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rosejn/overtone

programmable music
Source code at GitHub http://rosejn.github.com/overtone/
rosejn/overtone.json
{
  "createdAt": "2009-09-02T14:26:31Z",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "description": "programmable music ",
  "fullName": "rosejn/overtone",
  "homepage": "http://rosejn.github.com/overtone/",
  "language": "Clojure",
  "name": "overtone",
  "pushedAt": "2012-04-07T13:55:44Z",
  "stargazersCount": 173,
  "topics": [],
  "updatedAt": "2023-02-10T14:08:12Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/rosejn/overtone"
}
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Collaborative Programmable Music.

Section titled “Collaborative Programmable Music.”

A Live-programmable music exploration & collaboration toolkit.

Section titled “A Live-programmable music exploration & collaboration toolkit.”

Overtone is an Open Source toolkit for designing synthesizers and collaborating with music. It provides:

  • A Clojure API to the SuperCollider synthesis engine
  • A growing library of musical functions (scales, chords, rhythms, arpeggiators, etc.)
  • Metronome and timing system to support live-programming and sequencing
  • Plug and play MIDI device I/O
  • Simple Open Sound Control (OSC) message handling
  • Pre-cache - a system for locally caching external assets such as .wav files
  • An API for querying and fetching sounds from http://freesound.org

Quick Setup

Section titled “Quick Setup”

Installation

Section titled “Installation”
Terminal window
    # Install lein
    # https://github.com/technomancy/leiningen


    $ lein new insane-noises


    # add the following dependencies to insane-noises/project.clj
    # [org.clojure/clojure "1.3.0"]
    # [overtone "0.6.0"]


    $ cd insane-noises
    $ lein deps

Server Option A: Internal

Section titled “Server Option A: Internal”
Terminal window
    # Linux users - start jackd
    # (see https://github.com/overtone/overtone/wiki/Installing-and-starting-jack)


    $ lein repl
    user=> (use 'overtone.live)

Server Option B: External

Section titled “Server Option B: External”
Terminal window
    # Download and install SuperCollider:
    # http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/downloads/


    $ lein repl
    user=> (use 'overtone.core)
    user=> (boot-external-server)

Your First Sounds

Section titled “Your First Sounds”
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    ; sin-osc creates a sine wave at the specified Hz (440 in this case)
    ; and pan2 makes the signal stereo
    ; demo simply plays the synth for the specified time in seconds:


    user=> (demo 5 (pan2 (sin-osc 440)))


    ; Defining a new synthesizer instrument with the definst macro will return a
    ; function which can be used to trigger the inst.


    user=> (definst beep [freq 440] (sin-osc freq))
    user=> (beep)
    user=> (stop) ; (this command will kill all running synths)


    ; Call the ctl function to modulate any params and to eventually kill that instrument:


    user=> (beep)
    user=> (ctl beep :freq 880)
    user=> (kill beep) ; (this will just kill the specific instrument)

Documentation

Section titled “Documentation”

Detailed Setup Instructions

Section titled “Detailed Setup Instructions”

For a more detailed set of setup instructions (including details specific to Windows and Linux) head over to the Overtone wiki installation page

Getting Started

Section titled “Getting Started”

We will try to maintain documentation for all aspects of the system in the project wiki, you’ll find tutorials and examples on topics such as synthesizing new sounds from scratch, live-coding and generating musical scores on the fly. If you see anything missing, please feel free to add it yourself, or hit us up on the mailing list and we’ll sort somethign out.

External & Internal Servers

Section titled “External & Internal Servers”

Overtone supports both internal and external instances of scsynth - the SuperCollider server. The internal server is good for quick setup (there are no external dependencies to install and allows fast access to server buffers for transferring sound data and using the scopes). The external server requires a separate installation of SuperCollider itself but is more robust in that crashes in the server (through malformed synth designs etc.) don’t also crash the JVM (which is the case for the internal server). It is also possible to connect multiple separate clients to an already running external scsynth instance.

Note - the internal server is not currently supported for all architecture/operating system combinations. However, the external server should work everywhere.

Getting Started Videos

Section titled “Getting Started Videos”
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Head over to Vimeo for a fast-paced 4 minute introduction to live-coding with Overtone to see what’s possible

http://vimeo.com/22798433

For a nice overview of the basics of creating and playing with synthesized instruments in Overtone checkout Philip Potter’s 20 minute workshop:

http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/scala/clojurex-unpanel-2894

There are also the following tutorials:

Interviews

Section titled “Interviews”

Overtone has generated quite a bit of interest. Here’s a list of available interviews which go into further depth on the background and philosophy of Overtone:

Cheat Sheet

Section titled “Cheat Sheet”

For a quick glance at all the exciting functionality Overtone puts at your musical fingertips check out the cheat sheet:

https://github.com/downloads/overtone/overtone/overtone-cheat-sheet.pdf

Project Info

Section titled “Project Info”

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”

Mailing List

Section titled “Mailing List”

We encourage you to join the mailing list to see what other people are getting up to with Overtone. Use it to ask questions, show off what you’ve made and even meet fellow Overtoners in your area so you can meet up for impromptu jam sessions. All we ask is that you be considerate, courteous and respectful and that you share as much of your code as possible so we can all learn how to make crazy cool sounds together.

Source Repository

Section titled “Source Repository”

Downloads and the source repository can be found on GitHub:

http://github.com/overtone/overtone

Clone the repository on GitHub to get started developing, and if you are ready to submit a patch then fork your own copy and do a pull request.

Lein Support

Section titled “Lein Support”

Overtone and its dependencies are on http://clojars.org, and the dependency for your project.clj is:

[overtone "0.6.0"]

Acknowledgements

Section titled “Acknowledgements”

To help us tune the JVM for realtime performance, we use YourKit.

YourKit is kindly supporting open source projects with its full-featured Java Profiler. YourKit, LLC is the creator of innovative and intelligent tools for profiling Java and .NET applications. Take a look at YourKit’s leading software products:

YourKit Java Profiler and YourKit .NET Profiler

Contributors

Section titled “Contributors”
  • Jeff Rose
  • Sam Aaron
  • Fabian Aussems
  • Christophe McKeon
  • Pepijn de Vos
  • Marius Kempe
  • Nicolas Buduroi
  • Iain Wood
  • Marmaduke Woodman
  • Thomas Karolski
  • Nick Orton
  • Kevin Neaton
  • Chris Ford
  • Philip Potter
  • Matthew Gilliard
  • Dave Ray
  • Harold Hausman
  • Jennifer Smith
  • Jacob Lee
  • Jon Rose
  • Fabian Steeg
  • Michael Bernstein