Some of these tools we use! Some of them are built by our community! You can find a more comprehensive list here (opens new window)

Audio

Sonic PI (Ruby) Website (opens new window)

Sonic Pi is a tool to create music using Ruby.

TidalCycles (Haskell) Website (opens new window)

TidalCycles is a live coding environment designed for musical improvisation and composition. In particular, it is a domain-specific language embedded in Haskell, focused on the generation and manipulation of audible or visual patterns. TidalCycles was the Pet project of Alex Mclean (founder of Algorave) after he was inspired by South Indian Rhythm patterns implemented in the still ongoing Bol Processor Project. (Wikipedia) (opens new window)

Strudel (Javascript) Website (opens new window)

A new live coding platform to write dynamic music pieces in the browser! It is free and open-source and made for beginners and experts alike. Based on TidalCycles' notation but javascript. It is used by the popular livecoding musicians SwitchAngel and DJDave. (Website) (opens new window)

SuperCollider (SClang) Website (opens new window)

A platform for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition, used by musicians, artists and researchers working with sound. It consists of a DSP server, an IDE and a native language for writing sound functions. Tidal, Sonicpi, Sardine and many other languages use supercollider's audio server as their backend. (Wikipedia) (opens new window)

Csound (C) Website (opens new window)

Csound is a domain-specific computer programming language for audio programming. It is named Csound because it is written in the language C, in contrast to some of its predecessors. It consists of making sounds through opcodes, and certain frameworks such as cabbage allow you to make vst's and instruments out of Csound code. (Wikipedia) (opens new window)

MAX-MSP (node-based) Website (opens new window)

Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. It consists of Max, the general purpose event scheduler; MSP, the DSP framework; Gen~, a low level programming language for signal processing that works with embedded devices like Daisy; Jitter, a visual and geometry programming environment based on OpenGL and RNBO, an add-on language for max that allows you to export max patches to a variety of systems such as Web, Raspberry Pi, VST3 and more. (Wikipedia) (opens new window)

VCV Rack (node-based) Website (opens new window)

VCV Rack is a free open-source virtual modular synthesizer: multiple modules can be connected to synthesize a sound. By default, the software contains several VCOs, LFOs, mixers, and other standard synthesizer modules. However, more can be added as plugins through the VCV Rack website. (Wikipedia) (opens new window)

PlugData (node-based) Website (opens new window)

Plugdata is a free/open-source visual programming environment based on Miller Puckette's software environment PureData, but comes added with a host of new libraries and features, along with lua scripting. It is available for a wide range of operating systems, and can be used both as a standalone app, or as a VST3, LV2, CLAP or AU plugin. It can export to VST3, CLAP or even raw C++ code, while also having the ability to compile patches to embedded platforms such as Bela (opens new window) or Daisy (opens new window).

Visuals

Hydra (JavaScript) Website (opens new window) Editor (opens new window)

Hydra is a "set of tools for livecoding networked visuals. Inspired by analog modular synthesizers, these tools are an exploration into using streaming over the web for routing video sources and outputs in realtime." (GitHub) (opens new window)

TouchDesigner (node-based) Website (opens new window)

TouchDesigner is a node-based visual programming language for real-time interactive multimedia content. It was founded by Greg Harmanovic, one of the orginal developers and pioneers of the CHOP objects in the VFX program Houdini. After leaving SideFX he decided to work on a fork of Houdini known as Touchdesigner, mainly enhancing and extending the CHOP/DAT class of Houdini Objects. It is a very widely known and popular tool in realtime visual art.

VVVV (node-based) Website (opens new window)

vvvv is a visual-first live programming environment for the .NET ecosystem. Its language VL combines metaphors known from dataflow, functional and object oriented programming. Made as an inhouse tool for studios and later released as proprietary work, VVVV has been used for over two decades in media art and design, particularly by Refik Anadol. The older version VVVV Beta was re-written in 2021 and returned as VVVV Gamma.

OpenFrameworks (C++) Website (opens new window)

openFrameworks is an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding. It is one of the oldest creative coding frameworks out there that is still widely in use today. It was developed by famous creative coder Zachary Lieberman, now a professor at the MIT media lab and director of the future sketches group.

P5.js (Javascript) Website (opens new window)

p5.js is a friendly tool for learning to code and make art. It is a free and open-source JavaScript library built by an inclusive, nurturing community, based on the Processing language. It is maintained and developed by the Processing foundation.

Hardware

Sometimes members use hardware units for sequencing, FX processing, sampling and convenience. Here are a few that we use.

Teenage Engineering Website (opens new window)

Teenage engineering creates high quality, well designed, electronic products for all people who love sound and music, ranging from pocket samplers to boutique sequencers. They are most known for the OP-1 and the Pocket Operator Series.

Daisy Seed Website (opens new window)

Daisy is an embedded platform for music. It features everything you need for creating high fidelity audio hardware devices.

Behringer Website (opens new window)

Behringer is an audio equipment company founded by the Swiss engineer Uli Behringer on 25 January 1989 in Willich, Germany. Behringer produces equipment including synthesizers, mixers, audio interfaces and amplifiers. They are a popular vendor for much cheaper versions of older, now unavailable synths, one example being the Roland TB-303.

Elektron Website (opens new window)

Elektron is a company known for making bold and enduring electronic music instruments and technology, acclaimed for their creativity-unlocking potential, the most famous of these being the Digitakt, Octatrack and Digitone. The "elektron Sequencer" is considered one of the best hardware sequencers money can buy.