/Forge

A live coding language for heavy metal

Primary LanguageRubyOtherNOASSERTION

Forge

Forge is a live coding language for generating heavy metal music. It is based on Tidal and built within Sonic Pi.

To Use Forge

  1. Download and install Sonic Pi (DON'T LAUNCH IT YET)
  2. Download the ZIP of this repository and extract it into a suitable location (I extracted it into C:\Users\James\Documents\Forge so this is my EXTRACTION_LOCATION)
  3. Copy both folders in EXTRACTION_LOCATION\vendor\ into PATH_TO\Sonic Pi\app\server\vendor\ (for me this is C:\Program Files (x86)\Sonic Pi\app\server\vendor\)
  4. Launch Sonic Pi
  5. Copy the contents of EXTRACTION_LOCATION\forge.rb into any Sonic Pi buffer
  6. Change DIRECTORY = 'EXTRACTION_LOCATION' on line 2 to the path of the folder you extracted in Step 2
  7. Run the buffer (This must be run every time Sonic Pi is opened)
  8. Get coding

Forge Examples

  • A simple repeating kick drum
forge :drums, "k" # :drums is the name of the live_loop created
  • A repeating kick then snare
forge :drums, "k s" # Listed items are played one after the other
  • A repeating kick and snare
forge :drums, "[k, s]" # Arrayed items are played simultaneously
  • These can be combined in anyway
forge :drums, "[k k k, cc] [s [s s]]"
  • ~ can be used for silence
forge :drums, "~" # This is an empty loop
  • You can define multiple loops
forge :guitar, "45 49 47 45" # Numbers refer to guitar notes
forge :drums, "[k k,s]"

Additional features

Several shortcuts exist in Forge to make live-coding easier

  • * can be used to repeat a sound. "k*3" is the same as "k k k"
  • You can spread sounds over intervals using something of the form "k(3,5)" - here 3 kick drums are spread evenly over 5 beats, so it is equal to "k ~ k ~ k"
  • / will cause a sound to last longer. For example in "45/3" the note will last 3 times longer than the note in "45"
  • It is also possibe to define your own sounds in Sonic Pi and call them in Forge. This is done as a function that is evaluated in Forge:
# Define your sound as an argumentless function
define :a_chord do
  play 45
  play 47
  play 50
end

forge :guitar, "a_chord" # Call the function in Forge