First Steps with Electronic Music

Next semester, I'm enrolled in the electronic music class at Duke (Music 153S, for those who care). I heard from a friend that much of the course is based out of using the open source electronic music programming language SuperCollider. Last night, I decided to download the Windows version (the main build is for Mac), and started to fiddle around.

Two things right off the bat:

• The program has as steep a learning curve as advertised.
• The program is positively badass.

At this stage, I'm still quite giddy with my self when I can create an arpeggio out of text:

{Pan2.ar(SinOsc.ar(440,0,0.5),0.0)}.play

{Pan2.ar(SinOsc.ar(523.25,0,0.1),0.0)}.play

{Pan2.ar(SinOsc.ar(659.25,0,0.1),0.0)}.play

{Pan2.ar(SinOsc.ar(880,0,0.1),0.0)}.play

That is an arpeggio in A minor (with the bass note louder) How ridiculous is that?!

I'm sure after a few months, that will look silly, childish, and wildly inefficient, but for now its really cool. Using the mouse features immediately show how powerful programming music can be:

JMouseBase.makeGUI
{SinOsc.ar(JMouseX.kr(440,880),0,0.1)}.play
{Pulse.ar(JMouseY.kr(880,440),0.2,0.1)}.play

This code brings up a grid. When I move my mouse left to right, the sine wave pitch raises from concert A (440) to an octave above (880). Moving my mouse down to up does the same with a pulse sound. Here's a screenshot of that in action (I won't put up any sound of it yet, believe me, you'd rather not hear it):

Despite the steep learning curve, there's a lot of material out there to help. I'm working through a course by Nick Collins. So far it's been quite helpful, though a little Mac-biased. I'll be able to give a more complete assessment after I work through a few more of the tutorials.

It seems like this is the place to go for all things SuperCollider, and there seems to be a pretty large community surrounding it. Pretty cool stuff, and I look forward to making some actual music with it!