# BuboQuark

### What is this?

BuboQuark is a collection of methods and hacks I have found to make _live
coding_ easier on SuperCollider. Since the Quark itself does not bring
much value and does not change SuperCollider in a radical new way, I have wondered what
made me so excited about it. I don't have the definitive answer but I think that
it comes from the fact that I am learning quite a lot by browsing
SuperCollider's infinite possibilities.

I have thought about
creating this website to document my findings and hacks and help other people get started live coding using it.
This small website takes inspiration from [how to co34pt livecode](https://github.com/theseanco/howto_co34pt_liveCode), another great read.
BuboQuark, thus, can be said to be:

- a small Quark to setup SuperCollider for _live coding_ and sound exploration.
- a companion tutorial website to learn how to use that setup and SuperCollider.

BuboQuark can be also be thought of as my personal SuperCollider configuration. It twists it just enough simply for my own convenience. It changes a lot, quite abruptly, and it reflects my way of learning how to use this platform in a musical way. It is not rocket science SuperCollider but I hope that this is helpful to some people anyway.

### Who am I? Who is this for?

I am a big fan of _live coding_ and I have been playing that way for a while. I
have created the [Sardine](https://sardine.raphaelforment.fr) and
[Topos](https://topos.live) live coding environments. Writing code to make music
live is part of my daily music practice. Like anybody else, I like to have
many different tools to make music and I always wished to master SuperCollider
just enough to play gigs using it. Like many _live coders_, I have been using SuperCollider for quite some time. Most of the time, I only use it as an audio backend and talk to it through Python, Haskell, JavaScript and basically any other language except the good old **SCLang**. I never really learned to play with SuperCollider live.

I have some requirements for a tool to be usable in a live context and more specifically as a part of my ever-changing toolset:

- I need a powerful sequencer / scheduler for musical events
- I need to be able to talk with other softwares / devices easily
- I need a playground for audio synthesis and experimenting with sounds
- I need to be able to play with my friends and synchronize easily

SuperCollider, out of the box, ticks all the boxes. I
can do everything using just that tool and it's a great thing since it is
available on most platforms and doesn't consume a lot of resources by default.

I guess that this guide / tutorial is for people who are similarly curious about
SuperCollider and want to use it in a live context. It is also written for other
live coders that can feel intimidated by SuperCollider's complexity and want to
understand it enough to make it sing.

### What music can I make using it?

My interest for electronic music ranges from experimental/noisy/art music to [Algorave](https://algorave.com) club-like music. This is reflected in the examples and the techniques I have gathered here. I like to play with samples, synthesis, using computation and algorithms to twist things in unexpected ways. I also like just to play boring pattern-based music sometimes. I hope that this guide will be useful to people with similar interests.

