tidalcycles

TidalCycles, a language for live coding algorithmic patterns.

tidalcycles

93,293

14

4.1.0

GPL-3.0

GitHub

This package provides the following services:

TidalCycles plugin for Pulsar

CI

TidalCycles is a language for live coding algorithmic patterns.

After TidalCycles installation (checkout official documentation for details),

Then, you can:

To send patterns to SuperDirt, use d1 .. d9, e.g.:

d1 $ sound "bd cp"

Configuration

Interpreter

You can choose between 3 Haskell interpreters:

GHCI Path

By default the plugin will use the ghci and ghc-pkg binaries in $PATH configuration.

You can configure your Haskell binary folder to use a different version of it. (Only works with Default interpreter)

Boot Tidal Path

The plugin will load the BootTidal.hs file according to this sequence:

SuperDirt

SuperDirt can be started automatically at the first tidal code evaluation. The plugin will use a superdirt_startup.scp if it's present into the current folder, otherwise it will use the default startup command. This feature can be disabled in configuration.

Autocomplete

You can turn on/off autocomplete with this option.

Documentation details with Hoogle

With hoogle the autocomplete experience will improve and official tidal documentation will be shown.

Install hoogle and set the Hoogle Path configuration (by default it's already hoogle) if you install it with stack, add two dashes at the end of the property (e.g. stack hoogle --).

After installation you have to generate tidal documentation, in your terminal run:
hoogle generate tidal
or
stack hoogle -- generate tidal (with stack)

Console

The console can be customized:

Prompt

Customize the console prompt with a string. Placeholders can be used, e.g.

eval #%ec

will prompt:

eval #1>
eval #2>
etc...
Placeholders

Only Show Log When Errors

Filter all the console log and show only errors

Only Log Last Message

Filter all the console old logs and show only the last one

Event Highlighting

The event highlighting allows to visualize the active events within a mini notation pattern. This means, that only events within quotation marks will be considered.

TidalCycles configuration

TidalCycles needs to be configured to send editor highlight events. This is usually done by modifying the BootTidal.hs file and adding an editor highlight target. Here is a working example:

let editorTarget = Target {oName = "editor", oAddress = "127.0.0.1", oPort = 6013, oLatency = 0.02, oSchedule = Pre BundleStamp, oWindow = Nothing, oHandshake = False, oBusPort = Nothing }
let editorShape = OSCContext "/editor/highlights"

tidal <- startStream (defaultConfig {cFrameTimespan = 1/50}) [(superdirtTarget {oLatency = 0.2}, [superdirtShape]), (editorTarget, [editorShape])]

The path to the BootTidal.hs file can be found in the TidalCycles output console after TidalCycles has been booted in the editor.

Framerate

The event highlight animation is in relation to the refresh rate of the users display and the cFrameTimespan value of TidalCycles. This means, that the animation fps needs to be smaller then the denominator of the cFrameTimespan value. However a good value is somehow between 20 fps and 30 fps.

Custom Styles

It is possible to customize the event highlighting css styles. For this you can add the css classes under Pulsar -> Stylesheet....

There is a default style, that can be overriden like this in the global stylesheet:

.event-highlight {
  outline: 2px solid orange;
  outline-offset: 0px;
}

And it is possible to override the styles for every individual stream like this:

.event-highlight-2 {
  background-color: white;
}

The pattern of the css class is .event-highlight-[streamID].

Osc Eval

It's possibile to evaluate tidal code with OSC messages.

Port

The plugin is listening on this specified port for incoming osc messages:

Ip

The plugin is listening on this ip address for incoming osc messages:

Address

The plugin is filtering incoming osc messages with this specified address.

Arguments

Type

Mandatory type argument to specify what kind of evaluation is requested:

  1. line (evaluate single line)
  2. multi_line (evaluate code block)
  3. whole_editor (evaluate all the editor)
Row / Column

row and column parameters can be specified to move the cursor on that position before the evaluation.

Sound Browser

To make the sound browser at the first tidal evaluation, add your paths to the Sound Browser Folders in the plugin configuration, separed by commas.\ For example, on macOS, the default SuperDirt samples are at
/Users/<yourUser>/Library/Application Support/SuperCollider/downloaded-quarks/Dirt-Samples/
Restart editor (Pulsar) to apply changes.

Other configurations

Troubleshooting

Some flags have not been recognized: prompt-cont

The GHC version is too old (like 8.0.3). Solutions:

'' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

The BootTidal.hs and ghci path cannot contain whitespace inside. Solutions:

Note: this is fixed in GHC version 8.12

Could not find module Sound.Tidal.Context

The BootTidal.hs file is loaded correctly, but tidal is not installed or did not load correctly. Try restarting your editor. To install tidal, follow the documentation for your platform:
Documentation > Install Tidal

Variable not in scope

This could mean that the BootTidal.hs file you are using has a value not supported by the version of tidal you have installed. You can find the variable in the error message in your BootTidal.hs and comment out that line (using double hyphens).

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to this package, here are some guidelines:

JavaScript Formatting

A .jsbeautifyfc file is used to define JavaScript formatting settings. Please use a beautifier package (we recommend atom-beautify) to format your changes with these settings.

Specs

Always run specs before open a PR. To run them:

pulsar --test spec