I have created a doorbell chime. Is there a way to get it to play at the press of the space key? I have seen examples of code done in Ruby that uses letters and numbers but not the space key. I’m starting to get a little confused.
Thank you for your time,
Erika Gehm
Hi Erika
I think you asked this question on youtube where I posted a program to use keys to control Sonic Pi back in April 2016!! I wasn’t sure exactly what you wanted to do, but this question makes it clearer.
I have added the facility to respond to the spacebar being pushed in the program.
The line cue :space if k.to_i.chr == " "
I have also added a live_loop called :dingdong which plays a doorbell sound. This will be triggered when you press the spacebar.
This program was written a long time ago, before Sonic Pi had the facility to respond to incoming OSC messages and incoming MIDI. It wrosk, but is rather slow to respond.
There are probably better (and simpler) ways to do this now, but this will get you going.
If you already have your own doorbell sound, you can replace the contents of the live_loop :dingdong. Just make sure you include the line sync :space so that the sound is not played until the cue :space message is received.
I’ll see if I can come up with something simpler for you to post here later.
In the meantime the two files are posted below.
First the progarm that runs in Sonic Pi
## The following two sections of code are utilities to clear and load all samples used in the program
## They should be used by uncommenting when running on a Pi as required, before using the main program
## The samples are required by live loop :sampfrenzy
##| sample_free_all
##| stop
##| sample_groups.each do |g|
##| load_samples g.to_s if g.to_s != "loop"
##| end
##| stop
#experimental program to control Sonic Pi from the keyboard
#written by Robin Newman, April 2016
#you can play notes direct, or initiate any of 10 liveloops
#keyboard polling routine by Alex Chaffee, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/174933/how-to-get-a-single-character-without-pressing-enter
#Some of the example live_loops used here require SP version 2.10,
#but with amended examples should work on earlier versions of SP
require 'socket'
use_synth :saw #used for directly played notes
#set up hash to contain notes
notes=Hash.new
#list of notes
l=[:c4,:cs4, :d4, :ds4, :e4, :f4, :fs4, :g4, :gs4, :a4, :as4, :b4, :c5, :cs5, :d5, :ds5, :e5, :f5, :fs5, :g5]
#list of associated keys (may have to alter depending on your keyboard layout)
n=["a", "w", "s", "e", "d", "f", "t", "g", "y", "h", "u", "j", "k", "o", "l", "p", ";", "'", "]", "#"]
20.times do |i| #loop to create the hash
notes[n[i].ord]=l[i]
end
k=0 #set initial value of k, making it a global variable
live_loop :tcp do #loop to poll tcp input
s = TCPSocket.new 'localhost', 2016 #create socket
k= s.gets.to_f #get input
s.close #close =socket
cue :p if k !=0 # if value is not 0 cue play loop
#puts k.to_i.chr
cue :one if k.to_i.chr == "1"
cue :two if k.to_i.chr == "2"
cue :three if k.to_i.chr == "3"
cue :four if k.to_i.chr == "4"
cue :five if k.to_i.chr == "5"
cue :six if k.to_i.chr == "6"
cue :seven if k.to_i.chr == "7"
cue :eight if k.to_i.chr == "8"
cue :nine if k.to_i.chr == "9"
cue :zero if k.to_i.chr == "0"
cue :space if k.to_i.chr == " "
sleep 0.075 #short sleep before repeating
end
live_loop :x do #loop to play the notes
sync :p #wait for sync to say note is ready
play notes[k.to_i],sustain: 0.5,release: 0.05,amp: 0.3 if k>0 #play note, looking up value from hash
sleep 0.05 #short sleep
end
define :pl do |tune,dur| #loop to play a tune held in a notes and a durations list
tune.zip(dur).each do |n,d|
play n,sustain: d*0.9,release: d*0.1
sleep d
end
end
live_loop :dr do #plays loop_amen_full
sync :one
l= (sample_duration :loop_amen_full)
with_fx :level,amp: 1 do |v|
control v,amp_slide: 2*l,amp: 0
2.times do
sample :loop_amen_full
sleep l
end
end
end
live_loop :dr2 do #plays loop_tabla
sync :two
with_fx :level,amp: 3 do |v|
control v,amp_slide: (sample_duration :loop_tabla),amp: 0
sample :loop_tabla
end
end
live_loop :melody do #plays notes using :pluck synth
use_synth :pluck
sync :three
with_fx :level, amp: 1 do |v|
control v, amp_slide: 9.6, amp: 0
n=scale(:a1,:minor_pentatonic,num_octaves: 2)
96.times do
play n.choose if spread(5,8).tick
sleep 0.1
end
end
end
live_loop :woosh do #plays misc_cineboom
sync :four
4.times do
sample :misc_cineboom,start: 0,finish: 0.4,beat_stretch: 4
sleep 1.6
sample :misc_cineboom,start: 0.5,finish: 0.8, beatstretch: 4
sleep 1.2
end
end
live_loop :rhythm do #plays notes with :tb303
use_synth :tb303
sync :five
with_fx :level, amp: 1 do |v|
control v, amp_slide: 9.6, amp: 0
f= (note_range :c2, :c5, pitches: (scale :c, :minor))
96.times do
play f.choose,release: 0.1 if spread(5,8).tick
play (f.choose - 12),release: 0.1 if !spread(5,8).look
sleep 0.1
end
end
end
live_loop :frere do #plays frere jaques round
sync :six
sq=0.1
q=2*sq
c=2*q
tune=[:c4,:d4,:e4,:c4]*2+[:e4,:f4,:g4]*2+[:g4,:a4,:g4,:f4,:e4,:c4]*2+[:c4,:g3,:c4]*2
dur=[q,q,q,q,q,q,q,q,q,q,c,q,q,c,sq,sq,sq,sq,q,q,sq,sq,sq,sq,q,q,q,q,c,q,q,c]
in_thread do
use_synth :tri
pl(tune,dur)
end
sleep 4*c
in_thread do
use_synth :saw
pl(tune,dur)
end
sleep 4*c
in_thread do
use_synth :prophet
pl(tune,dur)
end
end
live_loop :fanfare do #plays a three chord fanfare
sync :seven
use_synth :tri
ch1=[:c4,:e4,:g4,:c5]
ch2=[:c4,:d4,:f4,:a4,:c5]
ch3=[:e4,:g4,:c5,:g5]
q=0.2
c=2*q
cd=3*q
m=4*q
dur=[c,q,q,q,q,cd,q,m]
tune=[ch1,ch2,ch2,ch2,ch2,ch1,ch1,ch3]
pl(tune,dur) #play using pl function
end
live_loop :boom do #drum roll and bass drum thump
sync :eight
puts sample_duration :drum_roll
sample :drum_roll,finish: 0.32
sleep 2
sample :drum_bass_hard
sleep sample_duration :drum_bass_hard
end
live_loop :slider do #slides two notes around
sync :nine
with_fx :level,amp: 0,amp_slide: 1 do|v|
use_synth :tb303
s=play :a2,sustain: 8,note_slide: 1 #start the two notes with 8 sec sustains
r=play :a3,sustain: 8,note_slide: 1
4.times do
control v,amp: 1 #slide the volume up
control s, note: :a3 #slide the ptiches
control r, note: :a2
sleep 1
control v,amp: 0 #slide the volume down
control s, note: :a1 #slide the ptiches
control r, note: :a3
sleep 1
end
end
end
live_loop :sampfrenzy do #plays all samples (except loops) fast
sync :zero
sample_groups.each do |g|
if g !=:loop
then
sample_names(g).each do |n|
if sample_duration(n) > 0.2
sample n,beat_stretch: 0.2
else
sample n
end
sleep 0.2
end
end
end
end
live_loop :dingdong do
sync :space
use_synth :tri
play 76
sleep 1
play 72
end
##| transmit program contained below for reference. It is normally downloadeed separately.
## Run this from a terminal window
##| then run SP program
##| then set focus to terminal and type in notes to play
##| #terminal ruby program to get and transmit key info
##| require 'io/wait'
##| require 'socket'
##| server = TCPServer.new 2016 #set up transmit tcp socket
##| def char_if_pressed #routine to scan for keyboard press (non-blocking)
##| begin
##| system("stty raw -echo") # turn raw input on
##| c = nil
##| if $stdin.ready?
##| c = $stdin.getc
##| end
##| c.chr if c
##| ensure
##| system "stty -raw echo" # turn raw input off
##| end
##| end
##| while true #main loop, runs until stoped by ctrl-c
##| k=0 #0 will be transmitted if no key pressed
##| c = char_if_pressed
##| k= "#{c}".ord if c #work out ascii value of key
##| client = server.accept # Wait for a client to connect
##| client.puts k #transmit the keycode
##| client.close #close the client terminating input
##| sleep 0.02 #short gap
##| end
Now the second progarm which you run in a terminal window using ruby terminalcontroller.rb
#terminal ruby program to get and transmit key info
#written by Robin Newman, April 2016
# use in conjunction with SP-KeyboardController.rb running in Sonic Pi
require 'io/wait'
require 'socket'
server = TCPServer.new 2016 #set up transmit tcp socket
def char_if_pressed #routine to scan for keyboard press (non-blocking)
begin
system("stty raw -echo") # turn raw input on
c = nil
if $stdin.ready?
c = $stdin.getc
end
c.chr if c
ensure
system "stty -raw echo" # turn raw input off
end
end
while true #main loop, runs until stoped by ctrl-c
k=0 #0 will be transmitted if no key pressed
c = char_if_pressed
k= "#{c}".ord if c #work out ascii value of key
client = server.accept # Wait for a client to connect
client.puts k #transmit the keycode
client.close #close the client terminating input
sleep 0.02 #short gap
end
For reference the youtube video is here: