Note: Still Alpha Status: SuperSonic is in active development. The API may continue to evolve, but the core synthesis engine is solid and ready for experimentation. Feedback and ideas are most welcome.

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Back in the late 90s James McCartney designed a series of live audio programming environments called SuperCollider. These were systems with both programming languages and audio runtimes carefully designed for live realtime modification at every level - from high sweeping programming language abstractions all the way down to the fine control of the low-level synthesis components of the audio chain.

One of the many gifts from this work is scsynth - the core synthesis engine James created for version 3 of SuperCollider. It was at this point when he formally separated the language from the synth engine.

This split made it possible to combine scsynth's powerful audio synthesis capabilities with any existing - or yet to exist - programming language.

This then led to a suite of powerful new live coding languages using scsynth for audio synthesis.

What if you didn't just bring your language to scsynth? What if you brought scsynth to your environment?

This is SuperSonic. All the synthesis power of the original scsynth - rearchitected to reach new places.

Welcome to SuperSonic

SuperSonic is a complete reworking of SuperCollider's audio synthesis engine scsynth designed to run in new places - in the browser as an AudioWorklet, as a standalone native server, or as a native shared library running directly in the BEAM via a NIF. Currently it has the following features:

Built on clockwork

SuperSonic is scsynth running on clockwork. clockwork provides the audio device IO, MIDI, OSC, gamepad input, transport clock and Ableton Link; scsynth provides the synthesis engine, node tree and UGens. The two connect through Clockwork's DSP API in dsp_api.h.

Core

• scsynth compatible - full OSC command compatibility with SuperCollider's scsynth. See the command reference.
• Live metrics - cheap, zero-copy telemetry in both transport modes: OSC throughput, scheduler depth and lateness, ring buffer fill and a live node-tree mirror. See metrics.
• Malloc-free audio path - zero allocation or blocking on the audio thread.
• Scheduling in the engine - far-future bundles are held by the engine itself, timestamped to the sample; /clockwork/sched/flush cancels what is still waiting.
• Cold swap - the engine can be rebuilt under a running client, for a device or rate change, with synthdefs and buffers restored by the client.
• Upstream compatible - kept in sync with the official SuperCollider scsynth server.
• Tested - 1400+ browser tests, each run in both transport modes, plus clockwork's own 3000+ native cases.

Web

• Dual transport - SharedArrayBuffer for performance, postMessage for zero-config CDN deployment.
• Mobile resilient - suspend and resume, a full reload when resume fails, and the client restores its synthdefs and buffers afterwards.
• Observable - real-time telemetry: ring buffer usage, scheduler depth, audio health and glitch detection.
• Multiple clients - give any Web Worker its own OscChannel to the AudioWorklet. Each channel carries a source ID visible in the aggregated OSC log.
• Thread-safe node IDs - nextNodeId() allocates unique node IDs across any number of threads and workers - guaranteed unique with no clashes.
• Hosted on npm - available as supersonic-scsynth with separate packages for core, synthdefs and samples.

Native

• Ableton Link v4 - tempo sync across the network plus streaming Link Audio in and out.
• Live device and driver switching - hot-swap at runtime with automatic cold swap on rate mismatch.
• Headless mode - high-resolution timer-driven processing for CI and containers.
• UDP OSC server - drop-in scsynth replacement, with clockwork's /clockwork/* verbs for MIDI, gamepad, the clock, tracks and recording alongside.

NIF

• BEAM embedded - clean OSC binary interface. Same protocol boundary as web and native.
• Dirty scheduler aware - engine init never blocks normal BEAM schedulers.
• PID-based notifications - receive OSC replies and debug output asynchronously via enif_send().

Demo

Try the live demo: sonic-pi.net/supersonic/demo.html

Getting Started

Web

SuperSonic can be fetched remotely via CDN, locally via npm or self-built — see Installation.

Native

Clone with the submodule and build with CMake - see Building from Source.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/samaaron/supersonic
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --target SuperSonic

CMakeLists.txt here names the guest and links the host; everything else is clockwork's own build - see clockwork/docs/BUILDING.md for the options.

NIF

Build the BEAM NIF with cmake -B build/nif -DCLOCKWORK_NIF=ON — see Building from Source.

For the full list of configuration options, see the API Reference. For installation options see the Installation Guide. Once installed, head to the Quick Start to make your first sound.

Documentation

• Installation - CDN, npm, self-hosting, browser requirements
• Quick Start - Boot and play your first synth
• API Reference - Methods, callbacks, and configuration
• Communication Modes - SAB vs postMessage, server configuration
• scsynth Command Reference - OSC commands for controlling scsynth
• Workers Guide - Send OSC directly from Web Workers and AudioWorklets for the lowest latency.
• Metrics - Performance monitoring and debugging
• Building from Source - WASM, native, and NIF (Erlang/Elixir) builds
• Debian Packaging - CI-proven Debian source package: offline build, system dependencies, lintian/autopkgtest

Support

SuperSonic is brought to you by Sam Aaron. Please consider joining the community of supporters enabling Sam's work on creative coding projects like this, Sonic Pi and Tau5.

• Patreon
• GitHub Sponsors

License

SuperSonic as a whole is copyleft: scsynth is GPL-3.0-or-later and clockwork is AGPL-3.0-or-later (or commercially licensed), so the combined program is AGPL-3.0-or-later. The clockwork half keeps its own licence and stays separable. See LICENSE and clockwork/LICENSE.

Credits

The synth is based on SuperCollider by James McCartney and the SuperCollider community. This AudioWorklet port was inspired by Hanns Holger Rutz who started the first port of scsynth to WASM and Dennis Scheiba who continued this work. Thank you to everyone in the SuperCollider community!