User FAQ

This is the beginning of a FAQ for SuperCollider users. Eventually this will be moved into the main documentation, but the wiki is a better place to encourage community contributions.

Calling gui primitives from a SystemClock routine
When calling gui primitives from a SystemClock routine will cause an error:

e.g.

To avoid this issue use the AppClock,

or the defer method:

Binary operations order
Because of the way SuperCollider evaluates expressions, the usual order of execution of mathematical expressions is not respected. In SuperCollider everything is an object, and evaluation happens from left to right, so

will evaluate as (5 + 3 ) * 2.

This happens because the expression becomes:

Therefore, in algebraic expressions parenthesis must be used when left to right orders is not what is desired:

Using "If" Statements inside a SynthDef
This is covered on the page If statements in a SynthDef

ERROR: SynthDef not found
Sending a SynthDef to the server requires a little bit of time, which means that running a block of code with both SynthDef definitions and instances of those SynthDefs won't be guaranteed to work unless this slight delay is accounted for. There are two main ways to do this:

First way: put the SynthDefs and the main code in a Task and put some kind of .wait time between them.

Task({    (put your SynthDefs here)     0.2.wait;     (put the rest of your code here) }).play;

Second way: use .sync:

Routine({    (put your SynthDefs here)     s.sync; // assuming that 's' is the server     (put the rest of your code here) }).play

FAILURE /s_new alloc failed, increase server's memory allocation (e.g. via ServerOptions)
What it means: While initializing the unit generators in a new Synth node, the server ran out of real-time memory.

Solution: Increase the amount of real-time memory available to the server. This size is set, as the error message says, in the ServerOptions object associated with the server. It is a server startup option; you must quit the server and reboot it, or the new setting will not take effect.

myServer.quit; myServer.options.memSize = 65536; // e.g., could be different for you myServer.boot;

myServer.options.memSize is given in KB. The default is 8192KB, or 8MB.

What it really means: Many unit generators require internal memory buffers, such as delay lines, comb filters, allpass delays, some FFT manipulators, reverb units etc. These internal buffers are not allocated directly from the operating system, but rather from a "real-time memory pool." This is because direct allocation from the OS, by functions such as malloc, is not real-time safe. The OS may take too long to return the new block, causing glitches in the audio. To solve this problem, the server allocates a chunk of memory when it starts up and parcels it out to unit generators as needed.

If you use a large number of delays, the server may run out of real-time memory. The default 8192KB setting can support 47.55 seconds of delay at a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. This goes away quickly when using lots of synths with multiple channels of delay.

Alternate solution: For delay units, you may use preallocated delay buffers -- Buffer.alloc -- and the "Buf" delay units: BufDelayN, BufDelayL, BufDelayC, BufCombL etc. Buffer.alloc does not use the real-time pool and is not subject to the memSize limitation. This approach will not help with FFT units.

Helpfile reference:
 * ServerOptions

"Array arguments"
Sometimes, you need to send an array to a series of Control inputs in a SynthDef (often called "array arguments").

Synth(\xyz, [freqs: [300, 400, 500]]);

There are two primary ways to do this:


 * Supply a literal array -- #[1, 2, 3] -- as the default for the argument name in the function. This is discussed in SynthDef's help file.

SynthDef(\xyz, { |freqs = #[1, 2, 3]| 	... })


 * Or, use NamedControl. This is the only way to do it if you want to construct the array's size dynamically, or based on a variable. See NamedControl help.

SynthDef(\xyz, { 	var freqs = NamedControl.kr(\freqs, #[1, 2, 3]); 	... });

Why does it have to be a literal array?
The reason comes from the process of building a SynthDef:


 * 1) First, look at the function arguments to figure out what the Control inputs should be.
 * 2) Then create Control units (usually just one, if they're all normal arguments without prefixes or special rates). Each channel is represented by an OutputProxy.
 * 3) Then run the SynthDef function, passing the output proxies to the arguments.
 * 4) Then sort the UGens into the right order, etc. etc.

To do steps #1 and #2, the SynthDef builder has to know the size of an array argument before running the function. That's possible only if it's a literal array: #[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Any other array notation creates the array while running the function (step #3). But then it's too late -- the SynthDef builder already created a non-array control channel for it!

SynthDef(\notArray, { arg a = (1..5); 	a.debug("a is"); }); --> a is: an OutputProxy

SynthDef(\array, { arg a = #[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; 	a.debug("a is"); }); a is: [ an OutputProxy, an OutputProxy, an OutputProxy, an OutputProxy, an OutputProxy ]

(Note, if 'a' printed as [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ], then you wouldn't be able to change the values in a Synth using .set!)

How to trigger a function from the server
The first and most important point: Functions are client-side only. The server doesn't know what functions are, doesn't understand them and has no way to execute them. Only the client can execute a function.

Therefore, if you want a function to execute when something happens in the server, the only way is for the server to tell the client to take the action.

The server can communicate messages back to the client using one of two unit generators: SendTrig and SendReply. SendTrig is simpler and less flexible (it can send only a '/tr' message, and only one data value). SendReply allows you to name the message anything you like, and can send arrays with the message. We'll use SendReply here because of its greater flexibility.

Within the language, you also need an object to receive the message and act on it. Usually this is OSCresponderNode or OSCpathResponder. In this example, OSCpathResponder filters messages not just on the name '/bleep' but also on the synth's ID. This way, you could have multiple triggering synths, with a different responder and a different action per synth.

( a = { 	var	trig = Dust.kr(8), 	decay = Decay2.kr(trig, 0.01, 0.1), 	sig = SinOsc.ar(TExpRand.kr(200, 600, trig), 0, 0.1) * decay; 	SendReply.kr(trig, '/bleep', trig); 	sig ! 2 }.play; o = OSCpathResponder(s.addr, ['/bleep', a.nodeID], { |time, thisResponder, msg| msg.postln; }).add; ) a.free; o.remove;

Helpfile references:
 * SendTrig, SendReply
 * OSCresponderNode, OSCpathResponder, OSCresponder, OSC_communication

Exception in World_OpenUDP: unable to bind udp socket
Sometime when booting the server one gets a message.

.

This is usually caused by an instance of scsynth that as hanged but has not released the osc port, perhaps because it SuperCollider crashed. To fix this, just hit the "k" button in the server window to kill all scsynth processes, and then boot again.

error while loading shared libraries: libsclang.so: cannot open shared object file
This usually happens after building on Linux and it means that your system is unaware of newly installed shared libraries. Running ldconfig (as root) solves the problem:
 * 1) /sbin/ldconfig