Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 24, 2026

Sonic Pi

Sonic Pi is a free open-source live coding environment based on Ruby, originally designed to support both computing and music lessons in schools, developed by Sam Aaron initially in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in collaboration with Raspberry Pi Foundation, and now independently funded primarily via donations from users.

Last revised
Jun 24, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
485 w
Citations
5
Source
Sonic Pi
DevelopersSam Aaron and others
Initial release2012
Stable release
4.6.0 / 26 June 2025 (2025-06-26)
Written inRuby, Erlang, Elixir, Clojure, C++, and Qt
Operating systemLinux, macOS, Windows, Raspberry Pi OS
TypeLive coding environment
LicenseMIT License
Websitesonic-pi.net
Repository

Sonic Pi is a free open-source live coding environment based on Ruby, originally designed to support both computing and music lessons in schools, developed by Sam Aaron initially in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory1 in collaboration with Raspberry Pi Foundation,23 and now independently funded primarily via donations from users.

Uses

Sam Aaron, creator of Sonic Pi, demonstrating the program source ↗

Thanks to its use of the SuperCollider synthesis engine and accurate timing model,4 it is also used for live coding and other forms of algorithmic music performance and production, including at algoraves. Its research and development has been supported by Nesta, via the Sonic PI: Live & Coding project.5

See also

See also

Further reading

Further reading

References

References

  1. Blackwell, Alan; McLean, Alex; Noble, James; Rohrhuber, Julian (2014). "DROPS - Collaboration and learning through live coding (Dagstuhl Seminar 13382)". Dagstuhl Reports. 3 (9): 130–168. doi:10.4230/DagRep.3.9.130. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  2. Cellan-Jones, Rory (7 October 2013). "Baked in Britain, the millionth Raspberry Pi". BBC News. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  3. "Making music with Raspberry Pi - CBBC Newsround". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  4. Aaron, Samuel; Orchard, Dominic; Blackwell, Alan F. (2014). "Temporal semantics for a live coding language". Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN international workshop on Functional art, music, modeling & design (PDF). ACM. pp. 37–47. doi:10.1145/2633638.2633648. ISBN 978-1-4503-3039-8. S2CID 3227057.
  5. "Sonic Pi - The Live Coding Music Synth for Everyone". SONIC PI. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
External links