Oscilla Live (olive)

Live coding with sound and image together, in the browser: you write a line and run it, and it sounds at once -- every synth drawing its own animated scope (a wave, a polar rosette, a Lissajous figure, a ridge of its past), shapes and words that move with the sound, the whole stage folded, warped and tinted, laid out on a grid and dealt about on the beat. Nothing is compiled or restarted: every line changes what is already playing.

Start here

Open Oscilla Live -- or /live on your own Oscilla server -- and press Start (or Random example to hear one first). Type these, one at a time, running each with Ctrl+Enter:

synth(uid:bass, wave:saw, freq:Pwhite(40, 90), dur:0.25, amp:0.15, sub:0.6)
gui(bass, size:1, view:xy, trail:1, color:#ff2a6d)
bass > rotate(follow(bass.t, 0, 360))
level(bass, 0.3, 8, exp3)
gate(bass, 0, 4)

A bass line and its octave below; it draws itself across the screen; the drawing turns with the pitch; it sinks to a third of its level over eight beats; then it lets go, and its sound dies away. gate(bass, 1) brings it back. Ctrl+. stops everything.

Every time in a line is in beats -- a second each at the default 60 bpm, tempo(120) for twice as fast.

The pages


Shaping a sound live	level, gate, hush, hold -- turning a sound down, letting it go, stopping it, freezing its pattern
Sound	fuzz, sub, reverb, moving parameters, envelopes, patterns, microtones, random values you can keep
Seeing what is happening	meters, the machine's load, drawings that follow the sound, the external audio input, the camera, lines run on the beat, recording
Visuals	the stage folded, mirrored, tiled, tinted; the grid; blend; shapes thrown about
Keys	the console's keys
Hosting, and rooms	Live on any web host, and performers together through a relay
Live coding: the tour	the whole of it: sound, image, linking them, a set in practice
The live console	the console itself: buffers, stashes, perform mode, the projector

Each thing a line can make has its page under Reference in the menu: synth(), gui(), shape(), text(), follow() and the signals ...

A few habits

Name every sound -- synth(uid:bass, ...). The name is how you reach it afterwards: level(bass, ...), gate(bass, 0), bass > rotate(...). The console names an unnamed one for you.
Run a line again to change it. A sound with the same name changes in place -- except a poly: one: Ctrl+Enter adds a voice, Ctrl+Alt+Enter gives the line to every voice (see Shaping).
Blocks. A line starting #$ heads a block; Ctrl+Enter on it runs the block, Tab folds it away.
Comment a line out and run it (Ctrl+Shift+/, then Ctrl+Enter): what it started stops.

Tip: use ← → or ↑ ↓ to navigate the docs