How do I open Sonic Pi?

Support, Help & Resources
1

How do I open Sonic Pi? Also, when I installed it it had an error message when it tried to open.

2

Hi @play, welcome to the forum.
Iā€™m not the expert in this field but Iā€™m pretty sure whoever helps you out will need some more information.

What operating system are you using Sonic Pi on?
What version of Sonic Pi?
And what is the error message you received?

3

Hello! @binarysweets is correct, weā€™ll need more details to troubleshoot your issue, such as those he has suggested.

Also, when Sonic Pi produces an error, is this through a pop up window that appears as it tries to start up? If so, there should be a button available that says ā€˜Show Detailsā€¦ā€™ that loads an error report.

In this error report are details from the various log files that Sonic Pi uses. There are quite likely to be clues in these log file details about specific error messages that occurred while Sonic Pi was trying to load - it would be helpful to see any of these to understand the specific problems that are happening for you.

(Note that errors in the log files such as ā€œCritical error! Could not boot Sonic Pi Server.ā€ and ā€œCritical Error. Unable to connect to serverā€¦ā€ are fairly generic messages - there are usually other more specific errors that actually give us more information.)

The most useful way to help us help you with your start up problem is to look in these log file details for more suspicious looking error messages (the most useful details are usually in one of three files: server-output.log, scsynth.log and server-errors.log) and then search the issues page on the Sonic Pi GitHub repository for existing issues that contain the same words. If you donā€™t find any issues that already match your situation, then feel free to open a new issue there instead (we usually track bugs and things like the start up issues on the GitHub page) :+1:

4

Hi @play

Yes we need more info so :

  • Windows 10 ? 7 ? Mac ?
  • bluetooth speakers or a headphone wired ? Speakers are on ?
  • a screenshot of the message error

See you

5

Windows 10, wired headphones. Critical error! - Could not boost Sonic Pi server.
Also, how do I launch Sonic Pi, thereā€™s no shortcut for it on my desktop.

6

Arg seems to be more complicated so as @ethancrawford said, try to copy paste the error log here.

7

Please double check the instructions I gave in my last comment - that particular error is just a general message (there are others that may be more useful) :sweat_smile:

If you want to have a shortcut to Sonic Pi on your desktop or task bar, then you need to add one manually - but you can at least attempt to launch it by hitting the Windows key on your keyboard (or click on the start button) and start typing ā€˜Sonic Piā€™. The search function in the start menu should find it for you.

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8

When I search for Sonic Pi it comes up with the installer, yet I have it installed. Each time I want to open it, from what Iā€™ve experienced Iā€™ve had to reinstall.

9

Ok, so if you manually browse through the start menu, is there an entry for Sonic Pi?

10

Nope, I donā€™t see an entry for it.

11

Ok. Is it Sonic Pi Portable you are trying to use, or the ā€˜normalā€™ one that is supposed to install into your program files by default?

12

Iā€™m using the MSI installer.

13

Sure. As mentioned above, it would be helpful to see the actual error report that Sonic Pi generates, since ā€˜Critical error! - Could not boot Sonic Pi serverā€™ is only a general message, and there are more likely to be more specific messages in the report. If you get a pop up error window when Sonic Pi tries to start up, there will be a button on it that says ā€˜Show Detailsā€¦ā€™ - click this to reveal the start up error report. Then you can share it here - it may give us more useful clues.

14

Also, it is odd, how you describe that there is no entry in the Start menu list of programs. I donā€™t know why that might be the case.
Is there any software (anti-virus, firewall, ā€¦) that might be running that interferes with it somehow?
On a typical Windows install, Sonic Pi ends up at C:\Program Files\Sonic Pi\app\gui\qt\build\Release\sonic-pi.exe - do you see it there?

15

Interesting, I went there and opened it, it opened! Iā€™ve tested the sound and that works too. Sorry for being quite late on my reply, I kind of forgot about thisā€¦ :smiley:

16

No worries, Iā€™m glad youā€™re up and running! Have fun :slightly_smiling_face:

17

Thanks, and oh boyā€¦ it is very fun!

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