_fx :reverb, room: 1 do
sample :bd_boom, amp: 10, rate: 1
end
sleep 8
end
Now, keep playing and experimenting until your curiosity about how this all actually works kicks in and you start wondering what else you can do with this. You’re now ready to read the rest of the tutorial.
So what are you waiting for…