Where to Find SuperCollider Downloads, Community, and Examples

SuperCollider's official site (supercollider.github.io) is the main entry point for downloads, community links, examples, and documentation. The current version listed there is 3.14.1, with builds for macOS, Linux, and Windows. The site also points to the scsynth.org forum, the community site, code examples in the documentation, and user examples on sccode.org.

Downloads

The site's Downloads section lists the current version as 3.14.1:

If your OS or version isn't listed, the site directs you to the full Downloads page for all available versions. SuperCollider is described as free and open source software for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, originally released by James McCartney in 1996 and published under the GNU General Public License in 2002.

Community

SuperCollider is described as a community project with several places to join:

• scsynth.org — the forum, described as a good place to start.
• The communities site — an (incomplete) list of communities to join.
• Code of Conduct — the project's code of conduct.

Examples

Two example sources are given on the site:

• Documentation examples — code samples drawn from the documentation.
• sccode.org — a much larger collection of user examples.

The site also highlights the sc-140 album, which includes code examples. One documented example is a simple FM patch:

{ SinOsc.ar(SinOsc.kr([1, 3]).exprange(100, 2e3), 0, 0.2) }.play

Another is "Drummer" by Thor Magnusson (2006), which builds snare, bass drum, and hi-hat parts from Impulse, WhiteNoise, SinOsc, and Decay2, with a comment noting that replacing Impulse with Dust produces a "drunk drummer."

Other Resources

The site's navigation also includes News, Projects, Documentation, and Gallery, so those are the places to look for project updates, reference material, and visual/audio work built with SuperCollider.

What SuperCollider Is

For context on what you're downloading: SuperCollider is a platform for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition used by musicians, artists, and researchers working with sound. It has three major components:

• scsynth — a real-time audio engine implemented as a server.
• sclang — an interpreted programming language that acts as a client to the server.
• scide — an editor for sclang with an integrated help system.

Because of the client/server architecture, multiple clients can connect and control what happens on the server. While sclang is the native language and client, there are also client implementations in other languages such as Python, JavaScript, Haskell, and Scala. An alternative implementation of scsynth called supernova adds multi-threading support.