Welcome to the future of music.
Simple enough for computing and music lessons.
Powerful enough for professional musicians.
Free to download with a friendly tutorial.
Learn to code creatively by composing or performing music in an incredible range of styles from classical & jazz to EDM.
Sonic Pi was specifically designed for and built in collaboration with teachers for use in the classroom.
Sonic Pi is a new kind of musical instrument which enables exciting new learning pathways in the classroom.
Scheme of Work for Music Lessons
Sonic Pi was designed, implemented and developed with extensive classroom trials in close collaboration with teachers.
Introduction for Teachers
Sonic Pi comes with a scheme of work targetted for KS3 Computing developed in harmony with the new UK curriculum.
Scheme of Work for Computing Lessons
Sonic Pi is a new kind of musical instrument.
Watch how you can use it for live performances from ambient sets to dance music in nightclubs...
Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi, has written this book to
complement the built-in documentation.
Master live loops, code drum breaks, compose your own melodies make random riffs and loops, learn to shape and sculpt sounds and much, much more...
See how easy it is to get started coding your first sounds...
loop do
sample :perc_bell, rate: (rrand 0.125, 1.5)
sleep rrand(0, 2)
end
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.2 do
loop do
play scale(:Eb2, :major_pentatonic, num_octaves: 3).choose, release: 0.1, amp: rand
sleep 0.1
end
end
loop do
with_synth :dsaw do
with_fx(:slicer, phase: [0.25,0.125].choose) do
with_fx(:reverb, room: 0.5, mix: 0.3) do
start_note = chord([:b1, :b2, :e1, :e2, :b3, :e3].choose, :minor).choose
final_note = chord([:b1, :b2, :e1, :e2, :b3, :e3].choose, :minor).choose
p = play start_note, release: 8, note_slide: 4, cutoff: 30, cutoff_slide: 4, detune: rrand(0, 0.2), pan: rrand(-1, 0), pan_slide: rrand(4, 8)
control p, note: final_note, cutoff: rrand(80, 120), pan: rrand(0, 1)
end
end
end
sleep 8
end
with_fx :reverb do
in_thread do
loop do
r = [0.5, 1.0/3, 3.0/5].choose
8.times do
sample :ambi_choir, rate: r, pan: rrand(-1, 1)
sleep 0.5
end
end
end
end
with_fx :wobble, phase: 2 do |w|
with_fx :echo, mix: 0.6 do
loop do
sample :drum_heavy_kick
sample :bass_hit_c, rate: 0.8, amp: 0.4
sleep 1
end
end
end
with_fx :reverb, mix: 0.5 do
loop do
s = synth [:bnoise, :cnoise, :gnoise].choose, amp: rrand(0.5, 1.5), attack: rrand(0, 4), sustain: rrand(0, 2), release: rrand(1, 3), cutoff_slide: rrand(0, 3), cutoff: rrand(60, 80), pan: rrand(-1, 1), pan_slide: 1, amp: rrand(0.5, 1)
control s, pan: rrand(-1, 1), cutoff: rrand(60, 115)
sleep rrand(2, 3)
end
end
define :play_bb do |n|
sample :drum_heavy_kick
sample :ambi_drone, rate: [0.25, 0.5, 0.125, 1].choose, amp: 0.25 if rand < 0.125
sample :ambi_lunar_land, rate: [0.5, 0.125, 1, -1, -0.5].choose, amp: 0.25 if rand < 0.125
sample :loop_amen, attack: 0, release: 0.05, start: 1 - (1.0 / n), rate: [1,1,1,1,1,1,-1].choose
sleep sample_duration(:loop_amen) / n
end
loop {play_bb([1,2,4,8,16].choose)}
in_thread do
use_synth :fm
sleep 2
loop do
28.times do
sample :drum_bass_hard, amp: 0.8
sleep 0.25
play :e2, release: 0.2
sample :elec_cymbal, rate: 12, amp: 0.6
sleep 0.25
end
sleep 4
end
end
use_synth :tb303
with_fx :reverb do |rev|
loop do
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.3)
with_fx :slicer, phase: 0.125 do
sample :ambi_lunar_land, sustain: 0, release: 8, amp: 2
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
r = rrand(0.05, 0.3)
64.times do
play chord(:e3, :minor).choose, release: r, cutoff: rrand(50, 90), amp: 0.5
sleep 0.125
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
r = rrand(0.1, 0.2)
with_synth :prophet do
32.times do
sleep 0.125
play chord(:a3, :m7).choose, release: r, cutoff: rrand(40, 130), amp: 0.7
end
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
r = rrand(0.05, 0.3)
32.times do
play chord(:e3, :minor).choose, release: r, cutoff: rrand(110, 130), amp: 0.4
sleep 0.125
end
control rev, mix: rrand(0, 0.6)
with_fx :echo, phase: 0.25, decay: 8 do
16.times do
play chord([:e2, :e3, :e4].choose, :m7).choose, release: 0.05, cutoff: rrand(50, 129), amp: 0.5
sleep 0.125
end
end
end
end
Here's a taster of some of the exciting things happening in the Sonic Pi world...
Sam Aaron performed with Sonic Pi at Moogfest 2016. Rolling Stone featured his performance in their review of the festival and said it "transcended the present".
Sébastien Rannou has published a tutorial on how he live coded his fabulous cover of Aerodynamic by Daft Punk.
Enter this exciting once-in-a-lifetime competition to get your Sonic Pi music played onboard the International Space Station by UK astronaut Tim Peake.
Radio 1 DJ MistaJam and Live Coder Sam Aaron compose a piece of music using Sonic Pi, inspired by Bizet's 'Carmen'
Sonic Pi has been listed as a finalist for the Music Teacher Best Music Education Product Award alongside music instrument manufacturers Boss and Korg.
The MagPi magazine now features a regular piece by Sam Aaron introducing readers to new features in Sonic Pi. You can either buy the printed magazine or download the free PDF.
Sonic Pi was featured on the UK national children's news programme CBBC Newsround - with presenter Jenny Lawrence discovering Live Coding for the first time.
The Sonic Pi: Live & Coding project has launched a series of 10 "Pop Pi" music videos created by artists using Sonic Pi.
Artists Juneau Projects write about the recent Sonic Pi Live & Coding Summer School which involved 60 children aged 10-14 learning to code and perform on stage at Cambridge Junction.
Get started on the world's most affordable computer.
Sonic Pi is already pre-installed on Raspbian Jessie - the SD card image recommended by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Easily keep your Sonic Pi up-to-date via the Raspbian Package Manager:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sonic-pi
Turn any PC into a full Sonic Pi workstation.
A portable version that will self-extract and run from a USB stick or folder. No installation necessary.
Download Portable App
Sonic Pi v2.11.1 is compatible with Windows and works well with all versions of Windows from 7 to 10.
Sonic Pi is available as a self-contained MSI installer for you to install on your machine or network.
Download MSI InstallerReady to run binaries for your open source operating system.
You can compile Sonic Pi from source, but there are binaries ready for use in your Debian and Ubuntu package repositories, thanks to the Debian Multimedia packagers team.
The Sonic Pi package is in Debian Sid (Unstable), Debian Stretch (Testing) and Ubuntu 16.04. To install, just enter:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sonic-pi
The Sonic Pi Ubuntu PPA repository always contains the latest stable release for Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr", 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" and 16.04 "Xenial Xerus". Just follow the "Adding this PPA to your system" instructions there.
Use the full power of your Mac to take Sonic Pi to the next level.
Sonic Pi has been built as a self-contained macOS app ready for you to download and launch.
Just ensure you give Sonic Pi permission to run in the Security Preferences.
Download Sonic Pi v2.11.1 for macOS here.
Download
Compiled for 64 bit architectures, Sonic Pi has been tested to run on OS X Mountain Lion through to macOS Sierra.