A Permissive Graphical Patcher for SuperCollider Synths

This article presents the first version of a permissive graphical patcher (referred to in the text as SCPGP) dedicated to fluid interconnection and control of SuperCollider Synths. With SCPGP, the user programs her/his SynthDefs normally as code in the SuperCollider environment, along with a minimal amount of additional information on these SynthDefs, and programs Patterns according to a simple SuperCollider-compliant syntax. From the execution of this SuperCollider session, the SCPGP interface allows for the definition of higher-level Units, composed of one or several SynthDefs. These Units can then be used in the graphical patcher itself, where the user can easily create graphs of Units, set their parameters, and, where applicable, assign them Buffers and Patterns. Permissiveness is a key principle of SCPGP: once SynthDefs have been successively tested as valid SuperCollider code, the user must be able to interconnect them with no limitation regarding connector properties (signal rate, number of channels) or the order of execution on the SuperCollider tree of Nodes. SCPGP offers a range of flexible patching operations, to foster a fully fluid and open-ended experimentation from a network of user-defined SuperCollider Synths.