SnykCon 2020

Sonic Pi is a free code-based music creation and performance tool that targets both education and professional musicians.  It is possible for beginners to code fresh beats, driving bass lines and shimmering synth riffs. All this whilst teaching core computer science concepts such as sequencing, functions, variables, loops, data structures and algorithms.

In this discussion and performance we’ll briefly cover its history before taking a deep technical nose dive into some of the core technical innovations which enable powerful, live expression of music. We’ll explore Sonic Pi’s novel internal technologies which enable it to rhythmically synchronise concurrent threads (to the beat), deliver thread-safe deterministic randomisation and the power of representing state in its internal totally-ordered event-store.