Hi all. This is a slightly belated introduction. I’m new to Sonic Pi, but I think I can claim very far from new in terms of music programming. I feel that I’m making good progress. I spent a few hours todays and racked up some personal firsts, such as controlling Max/MSP and Logic Pro X from inside Sonic Pi. I’m starting to develop personal preferences, e.g. I quite like using the ‘at’ command for drum beats as it makes it easier for me to design them and make them flexible, e.g. through variables set via ‘set’ and read through ‘get’.
5 Likes
Hi there, welcome to the community and thank-you so much for supporting continued development on Patreon 
It’s lovely to hear that you feel like you’re making good progress with Sonic Pi. I look forward to seeing some of your results and hope that you’ll consider sharing them with us all here.
It’s also awesome to see that you’ve homed straight in on get, set and at. These are (in my opinion) the most exciting parts of Sonic Pi and I look forward to what you get up to with them!
Happy live coding…
1 Like
Thanks. I’m working on what’s going to be my first complete piece now. I wouldn’t call it musically innovative, but hope to be able to share it sometime in the near future. I’m keeping it solely Sonic Pi only, with no external samples or other software involved. After that it’ll be onwards and upwards. I hope.
1 Like
What follows isn’t anything to be proud of, except that I’ve learned through a long life so far that whatever you’re doing, it’s best to get things ‘finished’ early on, and start again as learning is more important when starting out than getting a good result.
https://vocaroo.com/i/s1h7aTLcwQbd
EDIT: OK, it looks as if one thing I’ll need to study up on is how to post code to this forum 
What’s the best method?
use_debug false
use_bpm 125
ts = (scale :e3, :dorian, num_octaves: 4)
roots = (ring 0, 0, 2, 4, 0, 0, 4, 3).repeat(3) + (ring 5, 4, 5, 4)
pans = (ring -1, 1)
seeds = (ring 63, 128, 666, 63, 128, 775, 3712)
cutoffs = (ring 30, 30, 30, 90)
amps = (ring 1, 1, 1, 3)
fills = (ring false, false, false, true)
barCount = 0;
set :drummode, 'intro'
set :bassmode, 'intro'
set :melomode, 'intro'
set :chordmode, 'intro'
set :melomode, 'normal'
live_loop :chords do
sync :loop
use_synth :dsaw
tick
use_synth_defaults amp: amps.look, sustain: 4, attack: 0.5, release: 0.5
if get( :chordmode ) == 'normal'
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.7, mix: 0.5 do
with_fx :rhpf, cutoff: cutoffs.look, res: 0.7 do
with_fx :ixi_techno, min_cutoff: 50, max_cutoff: 70, res: 0.3 do
play [ts[roots.look], ts[roots.look+2],
ts[roots.look+4], ts[roots.look+6]]
end
end
end
end
if get( :chordmode ) == 'alternate'
use_synth_defaults amp: 0.3, sustain: 0, attack: 0.01, release: 2, decay: 2
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.7, mix: 0.5 do
with_fx :rlpf, cutoff: 60 , res: 0.7 do
play [ts[roots.look], ts[roots.look],
ts[roots.look+4]]
sleep 2
play [ts[roots.look] + 12, ts[roots.look],
ts[roots.look+4]]
end
end
end
if get( :chordmode ) == 'intro'
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.7, mix: 0.5 do
with_fx :rhpf, cutoff: cutoffs.look, res: 0.7 do
with_fx :ixi_techno, min_cutoff: 50, max_cutoff: 70, res: 0.3 do
play [ts[roots[0]], ts[roots[0]+2],
ts[roots[0]+4], ts[roots[0]+6]]
end
end
end
end
end
live_loop :bass do
sync :loop
use_synth :dpulse
use_synth_defaults pulse_width: 0.25, dpulse_width: 0.25, amp: 1, cutoff: 90, res: 0.9, sustain: 0, attack: 0.01, release: 0.2, decay: 0.2
tick
if get( :bassmode ) == 'normal'
with_transpose -24 do
with_fx :eq, low_shelf: 2 do
if fills.look
sleep 0.5
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
sleep 0.25
sleep 2
else
sleep 2.5
end
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
sleep 0.75
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
sleep 0.5
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
end
end
else
if get( :bassmode ) == 'pulse'
with_transpose -24 do
with_fx :eq, low_shelf: 2 do
sleep 0.5
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
sleep 1
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
sleep 1
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
sleep 1
play ts[roots.look], pan: pans.look
end
end
end
end
end
live_loop :melo do
sync :loop
tick
use_random_seed seeds.look
if get( :melomode ) == 'normal'
sleep 1.25
use_synth :fm
use_synth_defaults amp: 0.5, divisor: 0.125, depth: 7, attack: 0.02, sustain: 0, decay: 0.2, release: 0.2
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.9 do
with_fx :echo, mix: 0.5, phase: 1, decay: 8 do
8.times do
with_transpose +12 do
play ts[rand_i(16)+roots.look] if one_in( 2 )
sleep 0.25
end
end
end
end
end
if get( :melomode ) == 'alternate'
notes = [ ts[roots.look],
ts[roots.look+2],
ts[roots.look+4],
ts[roots.look+8] ]
use_synth :tb303
use_synth_defaults decay: 1, release: 1,
divisor: 0.333333, depth: 5, sustain: 2,
note_slide: 0.0625, res: 0.9, cutoff: 70, amp: 0.4
sleep 2
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.9 do
with_fx :echo, mix: 0.5, phase: 1, decay: 8 do
syn = play notes.choose
with_transpose +36 do
8.times do
nnote = notes.choose
control syn, note: notes.choose if one_in( 2 )
sleep 0.25
end
end
end
end
end
end
live_loop :drums2 do
cue :loop
tick
print "bar: ", barCount
barCount = barCount + 1
if get( :drummode ) == 'normal'
at [0, 0.5, 2.5 ] do
sample :bd_haus, amp: 2
end
at [1, 3] do
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
sample :sn_dolf, pan: 0.5
end
end
if fills.look
at [3.5, 3.75] do
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
sample :sn_dolf, pan: 0.5
end
end
end
at [1.75] do
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
sample :sn_dolf, amp: 0.5, pan: 0.5
end
end
at [0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, 2.5, 2.75, 3, 3.25, 3.5] do
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
sample :drum_cymbal_closed, pan: -0.5
end
end
end
if get( :drummode ) == 'intro'
at [ 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 ] do
with_fx :reverb, room: 0.95 do
sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: rrand( 0.3, 0.7 )
if one_in( 3 )
sleep 0.25
sample :drum_cymbal_closed, amp: rrand( 0.2, 0.4 )
end
end
end
if fills.look
at [3] do
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
with_fx :echo, mix: 0.5, phase: 0.5, decay: 4 do
sample :sn_dolf, pan: 0.5
end
end
end
end
end
if get( :drummode ) == 'pulse'
at [ 0, 1, 2, 3 ] do
sample :bd_haus
end
at [ 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 ] do
sample :drum_cymbal_closed
end
at [ 1, 3 ] do
sample :sn_dolf
end
end
sleep 4
end
# Arrangement for whole track
at 31 do
set :chordmode, 'normal'
end
at 31 do
set :bassmode, 'normal'
end
at 63 do
set :drummode, 'normal'
end
at 127 do
set :bassmode, 'pulse'
set :drummode, 'pulse'
end
at 143 do
set :bassmode, 'normal'
set :drummode, 'normal'
end
at 207 do
set :bassmode, 'pulse'
set :drummode, 'pulse'
end
at 223 do
set :bassmode, 'normal'
set :drummode, 'normal'
set :chordmode, 'alternate'
set :melomode, 'alternate'
end
at 287 do
set :chordmode, 'normal'
set :melomode, 'normal'
end
at 351 do
set :drummode, 'intro'
end
at 355 do
set :bassmode, 'none'
end
at 359 do
set :chordmode, 'none'
end
at 363 do
set :melomode, 'none'
end
at 363 do
set :drummode, 'none'
end
2 Likes
type three back tick characters on a single line. Paste your code in the next line. press return and on the following line type a further three back ticks You will then get everything nicely formatted in a window, with a copy button in the top right corner.
live this:
#start of formatted code
play 72
#end of code
you wont see the three `, except in the editor as you type them in
1 Like
Got it! Thanks.
Now as an exercise I’m going to code a genetic algorithm in Sonic Pi
Worth the listen, definitely.
And ‘at’ is so very versatile, even
without set & get.
Eli…
use_bpm 120
live_loop :beat4 do
sleep 8
end
define :hat do
at [0, 2, 3, 6],
[{:amp=>0.3}, {:amp=> 1}, {:amp=>0.5},{:amp=>0.3}] do |p|
sample :drum_cymbal_pedal, p
end
end
define :drum do
at [1, rrand_i(2, 3), 4, 6],
[{:amp=>1}] do |p|
sample [:drum_bass_hard, :drum_bass_soft].choose, p
end
end
live_loop :do_hat do
sync :beat4
hat
sleep 1
end
live_loop :do_drum do
sync :beat4
drum
sleep 1
end
2 Likes