Guide to TidalCycles installation

Pre requisites

Install pre-requisites

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install g++

g++ will be used to compile most of the software into binaries

Install dev library for ALSA applications:

Note: sometimes the version of Jack you installed was compiled without Alsa support. You need to either install a version of Jack with it compiled in (The VAST majority of packages out there fall under this) or build it yourself from source.

sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev

QT dev tools and ide

Visit the qt page and download the linux x64 version, then execute installer:

I later found out that this is only needed if you want to edit or create custom applications using QT. It has almost nothing to do with qjack

chmod +x qt-unified-linux-x64-3.1.1-online.run
./qt-unified-linux-x64-3.1.1-online.run

Jack Audio

Visit the jackaudio homepage or get a release from the releases page. Version 1.9.12 or with wget:

wget https://github.com/jackaudio/jack2/releases/download/v1.9.12/jack2-1.9.12.tar.gz
./waf configure
./waf build
sudo ./waf install

Later when you run SuperCollider or qjackctl, you might need to reconfigure the real-time scheduling for jackd:

dpkg-reconfigure -p high jackd

If you don't have the dpgk-reconfigure program, you can download debconf utils (which contain dpkg-reconfigure), extract them and run the dpkg reconfigure for jackd:

download debconf utils from debian.org

wget https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20170521T212524Z/pool/main/d/debconf/debconf_1.5.61.tar.xz

extract the .tar.gz

# tar {eXtract} {Verbosely list files processed (optional) } {to File} <file.tar.xz>
tar xvf debconf_1.5.61.tar.xz

reconfigure the real time scheduling for jackd where -p is the priority

cd debconf
./dpkg-reconfigure -p high jackd

A new file audio.conf in /etc/security/limits.d will be created, it should look something like this:

# Provided by the jackd package.
#
# Changes to this file will be preserved.
#
# If you want to enable/disable realtime permissions, run
#
#    dpkg-reconfigure -p high jackd

@audio   -  rtprio     95
@audio   -  memlock    unlimited
#@audio   -  nice      -19

Qjackctl (UI client for jack audio)

Qjackctl pre-requisites

Download qjackctl from Sourceforge bundles

Install qt5 as default:

This package sets Qt 5 to be the default Qt version to be used when using development binaries like qmake. It provides a default configuration for qtchooser, but does not prevent alternative Qt installations from being used.

aptitude show wt5-default
sudo apt-get install qt5-default

qjackctl will use lupdate command, which is part of qt5 dev tools, then install:

sudo apt-get install qttools5-dev-tools

If you're checking out from Git, you'll have to prepare the configure script just before you proceed with the above instructions:

./autogen.sh

Pre Configure qjackctl installation

./configure --prefix=/usr/local

Install qjackctl

make
sudo make install (because it tries to write in /usr/local/share/applications)

Run qjackctl

/usr/local/bin/qjackctl

QJACKCTL Configuration

QjackCtl holds its settings and configuration state per user, in a file located at $HOME/.config/rncbc.org/QjackCtl.conf. Normally, there's no need to edit this file, as it is recreated and rewritten everytime qjackctl is run.

Tidal Cycles

Installation:

Pre-Requisites

•   Haskell  
  

•   Atom Editor/Vim  
  

•   SuperCollider  
  

•   Git  
  

Install Haskell, Git

sudo apt-get install build-essential cabal-install git

Install SuperCollider

Build/Install binaries/programs

(Recommended) Visit the Supercollider github page and follow the instructions:

git clone https://github.com/lvm/build-supercollider/
cd build-supercollider
sh build-supercollider.sh
sh build-sc3-plugins.sh

Note that if you rerun build-sc3-plugins, libraries will be duplicated and SuperCollider won't start up.

You can also install supercollider via:

sudo apt-get install supercollider sc3-plugins

However this generally doesn't work. Either the supercollider version is too old (superdirt needs at least version 3.7), or the version of supercollider is mismatched with sc3-plugins. If you're using an ubuntu or debian distribution, my advice is to ignore the supercollider packages and just compile them yourself, like explained above.

Download and Install SuperDirt library inside SuperCollider

TidalCycles is meant to run on top of SuperDirt, so you will have to run it first to make sound. Here are two options get SuperDirt installed inside SuperCollider:

1. User Interface: starts the SuperCollider IDE from a terminal

scide

In the editor window paste in the following line of code:

Quarks.checkForUpdates(); Quarks.install("SuperDirt", "v1.0")

2. Terminal: downloads and installs dependencies from the sclang prompt

run the sclang prompt

sclang

download and install SuperDirt dependencies (called quarks)

sc3> Quarks.checkForUpdates(); Quarks.install("SuperDirt", "v1.0")

SuperDirt maybe to be recompiled in the current SuperCollider instance:

sc3> SuperDirt

it'll be nice to know how to exit the sc3 prompt without having to kill the process.

Install TidalCycles

In this step we use cabal package system (haskell libraries manager)

cabal install tidal
# Update cabal if there is no package named 'tidal'
cabal update
# Then try to install tidal again
cabal install tidal

Run the whole thing: test TidalCycles and SuperDirt for the first time

Useful link start tidal cycles and superdirt for the first time

Start jack server

• By using the qt client qjackctl
• Or by terminal (todo)

Download a sample startup script or use:

Start SuperCollider

Via terminal

sclang superdirt_startup.scd

via the supercollider IDE: scide

SuperDirt.start

/*
This is an example startup file. You can load it from your startup file
(to be found in Platform.userAppSupportDir +/+ "startup.scd")
*/


(
// configure the sound server: here you could add hardware specific options
// see http://doc.sccode.org/Classes/ServerOptions.html
s.options.numBuffers = 1024 * 256; // increase this if you need to load more samples
s.options.memSize = 8192 * 16; // increase this if you get "alloc failed" messages
s.options.maxNodes = 1024 * 32; // increase this if you are getting drop outs and the message "too many nodes"
s.options.numOutputBusChannels = 2; // set this to your hardware output channel size, if necessary
s.options.numInputBusChannels = 2; // set this to your hardware output channel size, if necessary
// boot the server and start SuperDirt
s.waitForBoot {
	~dirt = SuperDirt(2, s); // two output channels, increase if you want to pan across more channels
	~dirt.loadSoundFiles;   // load samples (path containing a wildcard can be passed in)
	// for example: ~dirt.loadSoundFiles("/Users/myUserName/Dirt/samples/*");
	// s.sync; // optionally: wait for samples to be read
	~dirt.start(57120, [0, 0]);   // start listening on port 57120, create two busses each sending audio to channel 0

	// optional, needed for the sclang tests only:
	(

		~d1 = ~dirt.orbits[0]; // one orbit
		~d2 = ~dirt.orbits[1];

	);
};

s.latency = 0.3; // increase this if you get "late" messages
);

Boot Tidal .hs file

BootTidal.hs

Dirt samples directory

~/.local/share/SuperCollider/downloaded-quarks/Dirt-Samples

Run your favourite text editor with the tidalcycles plugin and execute:

d1 $ sound "bd bd"

---

Cheatsheet

Forwarding ports for the Hydra editor

Before starting the supercollider server you should add this code.

It will expose some properties in the /play2 service at port 3333.

var addr = NetAddr.new("127.0.0.1", 3333);
OSCFunc({ |msg, time, tidalAddr|
        var latency = time - Main.elapsedTime;
        msg = msg ++ ["time", time, "latency", latency];
        msg.postln;
        addr.sendBundle(latency, msg)
}, '/play2').fix;
SuperDirt.start;