Building SuperCollider on Raspberry Pi

The original version of this manual can be found here

SuperCollider can be built with the IDE and Qt GUI components on Raspbian Desktop, or without them on Raspbian Desktop or Raspbian Lite. However, the project cannot be compiled with the QtWebEngine library, which means that the help browser in the IDE, and the HelpBrowser and WebView classes in sclang, are unavailable.

Build requirements

• Raspberry Pi 2, 3 or 4 (Raspberry Pi 0 and 1 will also work, but note that compiling will take a long time)
• SD card with Raspbian Desktop Stretch or Buster
• Router with Ethernet internet connection for the RPi
• For a GUI build: screen, mouse and keyboard
• Optional: USB soundcard with headphones or speakers connected

Building

Step 1: Hardware setup

This step assumes you have already a working Rpi with Raspbian Desktop. If not follow the instructions here to install it

1. Connect an ethernet cable from the network router to the RPi

   • If Ethernet is not available connect over WiFi

2. Insert the SD card and USB soundcard. For a GUI build, connect screen, mouse and keyboard

3. Connect USB power from a power supply

Step 2: Update the system, install required libraries

In a terminal, type (or copy-and-paste):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Install required libraries:

# For GUI builds:
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install libjack-jackd2-dev
sudo apt-get install qjackctl
sudo apt-get install libsndfile1-dev
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get install libavahi-client-dev
sudo apt-get install libreadline6-dev
sudo apt-get install libfftw3-dev
sudo apt-get install libxt-dev
sudo apt-get install libudev-dev
sudo apt-get install libcwiid-dev
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install qttools5-dev-tools
sudo apt-get install libqt5webkit5-dev
sudo apt-get install qtpositioning5-dev
sudo apt-get install libqt5sensors5-dev
sudo apt-get install qttools5-dev
sudo apt-get install libqt5svg5-dev
# it is also possible to execute the install in a single line 
# I put them separated so that is clear which libraries are needed

Step 3: Compile and install SuperCollider

# we install supercollider in the HOME folder
cd ~
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider.git
cd supercollider
mkdir build && cd build

# For a GUI build:
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DSUPERNOVA=OFF -DSC_ED=OFF -DSC_EL=OFF -DSC_VIM=ON -DNATIVE=ON -DSC_USE_QTWEBENGINE:BOOL=OFF ..
# use -j3 flag only on RPi3 or newer
cmake --build . --config Release --target all -- -j3 
sudo cmake --build . --config Release --target install
sudo ldconfig

Step 4: Set up JACK

# `-dhw:0` is the internal soundcard.
# Use `-dhw:1` for USB soundcards. 
# `aplay -l` will list available devices.
# Use `nano ~/.jackdrc` to edit jack settings.

# For GUI builds:
echo /usr/bin/jackd -P75 -p16 -dalsa -dhw:0 -r44100 -p1024 -n3 > ~/.jackdrc

For GUI builds, another way to set up and start jack is to open a terminal and type qjackctl. Click 'setup' to select soundcard and set periods to 3 (recommended). Then start jack before the SC IDE by clicking the play icon.

Step 5: Download Polyphonic Landscape

# first change directory to HOME
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/Yyyyaaaannnnoooo/polyphonic-landscape.git
# start the SuperCollider Patch
bash polyphonic-landscape/scripts/autostart.sh

Step 6: Nothing Will Work Out of the Box

The code above might work but not properly, as there is still the need to solve the issue on how SuperCollider can recognize the correct port to connect to ARDUINO. At the moment it connects to /dev/ttyACM0, but there is the need to find a proper way to get the arduino port and pass this to SuperCollider. SuperCollider can invoke terminal commands, and we could use this to get the correct port. For now it is possible to manually change the port directly in SuperCollider.

# assuming you followed all the steps as described and
# you have the polyphonic-landscape in your home directory
cd polyphonic-landscape/sc
# open the Supercollider editor
scide sample-player/polyphonic-landscapes.scd

// in line 2 shift+enter to list usb devices in the console
SerialPort.devices;
// usually there are 2 to 3 one will be the arduino
// the other probably keyboard and eventually audio interface

// in line 177 you can change the usb port name
~port = SerialPort.new("/dev/ttyACM0", baudrate: 9600);

Once this changes are made, and assuming there are no errors added to the code simply ctrl-a&shift+enter if returns an error check in the code the // SELECT FROM HEREand // UNTIL HEREcomments and manually select everything in between and afterwards do a shift+enter. Hopefully it should work 😸

Step 7: Changing / Adding Audio Files

The audio files are stored inside polyphonic-landscape/sc/sample-player/audio/audiofiles. All the files in the folder are automatically loaded in SuperCollider. Add and replace as many audio files you want, but never MOVE or RENAME the folder ⚠️

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

below here comes from the original documentation, use it as reference but is not intended for this doc

Usage

To use SuperCollider, just open a terminal and execute scide (GUI) or sclang (GUI-less).

When you boot the server jack should start automatically with the settings in ~/.jackdrc.

Done! See below for other usage notes and tips.

Running a GUI build headless

If you want to ssh in and start SuperCollider headless, run:

export DISPLAY=:0.0
sclang

sc3-plugins

To compile and install sc3-plugins, follow the instructions in the sc3-plugins README.

Autostart

To automatically run SuperCollider code at system boot:

cat >~/autostart.sh <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
export DISPLAY=:0.0
sleep 10 # can be lower (5) for rpi3
sclang ~/mycode.scd
EOF

chmod +x ~/autostart.sh
crontab -e # and add the following line to the end:
    @reboot cd /home/pi && ./autostart.sh

nano ~/mycode.scd # And add your code inside a waitForBoot. For example:
    s.waitForBoot{ {SinOsc.ar([400, 404])}.play }

sudo reboot # the sound should start after a few seconds

Login with ssh and run killall jackd sclang scsynth to stop the sound.

Benchmarks

These are rough benchmark tests. The server should be booted and jackd running with settings: -P75 -p1024 -n3 -r44100

Also for comparison it is important to set CPU scaling to 'performance', by running:

echo performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Start sclang or scide and run:

s.boot
{1000000.do{2.5.sqrt}}.bench // ~0.56 for rpi3 headless, ~0.7 for rpi3 scide, ~1.7 for rpi0 headless, ~3.8 for rpi0 scide
a= {Mix(50.collect{RLPF.ar(SinOsc.ar)});DC.ar(0)}.play
s.avgCPU // run a few times. ~12% for rpi3, ~18% for rpi2, ~79% for rpi1, ~50% for rpi0
a.free

With the default cpu scaling (ondemand) these benchmarks perform much worse, but 'ondemand' also saves battery life so depending on your application, this might be the preferred mode.

To set 'performance' scaling mode permanently see the "Gotcha..." section of this StackExchange post.

Notes and Troubleshooting

This applies to both GUI and GUI-less builds above:

• An easy way to burn the zip file (no need to unpack) to an SD card is to use etcher.
• The internal soundcard volume is by default set low (40). Type alsamixer in terminal and adjust the pcm volume to 85 with the arrow keys. Press escape to exit.
• The audio quality of rpi's built-in sound is terrible. Dithering helps a bit so add -zs to the jackd command if you are using the built-in sound.
• If building with -j 3 stops or returns an error the compiler might just have run out of memory. Try to reboot and run the make command again without -j 3 or decrease the gpu memory in raspi-config under advanced (set it to 16).
• If you get WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! when trying to ssh in, type ssh-keygen -R raspberrypi to reset.
• For lower latency, set a lower blocksize for jackd. Try, for example -p512 or -p128. Tune downwards until you get dropouts and xruns (also watch cpu%).
• To avoid SD card corruption one should always shut down the system properly and not just pull out the power. When running headless you can either ssh in and type sudo halt -p, use a GPIO pin with a button and Python script, or set up an OSC command from within SC that turns off the RPi. See here.
• For the older Raspbian Jessie system use a previous version of these instructions.
• To quit sclang after starting via the commandline use 0.exit.