Sonic Pi

Sonic Pi
Screenshot of Sonic Pi
Developers	Sam Aaron and others
Initial release	2012
Stable release	4.6.0 / 26 June 2025;6 months ago (2025-06-26)
Repository	github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi
Written in	Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, Clojure, C++, and Qt
Operating system	Linux, macOS, Windows, Raspberry Pi OS
Type	Live coding environment
License	MIT License
Website	sonic-pi.net

Sonic Pi is a free open-source live coding environment based on Ruby, originally designed to support both computing and music lessons in schools, developed by Sam Aaron initially in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory ^[1] in collaboration with Raspberry Pi Foundation, ^{[2] [3]} and now independently funded primarily via donations from users.

Uses

Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi, demonstrating the program

Thanks to its use of the SuperCollider synthesis engine and accurate timing model, ^[4] it is also used for live coding and other forms of algorithmic music performance and production, including at algoraves. Its research and development has been supported by Nesta, via the Sonic PI: Live & Coding project. ^[5]

See also

• Free and open-source software portal

• Pure Data
• Algorithmic composition
• List of MIDI editors and sequencers
• List of music software

Further reading

• Aaron, Samuel; Blackwell, Alan F.; Burnard, Pamela (2016). "The development of Sonic Pi and its use in educational partnerships: Co-creating pedagogies for learning computer programming" . Journal of Music, Technology & Education. 9 (1): 75–94. doi:10.1386/jmte.9.1.75_1 . Retrieved 11 December 2019.
• Aaron, Sam. (2016). "Sonic Pi–performance in education, technology and art". International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. 12 (2): 17–178. doi:10.1080/14794713.2016.1227593. S2CID   193662552.
• Sinclair, Arabella (2014). "Educational Programming Languages: The Motivation to Learn with Sonic Pi" (PDF). PPIG: 10. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
• Aaron, Samuel; Blackwell, Alan F. (2013). "From sonic Pi to overtone". Proceedings of the first ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Functional art, music, modeling & design. Farm '13. ACM. pp. 35–46. doi:10.1145/2505341.2505346. ISBN   9781450323864. S2CID   18633884 . Retrieved 11 December 2019.
• Aaron, Samuel; Blackwell, Alan F.; Hoadley, Richard; Regan, Tim (2011). A principled approach to developing new languages for live coding (PDF). International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). Oslo, Norway. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
• Aaron, Samuel; Blackwell, Alan F. (2013). "From sonic Pi to overtone: Creative musical experiences with domain-specific and functional languages". Proceedings of the first ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Functional art, music, modeling & design. pp. 35–46. doi:10.1145/2505341.2505346. ISBN   978-1-4503-2386-4. S2CID   18633884.

References

1. Blackwell, Alan; McLean, Alex; Noble, James; Rohrhuber, Julian (2014). "DROPS - Collaboration and learning through live coding (Dagstuhl Seminar 13382)". Dagstuhl Reports. 3 (9): 130–168. doi: 10.4230/DagRep.3.9.130 . Retrieved 2 May 2015.
2. Cellan-Jones, Rory (7 October 2013). "Baked in Britain, the millionth Raspberry Pi". BBC News. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
3. "Making music with Raspberry Pi - CBBC Newsround". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
4. Aaron, Samuel; Orchard, Dominic; Blackwell, Alan F. (2014). "Temporal semantics for a live coding language". Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN international workshop on Functional art, music, modeling & design (PDF). ACM. pp. 37–47. doi:10.1145/2633638.2633648. ISBN   978-1-4503-3039-8. S2CID   3227057.
5. "Sonic Pi - The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone". SONIC PI. Retrieved 5 October 2019.

External links

• Sonic Pi Official Website