TidalCycles
More info
- Creator
- Alex McLean
- Type
- Live coding pattern language
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Website
- tidalcycles.org
A pattern language embedded in Haskell, where a line like "bd*2 [sn cp]" becomes a drum loop you rewrite while it plays.
Alex McLean started building Tidal around 2009 as part of his research into musical pattern. It is a domain-specific language in Haskell, though users mostly write a terse mini-notation inside quotes: spaces divide a cycle, square brackets subdivide a step, * repeats. Functions such as every 4 (fast 2) then transform whole patterns rather than individual notes.
Tidal makes no sound itself. It sends events over OSC to SuperDirt, a sampler running in SuperCollider. The language became a hub of the algorave scene — club nights where the audience watches the code projected on the wall. Strudel, a 2022 JavaScript port, runs straight in the browser and skips the Haskell install, which lowered the barrier considerably.