A pattern system for sound processes

Abstract

This article reports on a new library for the ScalaCollider and Sound Processes computer music environments, a translation and adaptation of the patterns subsystem known from SuperCollider. From the perspective of electroacoustic music, patterns can easily be overlooked by reducing their meaning to the production of "notes" in the manner of "algorithmic composition". However, we show that they can be understood as a particular kind of programming language, considering them as a domain specific language for structures inspired by collection processing. Using examples from SuperCollider created by Ron Kuivila during an artistic research residency embedded in our project Algorithms that Matter, we show the challenges in translating this system from one programming language with a particular set of paradigms to another. If this process is studied as a reconfiguration of an algorithmic ensemble, the translated system produces new usage scenarios hitherto not possible.