Sonic Pi
Live coding environment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
| Sonic Pi | |
|---|---|
Screenshot of Sonic Pi | |
| Developers | Sam Aaron and others |
| Initial release | 2012 |
| Stable release | 4.6.0
/ 26 June 2025 |
| 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 |
| Repository | |
Uses
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
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.
