The Sonic Pi Interface
Sonic Pi has a very simple interface for coding music. Let’s spend a little time exploring it.
A. Play Controls
These pink buttons are the main controls for starting and stopping sounds. There’s the Run button for running the code in the editor, Stop for stopping all running code, Save for saving the code to an external file and Record to create a recording (a WAV file) of the sound playing.
B. Editor Controls
These orange buttons allow you to manipulate the code editor. The Size + and Size - buttons allow you to make the text bigger and smaller. The Align button will neaten the code for you to make it look more professional.
C. Info and Help
These blue buttons give you access to information, help and preferences. The Info button will open up the information window which contains information about Sonic Pi itself - the core team, history, contributors and community. The Help button toggles the help system (F) and the Prefs button toggles the preferences window which allows you to control some basic system parameters.
D. Code Editor
This is the area where you’ll write your code and compose/perform music. It’s a simple text editor where you can write code, delete it, cut and paste, etc. Think of it like a very basic version of Word or Google Docs. The editor will automatically colour words based on their meaning in the code. This may seem strange at first, but you’ll soon find it very useful. For example, you’ll know something is a number because it is blue.
E. Log Viewer
When you run your code, information about what the program is doing will be displayed in the log viewer. By default, you’ll see a message for every sound you create with the exact time the sound was triggered. This is very useful for debugging your code and understanding what your code is doing.
F. Help System
Finally, one of the most important parts of the Sonic Pi interface is the help system which appears at the bottom of the window. This can be toggled on and off by clicking on the blue Help button. The help system contains help and information about all aspects of Sonic Pi including this tutorial, a list of available synths, samples, examples, FX and a full list of all the functions Sonic Pi provides for coding music.