SuperCollider library for Python

This project is a port of core features of SuperCollider's language to Python 3. It is intended to be the same library in a different language and to keep sclang elegance in a pythonic way (if possible).

The main reason for this port is Python's capacity of interaction with other libraries applicable to composition, sonic-art and research. My wish is for this project to be useful for the SuperCollider community.

Note that this project is still under development and there are missing parts, bugs you are welcome to report, and documentation is under construction. The best way to learn about SuperCollider is going to the source.

Examples

The idea is that you can write the same in Python as in sclang, with the same logic regarding multichannel expansion, arguments conversion to Control ugens, etc., it should be the same result. For example:

from sc3.all import *

s.boot()

@synthdef
def sine(freq=440, amp=0.1, gate=1):
    sig = SinOsc(freq) * amp
    env = EnvGen(Env.adsr(), gate, done_action=2)
    Out(0, (sig * env).dup())

sine.dump_ugens()

Wait for boot...

n = Synth('sine')

n.set('amp', 0.05)

n.set('freq', 550)

s.dump_tree(True)

n.release()
# s.free_nodes()  # If something went wrong free all nodes.

s.quit()  # Stop server at the end of interactive session or just quit ipython.

More examples can be found as python notebooks in the following repo:

https://github.com/pabloriera/SC3_notebooks

Install

Depending on your operating system you may need to use python3 and pip3 commands instead of python and pip.

From source using pip (recomended by now):

pip install git+https://github.com/smrg-lm/sc3.git

Or with optional MIDI support:

pip install "sc3[midi] @ git+https://github.com/smrg-lm/sc3.git"

From source in develop mode (having a clone of this repo already):

python setup.py develop  # --user flag might be needed

For optional MIDI support also install mido and rtmidi backend:

pip install mido python-rtmidi

From PyPI (usually outdated by now, there will be a more stable beta version soon):

pip install sc3  # [midi] or [midi-nrt] for MIDI support, the nrt variant
                 # installs mido but not the driver.

License

The sc3 library is free software available under Version 3 of the GNU General Public License. See COPYING for details.

NB: The sc3 library is a Python translation of the SuperCollider's library and inherits its same license and community guidelines.

Citing

@inproceedings{samaruga2022port,
  title={A port of the SuperCollider’s class library to Python},
  author={Samaruga, Lucas and Riera, Pablo},
  booktitle={Proceedings of the 17th International Audio Mostly Conference},
  pages={137--142},
  year={2022}
}