# Read First - Welcome To The Sonic Pi Community **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [April 29, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8 "2018-04-29T23:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![samaaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/samaaron/32/7_2.png) [@samaaron](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/samaaron)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2018, 11:00pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/1 "2018-04-29T23:00:00Z")
**Hello there, Welcome to in\_thread, the Sonic Pi community.** Here you’ll find lots of lovely folks sharing ideas, thoughts and good will. ℹ **In this guide:** Say hello; Find help; **Format text & code** , and more! # [P] - Patreon Supporters There are a number of categories that start with [P] in their name. This are free to read by anyone, but to create new conversations and get involved with existing ones, you need to become a Patreon supporter: [https://patreon.com/samaaron](https://patreon.com/samaaron). This support will help to keep Sonic Pi free for everyone. # Say Hello! When you’re ready, please do create a new topic introducing yourself using the category “Introductions & Stories” - we’d love to hear your story about how you discovered Sonic Pi and what you use it for. # Navigation This site is organised as a number of topics each belonging to a category. For example, the topic “How do I reverse a sample?” will likely belong to the category “Help & Support”. A given topic may then have a thread of replies just like you might see on Twitter. These replies typically should attempt to stay on topic - otherwise it might be time to start a new topic to discuss 🙂 (For those used to mailing lists, the topic can be roughly seen as the email subject.) # Help If any of this is confusing - please feel free to ask questions on Twitter - [@Sonic\_Pi](http://twitter.com/sonic_pi) and we’ll do our best to help you settle in and feel comfortable. # Share Freely Please use this community to share your thoughts and ideas freely. The hope is that together we can help and support one another not just now but in a sustainable way for the future. Let’s work together to share the joy of creative coding with the world 🙂 # Formatting You may use Markdown to format your posts. This allows you do things like _italics_, **bold** , `code_blocks` and much more with a simple syntax. Take a look at the following table for some hints: ## Inline Formatting | Type | To Get | | --- | --- | | \_Italic words\_ | _Italic words_ | | \*\*Bold words\*\* | **Bold words** | | `inline code` | `inline code` | | # Main Heading | # Main Heading | | ## Sub Heading | ## Sub Heading | ## Code blocks Starting and finishing multiple lines of code with ``` will format the code nicely and also colour it in similar to Sonic Pi’s editor. So, for example, ``` use\_synth :tb303 use\_bpm 45 live\_loop :foo do play :e1, release: 0.1, cutoff: 70 sleep 0.125 end ``` Will produce: ```ruby use_synth :tb303 use_bpm 45 live_loop :foo do play :e1, release: 0.1, cutoff: 70 sleep 0.125 end ``` See the following Markdown cheat sheet for more examples 🙂 [http://commonmark.org/help/](http://commonmark.org/help/) ---
**Author:** ![lectronice](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/lectronice/32/196_2.png) [@lectronice](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/lectronice)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/2 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
That’s a nice little place you’ve set up here! Thanks for the invite, and great idea, Sonic Pi definitely needed a community with a slick system like Discourse. ---
**Author:** ![GranddadGotMojo](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/granddadgotmojo/32/34_2.png) [@GranddadGotMojo](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/GranddadGotMojo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/3 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Thanks for the Invite. I have been waiting for the Windows Beta and just installed it. Hope to get back in to using Sonic Pi for live performances in virtual worlds of all places. ---
**Author:** ![samaaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/samaaron/32/7_2.png) [@samaaron](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/samaaron)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/4 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Please let me know how you get on with the new Windows beta 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ivar](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/ivar/32/48_2.png) [@ivar](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/ivar)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/5 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Great idea to set this up! I love the colour scheme - it looks remarkably familiar! ---
**Author:** ![NanoMan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/nanoman/32/1078_2.png) [@NanoMan](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/NanoMan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/6 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Just at the time when I’m getting back into Sonic Pi, along comes a well laid out and lovely looking forum. Brilliant 😄 ---
**Author:** ![enkerli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/enkerli/32/54_2.png) [@enkerli](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/enkerli)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/11 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Agreed! And [Discourse](https://www.discourse.org) was a nice choice for the forum software. Used it in several other groups but it feels particularly fitting, here. ---
**Author:** ![Eli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/eli/32/116_2.png) [@Eli](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/Eli)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/12 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Sorry, but I’m not seeing this forum well… I cant differentiate threads from categories… the home page just seems to be a mass of text splashed randomly around… I’d just like a list of categories, over on the left, I can click on… not some precis of the latest post in each category… Maybe I can change settings or something, but currently, this place is no use to me. Eli… ---
**Author:** ![samaaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/samaaron/32/7_2.png) [@samaaron](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/samaaron)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/13 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
@Eli - sorry you’re not having much fun with the forum. For me, this already feels like a large improvement over the previous mailing list - which had no notion of categories. Speaking of categories, you can get a list of categories by clicking on the ‘all categories’ button on the top left of the initial screen: ![43](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/sonic_pi/original/1X/8c2be298ba6da9d878a82947e083b26b68993bf2.png) Also, the text isn’t all that random - there are rows of ‘topics’ which are ordered by last activity date - so the things that changed more recently are at the top of the page. Each topic has a title, category and list of users who have taken part discussing in that topic. For example, there’s a topic in the screenshot called “Introductions & Stories” which is in the ‘General’ category and has had 4 people take part in it so far (sharing their intro stories). Finally, if you find that some categories feel like noise to you, you can always native to your preferences page and mute specific categories by entering them into the ‘Muted’ box: ![40](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/uploads/sonic_pi/original/1X/bb992d503a1f8bcc9714f1b5957c9631595e4fcd.png) I hope that you stick around. We’d love to hear from you whatever you decide 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/eli/32/116_2.png) [@Eli](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/Eli)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/14 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
_chuckle_ Sam, sam, sam… I’ve been on the old group what, 2 years now? And you haven’t figured out yet that I’m the grumpy old git, resistant to change, that every forum has ? I’m not happy unless I’ve got something to gripe about. And I’ll get used to this new software… gradually, grumpily, until I know how to use it. Hey, I’ve already figured out how to add a custome avatar… what could be more difficult? Eli… ---
**Author:** ![samaaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/samaaron/32/7_2.png) [@samaaron](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/samaaron)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/15 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
@Eli - very pleased to hear that you’re just being 'typically grumpy. Sorry that there’s change - but hopefully it will be worth it for everyone in the long run. However, on a semi-serious note, please be aware that not everyone may be aware that you being grumpy is not necessarily being negative so please try your best to stay positive and constructive 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![enkerli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/enkerli/32/54_2.png) [@enkerli](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/enkerli)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/16 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
Thanks for this, @samaaron. Despite being enthusiastic about Discourse (and saying so during my last visit), became a bit puzzled about similar issues to the ones @Eli was pointing out. Sounds like `in_thread` categories and threads may have the same names. Or there’s something a bit confusing about the overall structure, here. Agreed that the old Google Group had a number of issues, including the lack of categories. But this forum could overwhelm some people because of the way threads and categories are set up. In fact, the same is true of forums on our new Learning Management System, at uOttawa (Brightspace). Liking the LMS quite a bit, so far. But been quite confused by the way topics and forums are organized (and most of my assignments are forums). My learners haven’t complained and they’ve been able to do their assignments without any obvious issue. But it’s still a bit confusing to me after five weeks of teaching. So, this isn’t meant to assign any blame about any of this. Neither Discourse itself nor your good care, Sam. It’s just that it’s a bit unusual as a structure. Other Discourse instances handle things differently, which may have conditioned me for something else. ---
**Author:** ![samaaron](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/samaaron/32/7_2.png) [@samaaron](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/samaaron)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/17 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
@enkerli - I’m very happy to discuss potential re-structing of the categories. I would say don’t focus too much on the topic names - they should be seen as email subject. I think I made a mistake in the very first topics and treated them like categories. This is something I’m no longer doing - topics are like emails with the same subject and categories just allow you to add an extra level of metadata to help you navigate in the future. Love to hear your thoughts… ---
**Author:** ![makercube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/fbc32d/32.png) [@makercube](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/makercube)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/18 "2018-04-30T13:56:50Z")
@samaaron Many Thanks for the awesome comment on our Twitter Feed and for this invite! This is the first time we are hosting a Sonic Pi workshop so I really can not offer much feedback now. But I can definitely share some of the reasons why we chose your program. This program was first introduced to me by one of our student volunteers from a local university. He is an audiophile ! and loves anything and everything about sound, music, programming and collaborative learning. After volunteering with us for about 6 months, we decided to team up with our Library partner and offer this programming opportunity for youth. We normally use paid programming to fund our other free STEAM related workshops. We are a small non-profit of four volunteers which inspires and generate enthusiasm for learning about science, technology, engineering, art, and math that is not generally taught at elementary school level. With this program, I believe our volunteer plans to teach some basics of coding, looping, nested beats, music theory (as that is his major) along side recording practices. This is geared to introduce the idea of coding through music and create a better relationship between youth and programming language. Thanks again for this amazing opportunity in allowing us to create cheap and educational content to our youth! Kay ---
**Author:** ![sveri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@sveri](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/sveri)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/19 "2018-05-06T11:34:15Z")
Hi, I just found sonic pi again and impressed with the out of the box experience on W10. This is so awesome. My big one (6 years) lately asked me about the music I listened to and I tried to explain the difference between electronic and handmade music and I think the best way is to show him. Sonic Pi will be my tool of choice. It would be great if introductions & stories would be free for non patreon supporters. Thanks, Sven ---
**Author:** ![ShonLee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/shonlee/32/608_2.png) [@ShonLee](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/ShonLee)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/20 "2018-05-18T02:37:29Z")
I’m really not sure what to do but I love the colors ---
**Author:** ![hyamanieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@hyamanieu](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/hyamanieu)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/21 "2018-09-14T21:43:24Z")
Hi all, that’s the only topic I can respond to, I _only_ subscribed to tell this person: [Install sonic pi 3.2 dev on ubuntu 18.04 LTS](http://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/install-sonic-pi-3-2-dev-on-ubuntu-18-04-lts/1318) that his/her code bash code works to install it on 18.04. Just need to add a shortcut for qjackctl + sonic-pi and good for every day use. ---
**Author:** ![nlb](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/in-thread.sonic-pi.net/nlb/32/997_2.png) [@nlb](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/nlb)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 7:41am UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/22 "2018-09-15T07:41:44Z")
thank you ! but the main work has be done by an other person (Sam Aaron ?) before i just change some few things cheers ---
**Author:** ![LF0Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/df788c/32.png) [@LF0Kid](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/LF0Kid)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2022, 12:32pm UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/23 "2022-02-24T12:32:52Z")
I just downloaded and opened Sonic Pi and I just felt “Yes this is the program I want to work with” Complex little workbench but very easy to understand in the same time. Im waiting for a Raspberry Pi. How is the FM-synthesis in Sonic Pi? Cheers ---
**Author:** ![ethancrawford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@ethancrawford](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/u/ethancrawford)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8/24 "2022-02-26T02:14:23Z")
Hi @LF0Kid! Not sure I have anything super useful to say about it… (Others are of course free to chip in). There is an `:fm` synth. It has two main opts that affect the FM sounds: `depth:` and `divisor:`. More details are on the page for the `:fm` synth in the ‘Synths’ section of the built in help panel - or you can read about it in the experimental and temporary documentation website made by @SunderB at [Sonic Pi - Info - Sonic Pi Documentation (en)](https://sunderb.me/sonic-pi-docs-test) - but note that that site is not mobile-friendly - we’re working on replacing it with a more readable version). [Next page](https://in-thread.sonic-pi.net/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-sonic-pi-community/8.md?page=2)