ronin experiment 19 - Sonic Pi visualizer

Nikolaus Gradwohl2019-08-04T04:04:04+00:00

I created a short sonic pi session and wrote a visualizer for it in ronin. Sonic pi sends osc messages that change the amplitude, frequency and decay time of the sine wave based on the bass sound and triggers random colored circles when the pad sound is played


This is the sonic pi code for the session

bd = "bd/bd_013.wav"
sn = "sn/sn_053.wav"
hh = "hh/hh_061.wav"
oh = "hh/hh_062.wav"

d_bd = [3,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,1,0].ring()
d_sn = [0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1].ring()
d_hh = [1,1,0,0].ring()
d_oh = [0,0,1,0].ring()

use_bpm 90

live_loop :drum do
  with_fx :echo, mix: 0.04, phase: 0.25 do
    t = tick()
    if d_bd[t] == 1 then
      sample bd
    if d_sn[t] == 1 then
      sample sn
    if d_hh[t] == 1 then
      sample hh, decay: 0.03, decay_level: 0, sustain_level:0
    if d_oh[t] == 1 then
      sample oh, decay: 0.1, decay_level: 0, sustain_level: 00
  sleep 0.5
idx = 0
pattern = [1,1,2,1,3].ring()
live_loop :test do
  t = tick()

  with_fx :echo, mix: 0.3, phase: 0.25 do
    with_synth :dpulse do
      if (spread 5,16).look then
        with_fx :lpf, cutoff: 40 do
          n = pattern[idx]
          l = rrand(0.3, 0.9)
          play scale(:c2, :minor_pentatonic)[n-1], decay: l, decay_level:0, sustain_level:0
          play scale(:c4, :minor_pentatonic)[n-1], decay: l, decay_level:0, sustain_level:0
          use_osc "localhost", 49162
          osc "/a", n, l
  sync :drum

live_loop :sdf3 do
  sync :drum
  use_osc "localhost", 49162
  with_synth :dark_ambience do
    play scale(:c3, :minor_pentatonic).choose(), release: 8, amp: 1
    osc "/b"
  sleep 7.5

The ronin visualizer looks like this

(def d 0.02)
(def state {:amp 1 :next (add (time) 1000) :freq 8 :damp 0.875 })
(defn f (p amp) (
(def h (mul (sin (mul p PI state:freq)) (sub 1 (sq p)) amp ))
(def x (mul p (frame:c)))
(def y (mul h (frame:m)))
{ :x x :y y }

(on "/a" (λ (msg) (
(echo (of msg 0))
(set state "amp" 1)
(set state "damp" (sqrt (of msg 1)))
(set state "freq" (mul (of msg 0) 3))

(on "/b" (λ (msg) (

(circle 0 0 300)
(hsl (random 0 365) 100 50 0.3))

(on "animate" '(

(fill frame-rect
(transform:move frame:c frame:m)

(set state "amp" (mul state:amp state:damp))

(map (range -1 1 d) (lambda (l) (
(def p (last (f l state:amp)))
(def q (last (f (sub l d) state:amp)))

(circle p:x p:y 4)

(color 255 255 255 0.1) 1)
(line  q:x q:y p:x p:y)
(color 255 255 255 0.3) 1))

See also:

Ronin experiment 21 - morphing lissajous states
ronin experiment 20 - transform flower
Ronin experiment 18 - Rainbow
Ronin experiment 17 - boids
Ronin experiment 16 - 3D box



Leave a response

  1. Robin Newman 2019-08-12T13:44:53+00:00

    Thanks for the Ronin Visualizer. Just came across it when I looked you up following your recent major contribution to Sonic Pi, which I've just compiled. I look forward to trying it out.

    btwI have one problem with the Sonic Pi refactoring: the transparency slider on my Mac now no longer has any effect.

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