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Programming languages used for music

timthompson.com

51–60 of 108 posts

Re: Programming languages used for music

#51

I use SQL for music: https://github.com/ClickHouse/NoiSQL

Very cool! Found this note interesting:

```

Limitations

I haven't, yet, found a good way to implement filters (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, etc.). It does not have Fourier transform, and we cannot operate on the frequency domain. However, the moving average can suffice as a simple filter.

```

I wonder if there's a way to implement the FFT using subqueries and OVER/partitioning? That would create a lot of room for some interesting stuff to happen, specifically making it easy/possible to implement filters, compression, reverberation, and other kinds of effects.

Two other primitives that would be valuable to figure out: 1. How to implement FM/phase distortion. You can basically implement a whole universe of physical modeling if you get basic 6 op sine wave primitives right with FM + envelopes. 2. Sampling/resampling - given clickhouse should do quite well with storing raw sample data, being able to sample/resample opens up a whole world of wavetable synthesis algorithms, as well as vocal editing, etc.

Honestly, although the repo's approach is basic, I think the overall approach is wonderful and have wanted to be able to use SQL to write music for a while. I've spent a lot of time writing music in trackers, and being able to use SQL feels like it would be one of the few things that could spiritually be a successor to it. I've looked at other live coding languages, many of which are well built and have been used by talented people to make good music (such as Tidal, Strudel, etc). But all of it seems like a step down in language from SQL. I'd rather have their capabilities accessible from SQL than have to use another language and its limitations just to get those capabilities.

Food for thought -- thanks for the interesting and thoughtful work!

Re: Programming languages used for music

#52

Switch Angel live-code using Strudel. Really impressive and interesting stuff. https://youtu.be/aPsq5nqvhxg

Just to add some context, Strudel is TidalCycles ported from Haskell to JS. IMO, Haskell is a much nicer language for this stuff. Hopefully, now that GHC can output WebAssembly, someone can build a web-based music programming environment around the original TidalCycles instead.

Re: Programming languages used for music

#53

Switch Angel live-code using Strudel. Really impressive and interesting stuff. https://youtu.be/aPsq5nqvhxg

The person in that video really has an ear for synthesis. I've spent quite some time watching all the strudel videos and this creator consistently shows the best skill across genres.

Re: Programming languages used for music

#54
post #44

Relevant to this discussion - my project Glicol ( https://glicol.org ) addresses this space. Currently working on a no_std rewrite, demo coming next year :)

Curious, would the rewrite allow for building on hardware platforms such as the Daisy? Or maybe it is already possible, to be fair I haven't looked closely. https://daisy.audio/hardware/ , https://github.com/electro-smith/libDaisy

of course I already got a poc a while ago:

https://github.com/chaosprint/daisy-rust-playground

but for now my main mcu is rp2350

Re: Programming languages used for music

#55
post #24
post #10

Almost an esolang, but orca is an amazing example of spatial programming for music production (GH https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca and video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSFrBFBd7vY to see it in action)

Is this the one from the hippie(non perjorative) group living off a boat? If it’s the same, it’s one that if I win the lottery I’d spend my time learning along with this tool from Imogen https://mimugloves.com/ I don’t think I’d ever produce something worth listening to, but if I won the lottery, why would I care beyond my own enjoyment?

‘Your own enjoyment’ is a rich reward. My unsolicited advice: Try making a mess with it everyday for a week / month / year and see if you don’t start to appreciate something in what you make. Orca is a brilliant piece of work.

Re: Programming languages used for music

#56

Switch Angel live-code using Strudel. Really impressive and interesting stuff. https://youtu.be/aPsq5nqvhxg

This was epic, and reminded me of the magic of programming when I first found a video game maker at a wee 11 years old.

Writing code to make music feels so natural to me (a musically inept, but proficient coder) and this breaks down so many barriers.

I wonder how Cursor fares with Strudel so far.

Re: Programming languages used for music

#58
Very creative guy operating this site (look at this! https://timthompson.com/spacepalette/) though it looks like it’s been idle the past 4 years or so? The live-coding community around tidal cycles will point you to a the fruit of missing projects like tidal-cycles and strudel. A strong inviting community: https://club.tidalcycles.org/

Re: Programming languages used for music

#60
And at least 5 times a year someone designs a new one where it is painfully obvious that they're almost entirely unaware that anyone has ever designed one before - or if you're very lucky, maybe they've heard of ABC.
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