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Overtone is an Open Source toolkit for designing synthesizers and collaborating with music. It provides:

• A Clojure API to the SuperCollider synthesis engine
• A growing library of musical functions (scales, chords, rhythms, arpeggiators, etc.)
• Metronome and timing system to support live-programming and sequencing
• Plug and play MIDI device I/O
• A full Open Sound Control (OSC) client and server implementation.
• Pre-cache - a system for locally caching external assets such as .wav files
• An API for querying and fetching sounds from http://freesound.org
• A global concurrent event stream

• Install Java, since this is a prerequisite for Clojure

  • Quite often Java will already be installed, if java -version works and shows you a version of 11 or higher you should be good
  • On Linux, you should be able to use your operating system package manager, for instance on Ubuntu the package will be called something like openjdk-17-jdk
  • On MacOS you can use Homebrew if you have it
  • https://adoptium.net/ has installers for most operating systems

• Install the Clojure CLI tools, see Install Clojure

  • Also install rlwrap if you can, without it clojure will work, but clj will not, and you won't have history and line editing in your Clojure REPL

• Install SuperCollider, preferrably through your operating system's package manager (apt, yum, pacman, homebrew, chocolatey, etc.)

  • The main package is called supercollider everywhere
  • If there's a package names sc3-plugins, then install that as well

At this point you should have clojure and scsynth available.

$ clojure --version
Clojure CLI version 1.11.1.1413

$ scsynth -v
scsynth 3.13.0 (Built from  '' [na])

On macOS, scsynth might not be available but it's sufficient to have SuperCollider installed at /Applications/SuperCollider.app. This is homebrew's behavior.

Now you can add overtone/overtone as a dependency, and start a Clojure REPL.

mkdir happy-vibes && cd happy-vibes
echo '{:deps {overtone/overtone {:mvn/version "0.16.3331"}}}' > deps.edn
clj

Clojure 1.11.1
user=>

;; boot the server
user=> (use 'overtone.live)
--> Loading Overtone...
[overtone.live] [INFO] Found SuperCollider server: /usr/bin/scsynth (PATH)
--> Booting external SuperCollider server...
--> Connecting to external SuperCollider server: 127.0.0.1:26325
[scynth] SuperCollider 3 server ready.
--> Connection established

;; listen to the joys of a simple sine wave
user=> (demo (sin-osc))

;; or something more interesting...
user=> (demo 7 (lpf (mix (saw [50 (line 100 1600 5) 101 100.5]))
                    (lin-lin (lf-tri (line 2 20 5)) -1 1 400 4000)))

Run overtone.linter/emit! to emit clj-kondo configuration.

Do not commit the generated files, it's a bunch of data.

For a more detailed set of setup instructions (including details specific to Windows and Linux) head over to the Overtone wiki installation page

We maintain documentation for all aspects of the system in the project wiki, you'll find tutorials and examples on topics such as synthesizing new sounds from scratch, live-coding and generating musical scores on the fly. If you see anything missing, please feel free to add it yourself, or hit us up on the mailing list and we'll sort something out.

For a quick glance at all the exciting functionality Overtone puts at your musical fingertips check out the cheat sheet:

https://github.com/overtone/overtone/raw/master/docs/cheatsheet/overtone-cheat-sheet.pdf

A list of bands using Overtone to generate sounds:

• Meta-eX
• Repl Electric

We encourage you to join the mailing list to see what other people are getting up to with Overtone. Use it to ask questions, show off what you've made and even meet fellow Overtoners in your area so you can meet up for impromptu jam sessions. All we ask is that you be considerate, courteous and respectful and that you share as much of your code as possible so we can all learn how to make crazy cool sounds together.

You can find us in the #overtone channel on Clojurians Slack.

Our main website is hosted on GitHub: http://overtone.github.io

Head over to Vimeo for a fast-paced 4 minute introduction to live-coding with Overtone to see what's possible

http://vimeo.com/22798433

For a nice overview of the basics of creating and playing with synthesized instruments in Overtone checkout Philip Potter's 20 minute workshop:

http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/scala/clojurex-unpanel-2894

Chris Ford also delivers a beautifully paced introduction to fundamental music concepts from basic sine waves to Bach's Goldberg Variations with live examples throughout:

http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/home/functional-composition

There are also the following tutorials:

• Setting up an Overtone Development Environment - Running on Edge http://vimeo.com/25102399
• How to Hack Overtone with Emacs http://vimeo.com/25190186

• Rich Hickey - Harmonikit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhkdyCPYgLs
• Sam Aaron - Programming Music With Overtone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imoWGsipe4k
• Chris Ford - Functional Composition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfsnlbd-4xQ
• Meta-eX - Live Coding with Meta-eX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJqH5bNcIN0

Overtone has generated quite a bit of interest. Here's a list of available interviews which go into further depth on the background and philosophy of Overtone:

• http://twit.tv/show/floss-weekly/197
• http://mostlylazy.com/2011/11/18/episode-0-0-2-sam-aaron-and-overtone-at-clojure-conj-2011/
• http://codebassradio.net/2011/11/29/runtime-expectations-episode-13-hot-clojure-conj/ (scroll down to the section with Sam Aaron, Ghadi Shayban, and Daniel Spiewak)
• http://clojure.com/blog/2012/01/04/take5-sam-aaron.html

• Repl Electric: https://vimeo.com/95988263
• Piotr Jagielski‏: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8YKC7Qugm8
• Sam Aaron Live @ Arnolfini: https://vimeo.com/46867490
• Meta-eX Live @ Music Tech Fest: http://youtu.be/zJqH5bNcIN0?t=15m25s

Downloads and the source repository can be found on GitHub:

http://github.com/overtone/overtone

Clone the repository on GitHub to get started developing, and if you are ready to submit a patch then fork your own copy and do a pull request.

Overtone and its dependencies are on http://clojars.org, and the dependency for your deps.edn is:

{overtone/overtone {:mvn/version "0.16.3331"}}

or for your project.clj (Leiningen)

[overtone/overtone "0.16.3331"]

See: https://github.com/overtone/overtone/graphs/contributors

The MIT License, see [[LICENSE]].

Copyright © 2009-2024 Jeff Ross, Sam Aaron, and contributors.