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@@ -12,16 +12,20 @@ This page contains frequently asked questions. Usually, the topic is explained i
## Is Strudel/Tidal free?
Yes - there is no charge, this is a collective open source project, and the music you make with it is your own.
Yes - there is no charge, this is a collective open source project, and the music you make with it is your own.
However there are some caveats - the source code must stay free, i.e. you cannot distribute strudel or tidal as part of projects with incompatible licenses - see the [license](<https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html>) for details. The contributed examples and tracks are also separately licensed, and must not e.g. be used to train AI models without permission.
However there are some caveats - the source code must stay free, i.e. you cannot distribute strudel or tidal as part of projects with incompatible licenses - see the [license](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html) for details. The contributed examples and tracks are also separately licensed, and must not e.g. be used to train AI models without permission.
## How to record or export audio?
There are multiple ways to record the audio -- and video -- output of Strudel:
- capture the raw stereo signal coming out of your web browser.
- use the alternative SuperDirt audio engine. Read [this page](/learn/input-output/#oscsuperdirtstrudeldirt) to know more about it.
- capture the audio/video stream using a capture tool such as [OBS](<https://obsproject.com/fr>).
- don't record anything and code it again in front of your friends.
You will need an external audio editor/DAW such as Reaper/Audacity/Ardour, etc. Strudel itself does not have functionality for exporting stems / individual tracks to an audio or midi file. Strudel is not a digital audio workstation and does not operate following the same principles shared by most traditional audio softwares.
@@ -29,9 +33,10 @@ You will need an external audio editor/DAW such as Reaper/Audacity/Ardour, etc.
## Can I use strudel with my IDE?
Yes you can. There are experimental modes, made by community members, for several IDEs such as:
- VS Code: [Strudel VS](<https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=cmillsdev.strudelvs>): an experimental mode for Microsoft VSCode. A revived version of [TidalStrudel](<https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=roipoussiere.tidal-strudel>), which is defunct.
- nvim: [strudel.nvim](https://github.com/gruvw/strudel.nvim)
- VS Code: [Strudel VS](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=cmillsdev.strudelvs): an experimental mode for Microsoft VSCode. A revived version of [TidalStrudel](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=roipoussiere.tidal-strudel), which is defunct.
- nvim: [strudel.nvim](https://github.com/gruvw/strudel.nvim)
## How can I record samples?
You can use your own samples with Strudel. There are multiple ways to load your sample collection. Some methods are good for quick experimentation, some others are good to share your audio collection with other musicians:
@@ -41,10 +46,10 @@ You can use your own samples with Strudel. There are multiple ways to load your
## Can I use Strudel with AI/LLM tools?
You are free to do what you like with Strudel, within the terms of the free/open source AGPLv3 license. However as a community we are interested in exploring human creativity. AI is *way* over-hyped right now, including by people with very shady motives. Many in the community are very wary of people training models on their tunes that they've poured their love into. So please keep discussion and questions around AI and LLMs to channels dedicated to the topic and be fully respectful of other people's work.
You are free to do what you like with Strudel, within the terms of the free/open source AGPLv3 license. However as a community we are interested in exploring human creativity. AI is _way_ over-hyped right now, including by people with very shady motives. Many in the community are very wary of people training models on their tunes that they've poured their love into. So please keep discussion and questions around AI and LLMs to channels dedicated to the topic and be fully respectful of other people's work.
Furthermore, tools like ChatGPT generally give wrong answers. Please don't ask the community to fix those answers for you, as generally they will be timewasting nonsense.
Human questions only!
## How to run offline?
@@ -53,7 +58,7 @@ Strudel works offline just fine! There are multiple techniques to run it yoursel
## How to change tempo? How do I translate BPM to cpm?
If you have your tempo in beats per minute and use 4 beats per cycle (e.g. if your track is in 4/4ths) then you can do `setcpm(BPM/4)` where BPM is your beats per minute.
If you have your tempo in beats per minute and use 4 beats per cycle (e.g. if your track is in 4/4ths) then you can do `setcpm(BPM/4)` where BPM is your beats per minute.
If you have a different number of beats per bar or are using more or less beats per cycle (e.g. If you want to put only half a bar or two bars into one cycle), adjust accordingly.
@@ -68,21 +73,24 @@ If you pop open the sidetab of strudel.cc (small white < on the right hand side)
## How do I use this exactly like a DAW?
Short answer: you don't.
Long answer: you can use Strudel to work along your creative work in a DAW. There are many ways to do so.
If you want to emulate the functionality of a DAW in a live coding language, you'll have to identify the operations executed by the DAW (sequencing, repeating, applying filters and envelopes) and write code that is equivalent to these operations. You might then find that the typical DAW workflow is not really adapted to live coding (because, despite both being ways of making music on the computer, they are two very different tools) and adapt your way of proceeding to the medium of code. This might mean leaving more place to serendipity and writing code that you don't predict the output of.
## Why doesn't everyone just use a DAW?
There is no easy answer to this question. Here are some thoughts:
- Live coding tools such as Strudel are excellent for improvising music and visuals using a computer. DAWs are valuable and robust companions for other activities such as producing, mastering and mixing audio, among other usages. Using a tool does not exclude from using any another tool, just build a toolbox.
- Live coding has been practiced for quite some time as a performative activity. Artists like to show their screens while playing in front of an audience. It is an essential part of what they do, of the way they share their activity with everybody.
- Code is a human language, it is made for other humans to read it. You can read the code and enjoy the music too. It has meaning, value, and there might even be something poetic/important about it!
- Strudel is free and open source, you can inspect the code, reshape it, contribute to it if you can/want. It is not opaque and this matters for many people. There is no black box, no obscure abstractions, no business model or hidden features. We need open tools in the arts!
- Live coders don't shy away from using DAWs. They use them all of the time, especially when it makes their life easier for... live coding!
- Code is an artistic material like any other. There is something valuable in the process of making music through code. More generally speaking, it is nice to tackle creative problems through the use of a programming language: creative thinking, building up your own solutions, DIY approach to music-making, unexpected outcome of algorithms, funny human errors, etc.
- There are pianos and trumpets in your DAW: why do people continue playing the piano or the trumpet? Think of live coding tools as instruments that you activate through the act of programming.
There is no easy answer to this question. Here are some thoughts:
- Live coding tools such as Strudel are excellent for improvising music and visuals using a computer. DAWs are valuable and robust companions for other activities such as producing, mastering and mixing audio, among other usages. Using a tool does not exclude from using any another tool, just build a toolbox.
- Live coding has been practiced for quite some time as a performative activity. Artists like to show their screens while playing in front of an audience. It is an essential part of what they do, of the way they share their activity with everybody.
- Code is a human language, it is made for other humans to read it. You can read the code and enjoy the music too. It has meaning, value, and there might even be something poetic/important about it! - Strudel is free and open source, you can inspect the code, reshape it, contribute to it if you can/want. It is not opaque and this matters for many people. There is no black box, no obscure abstractions, no business model or hidden features. We need open tools in the arts! - Live coders don't shy away from using DAWs. They use them all of the time, especially when it makes their life easier for... live coding!
- Code is an artistic material like any other. There is something valuable in the process of making music through code. More generally speaking, it is nice to tackle creative problems through the use of a programming language: creative thinking, building up your own solutions, DIY approach to music-making, unexpected outcome of algorithms, funny human errors, etc.
- There are pianos and trumpets in your DAW: why do people continue playing the piano or the trumpet? Think of live coding tools as instruments that you activate through the act of programming.
## Is it more efficient to use Strudel than a DAW?
@@ -96,11 +104,11 @@ Strudel can send [MIDI and OSC](/learn/input-output/), which are protocols for c
Another music software (or hardware!) can then listen to these messages and process them according to its capabilities.
A simple example would be to send livecoded audio to Ableton on different tracks and then use it to mix them.
A simple example would be to send livecoded audio to Ableton on different tracks and then use it to mix them.
You could also send the MIDI of a sequenced pattern to Musescore and then have it transcribe your livecoded work as a musical score.
You could also send MIDI to your hardware synths because you think they sound better than the software synths built-in Strudel.
You could also send MIDI to your hardware synths because you think they sound better than the software synths built-in Strudel.
## How do I use this in my closed source webgame?
@@ -113,8 +121,12 @@ You cannot, as there is no such place. For details regarding our stance towards
## How to play different patterns simultaneously?
Using the $ operator, several patterns can be played at once:
<MiniRepl client:idle tune={`$: s("bd*4").bank("tr707")
$: s("- sd").bank("tr909")`} />
<MiniRepl
client:idle
tune={`$: s("bd*4").bank("tr707")
$: s("- sd").bank("tr909")`}
/>
See also [stack](intro/#combining-patterns)
@@ -122,29 +134,36 @@ See also [stack](intro/#combining-patterns)
With an additional underscore, a pattern can be muted.
<MiniRepl client:idle tune={`$: s("bd*4").bank("tr707")
_$: s("- sd").bank("tr909")`} />
<MiniRepl
client:idle
tune={`$: s("bd*4").bank("tr707")
_$: s("- sd").bank("tr909")`}
/>
See also [hush](/learn/conditional-modifiers/#hush)
## How can I arrange in Strudel using `mask`?
With mini-notation, using the `<>` and `!` operators, you can try something like
With mini-notation, using the `<>` and `!` operators, you can try something like
```
.mask("<0!24 1!40>")
```
It mutes a pattern for 24 cycles and plays it for 40. You would gain 64 cycles total, a multiple of 2/4/8 commonly used in western music.
If each cycle is a bar, as a starting point, you could write a mask like that for any pattern:
```
.mask("<0!16 0!16 0!16 0!16 0!16 0!10>")
.mask("<0!16 0!16 0!16 0!16 0!16 0!10>")
```
It mutes it throughout.
For arranging, you could add the same mask to each part and replace some zeroes with ones in your different masks to make parts play.
If you use `.mask()` on different patterns mess up your counting, then patterns do not align anymore.
On the other hand, doing that on purpose is one of the things that could be considered a strength of tidalcycles and Strudel.
On the other hand, doing that on purpose is one of the things that could be considered a strength of tidalcycles and Strudel.
You can make things quite lively and more organic with a little (controlled) interference, according to your own taste.
And you are free to arrange in cycles like 3, 6 or 9 too.
@@ -159,8 +178,9 @@ This would lowpass filter sweep everything every 8 cycles.
## How can I arrange in Strudel using `arrange` or `pick`?
Take [Pachelbel's Canon in D](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachelbel%27s_Canon#Analysis) as an example which has 4 voices (one cello and 3 violins) which have repeating patterns, as seen in the link above.
The following snipped defines the patterns as constants which can then be used for the different voices. `arrange` takes multiple arguments, which are each a number of cycles and a pattern which is played for the number of cycles, wrapped in `[]` If the pattern is shorter than the number, it is repeated.
<MiniRepl client:idle tune={`const cello = note(
"<[d3 a2 b2 f#2] [g2 d3 g2 a2]>")
.color("grey").sound("gm_tremolo_strings:3")
@@ -177,34 +197,34 @@ The following snipped defines the patterns as constants which can then be used f
"<[f#4 d4 e4 c#5 d5 f#5 a5 a4] [b4 g4 a4 f#4 d4 d5 [d5@3 c#5]@2]>")
.color("red")
cello$: arrange(
cello$: arrange(
[2, silence],
[18,cello])
violin1$: arrange(
[4,silence],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2],
[2,violin_p3], [2,violin_p4],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2],
[2,violin_p3], [2,violin_p4]
).sound("gm_tremolo_strings:0")
violin2$: arrange(
[4,silence],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2],
[2,violin_p3], [2,violin_p4],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2],
[2,violin_p3], [2,violin_p4]
).sound("gm_tremolo_strings:0")
violin2$: arrange(
[6,silence], [2,violin_p1],
[2,violin_p2], [2,violin_p3],
[2,violin_p4], [2,violin_p1],
[2,violin_p2], [2,violin_p3]
).sound("gm_tremolo_strings:1")
violin3$: arrange(
[8,silence],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2],
[2,violin_p3], [2,violin_p4],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2]
).sound("gm_tremolo_strings:2")
[8,silence],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2],
[2,violin_p3], [2,violin_p4],
[2,violin_p1], [2,violin_p2]
).sound("gm_tremolo_strings:2")
all(x => x.release(.2))
`} />
Alternatively, you can also put the different patterns for the violins into one single array (`const violins = [violin_p1, violin_p2, violin_p3, violin_p4]`) and use a pattern as an index to `pick` the nth element of that array. This replaces the voices defined above. Here you use `0@2` to specifiy that the first item (i.e. with index `0`) is played for `2` cycles.
Alternatively, you can also put the different patterns for the violins into one single array (`const violins = [violin_p1, violin_p2, violin_p3, violin_p4]`) and use a pattern as an index to `pick` the nth element of that array. This replaces the voices defined above. Here you use `0@2` to specifiy that the first item (i.e. with index `0`) is played for `2` cycles.
`pick` has better highlighting than `arrange`:
@@ -231,18 +251,18 @@ violin1$: "<~@4 0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2 0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2>".pick(violins)
.sound("gm_tremolo_strings:0")
violin2$: "<~@6 0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2 0@2 1@2 2@2>".pick(violins)
.sound("gm_tremolo_strings:1")
violin3$: "<~@8 0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2 0@2 1@2 >".pick(violins)
violin3$: "<~@8 0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2 0@2 1@2 >".pick(violins)
.sound("gm_tremolo_strings:2")
all(x => x.release(.2))
`} />
`} />
The `pick` method also works with jsons which have named elements, which makes it easier to read, see the [here](/learn/conditional-modifiers/#pick). `pickRestart` restarts the pattern upon picking it which can make a difference if the duration of the pick indexes doesn't line up with the patterns which are picked - which is not the case here.
Try adding `.punchcard()` after the `release(.2)` for a visualization.
## I saw Switch Angel using functions which I cannot find in the reference (e.g. `trancegate`). How do I make it work?
Methods like `trancegate()`, `rlpf()` and `acidenv()` are currently not pattern methods which come natively with strudel.
Methods like `trancegate()`, `rlpf()` and `acidenv()` are currently not pattern methods which come natively with strudel.
It's part of a script for strudel which was written by Switch Angel and published [here](https://github.com/switchangel/strudel-scripts/blob/main/allscripts.js)
@@ -255,20 +275,22 @@ If you paste these functions into your strudel session, hit "Update" and delete
## Is there difference between `n` and `note`?
They are not aliases of each other, in contrast to `s` and `sound`.
The method `note` is used to reference a certain note (either as its name, such as `c` or `b2` or the midi number `69`, for example `note("c3 e3 g3")`).
On the other hand, `n` is a way to reference the nth index of something. This something can be a scale (eg `n("0 2 4").scale("C:major")`) , but it can also be a particular note in a chord (see https://strudel.cc/recipes/recipes/#arpeggios for an example) .
The method `n` can also be used for something completely unrelated to notes like the nth sample from a sample map `s("hh*8").bank("RolandTR909").n("0 1 2 3")`. Note that `pick` does *not* use `n`.
The method `note` is used to reference a certain note (either as its name, such as `c` or `b2` or the midi number `69`, for example `note("c3 e3 g3")`).
<MiniRepl client:idle tune={`"<0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2>".pickRestart([
On the other hand, `n` is a way to reference the nth index of something. This something can be a scale (eg `n("0 2 4").scale("C:major")`) , but it can also be a particular note in a chord (see https://strudel.cc/recipes/recipes/#arpeggios for an example) .
The method `n` can also be used for something completely unrelated to notes like the nth sample from a sample map `s("hh*8").bank("RolandTR909").n("0 1 2 3")`. Note that `pick` does _not_ use `n`.
<MiniRepl
client:idle
tune={`"<0@2 1@2 2@2 3@2>".pickRestart([
n("0 1 2 0"),
n("2 3 4 ~"),
n("[4 5] [4 3] 2 0"),
n("0 -3 0 ~")
]).scale("C:major").s("piano")`} />
]).scale("C:major").s("piano")`}
/>{' '}
## Is there a cheat sheet for all symbols?
@@ -305,6 +327,6 @@ _ before a stack name: mutes the stack, i.e. hush(), for example _$: s("bd")
## Are there more FAQ items?
These pages have been taken from [this pad](https://doc.patternclub.org/_CgofWouTciXXHexUP9AVg?both). Some of the items there have not been brushed up and brought here.
These pages have been taken from [this pad](https://doc.patternclub.org/_CgofWouTciXXHexUP9AVg?both). Some of the items there have not been brushed up and brought here.
These include the following items: 9, 11, 12 and 19