At long last, we are happy to share these results from the 2019 SuperCollider survey! In total, we had 253 responses from friends of the SuperCollider project around the world. We’re incredibly thankful to everyone who gave their time and energy to respond so thoughtfully; these results will be invaluable in guiding future development work and in informing community discussion. Based on the enthusiasm we’ve seen, we certainly hope to do this again next year!

Here are a few of the top takeaways from this year’s results:

Platforms : a plurality of users work on macOS; Linux is the second most popular desktop OS, followed by Windows. Embedded platforms such as Raspberry Pi, BELA, and BeagleBone are also popular, with about as many users reporting that they use Raspberry Pi as Windows.

Version : about two-thirds of users are already on 3.10, the latest release at the time of the survey. This number is very important to us as developers, as it indicates how confident users feel in moving to new versions. We’re hoping to see this percentage rise in the next survey.

Client : sclang is the most popular way to interact with scsynth by a large margin; TidalCycles and Sonic Pi also seem quite popular.

Features : we provided a list of possible features and improvements we’d like to implement across the codebase; of those given, the top two most-demanded were quality pitch, formant, and time manipulation UGens, and (2) improvements to compiler warnings and error messages. This gives us a very clear idea of what projects to tackle next.

Development focus: when asked where the most development effort should go, votes were practically split in a three-way tie between documentation, sclang, and UGens, with scsynth a close fourth.

Below, we present aggregated data for each survey question. In the next few weeks you might see more posts from some of the developers sharing their thoughts on the survey. We’re very excited to see what the community thinks of these results!

The individuals primarily responsible for creating the survey and reviewing the responses were Nathan Ho, Brian Heim, Patrick Dupuis, and Josh Parmenter, with help from several other developers in crafting the questions and wording.

At the end of this post, you’ll find the data in these charts presented as text tables for easy access.

Results

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Note: Quarks with fewer than five mentions are not included in this list.

Question 7

Question 8

Question 9

These responses were difficult to categorize; answers that had fewer than four mentions are not included here. Hopefully, this chart gives a good sense of the broad range of uses people have found for SuperCollider.

Question 10

This list is the top twenty most frequent answers we received; in total there were over 180 unique tools mentioned in response to this question!

Question 11

These are the top ten most frequent answers we received.

Question 12

Responses with fewer than four answers are not included here.

Question 13: How would you describe your experience learning SuperCollider?

This question was very personal, and the responses were difficult to place in any sort of categorization. We have decided to keep them private, but future posts from the development team may reflect on them.

Question 14: How has your experience been interacting with the SuperCollider community?

The responses to this question were difficult to categorize. We hope you find this word cloud informative, or at least amusing.

Question 15

Questions 16-41: Development project ideas

The methodology for calculating these scores was:

“I would love this” = 3 pts

“I would use this” = 2 pts

“I want this” = 1 pt

“Don’t care” / no response = 0 pts

Question 42: Suggestion box: Any features you want to see?

We received a great variety of answers to this question, and it would be too difficult to try to boil them down to some aggregated format. Some of the more popular ones were:

make it possible to use scsynth as a VST plugin

add a specific UGen, or more UGens related to a particular topic

make it easier to visualize the state of the server

improve GUI objects and make writing GUI code easier

improve MIDI support

improve the IDE with a variety of new features

Question 43

Question 44

Question 45

Text charts

1. How long have you used SuperCollider?

Duration Count % more than 10 years 64 25.9% 6 to 10 years 56 22.7% 4 or 5 years 37 15.0% 2 or 3 years 49 19.8% 1 year or less 41 16.6%

2. Which best describes your level of proficiency?

Level Count % I am new to SuperCollider and learning how to build basic things. 27 10.9% I’m comfortable with basic features of SC, and learning how to put them to use in medium-sized project. 58 23.5% I have completed small projects and can often help myself or other people. I’m learning to build complex projects. 69 27.9% I have built complex, large-scale projects in SC, and feel comfortable helping myself and others. 93 37.7%

3. As a user, I think of SuperCollider as…

Adjective Count powerful 240 fun 187 difficult 113 dependable 105 a toy 24 unstable 18

4. What are the platforms on which you use SuperCollider?

Platform Count macOS 179 Linux 108 Raspberry Pi 64 Windows 57 BELA 21 BeagleBone 10 Prynth 5 Norns 2 FreeBSD 1

5. What version(s) of SuperCollider do you currently use?

Version Count Unreleased development versions 31 3.10 164 3.9 90 3.8 18 3.7 10 3.5, 3.6 18 3.4 or older SC3 6 SC2 or SC1 1

6. What quarks do you use, if any?

Quark Name Count wslib 39 mathlib 24 atk 17 superdirt 16 bjorklund 16 xml 14 ctk 13 modality 13 cruciallib 12 feedback 10 arduino 10 ddw 10 jitlibextensions 10 miscellaneouslib 10 batlib 9 wavesets 8 vowel 7 adclib 7 jitlib 6 filelog 6 utopia 5 tabbedview 5 safetynet 5

7. Which client(s) do you use?

Client Count sclang 233 TidalCycles 41 Sonic Pi 18 Overtone 6 ScalaCollider 3 cl-collider 3 custom client / OSC only 3 FoxDot 2 Monome Norns 1 supercollider.js 1

8. Have you heard of supernova?

Response Count % I have heard of it, but never used it 146 59.1% I have never heard of it 37 15.0% I use it occasionally, depending on the task 33 13.4% I tried it, but I don’t plan on coming back to it 16 6.5% I can’t use it because it’s not supported on my OS 9 3.6% It’s my default synthesis engine 6 2.4%

9. What do you use SuperCollider for?

Response Count composition/music/projects 120 sound design/sound synthesis 75 improvisation/live electronics 46 algorithmic composition 38 performance 37 live coding 35 installations 35 instruments 31 teach 28 prototyping ideas/prototyping DSP/experiments 27 DSP/effects 26 acousmatic composition 25 interface with other tools 25 learning 19 as a general programming language 17 interactive system 16 research 12 fixed media 10 data sonification 7 music production 6 visuals 6 sound analysis 4 making apps 4 dance pieces 4 sound art 4

Response Count Reaper 57 Max/MSP 53 Ableton Live 39 hardware synths 33 Logic 30 Pure Data 26 Python 25 Audacity 24 Processing 20 Ardour 16 openFrameworks 16 Arduino 15 TidalCycles 12 Pro Tools 10 Bitwig Studio 9 Renoise 7 Jitter 6 Csound 5 Lilypond 5 OpenMusic 5

11. What are the biggest pain points you have encountered while using SuperCollider?

Response Count documentation is outdated/missing/unclear 30 error messages from sclang are difficult to understand 22 difficult to understand sclang/server separation 18 debugging in sclang is difficult 17 sclang syntax is difficult 15 tutorials/introductory material are missing/difficult to use 13 IDE is missing features I want 11 sclang has too many ways to do things 8 making GUIs is difficult 7 sclang has no dynamic class loading 7

12. What resources have been useful to you in learning SuperCollider?

Resource Count project documentation, tutorials, and guides 163 mailing list 79 Eli Fieldsteel tutorials 70 The SuperCollider Book (Wilson/Cottle/Collins) 69 classroom education 30 forum 24 sccode.org 23 YouTube videos 21 Nick Collins tutorial 18 internet 17 A Gentle Introduction to SuperCollider (Bruno Ruviaro) 15 friends and colleagues 13 reading code 13 Introduction to SuperCollider (Andrea Valle) 13 Slack 11 GitHub 10 workshops 10 Computer Music with Examples in SC 3 (Cottle) 9 Facebook group 6 meetups 4

13. How would you describe your experience learning SuperCollider?

See note above.

14. How has your experience been interacting with the SuperCollider community?

See note above.

15. Where do you discuss SuperCollider?

Venue Count sc-users mailing list 143 Facebook group(s) 94 scsynth.org Discourse forum 81 sccode.org 72 GitHub issue tracker 48 sc-dev mailing list 47 Slack 38 I don’t participate in the SC community 31 colleagues/friends 13 lines forum (https://llllllll.co/) 9 talk.lurk.org 9 local meetups 8 r/supercollider subreddit 5 classmates/teachers/students 3 concerts/events 2 workshops 1 Twitter 1 IRC 1 Discord 1

16.-41. Development project ideas

See note on methodology above.

Idea Score [UGens] Quality pitch/formant/time manipulation 535 [sclang] More and better compiler warnings and error messages 523 [sclang] A debugger that can support breakpoints and step through code interactively 462 [UGens] More reverbs 458 [UGens] More virtual analog filters 446 [UGens] Physical models of instruments 416 [UGens] More compressors 402 [IDE] Metering panels (volume meter, spectrograph, etc.) integrated into the main window 387 [UGens] Antialiased distortion 377 [IDE] Better autocomplete 377 [scsynth] scsynth as a VST guest 376 [scsynth] scsynth as a VST host 370 [scsynth] Efficient single-sample feedback 369 [sclang] Being able to load or reload class files without restarting sclang (“dynamic class loading”) 353 [IDE] More control over indentation 323 [IDE] Multiline cursor/block selection mode 315 [scsynth] Oversampling in the UGen graph 313 [IDE] Support for macros or snippets 311 [sclang] Being able to easily write and use C++ code in sclang (“language plugins”) 296 [IDE] Code folding 288 [sclang] Better looking GUI components 279 [scsynth] scsynth in the browser via WebAssembly 268 [IDE] Refactoring tools 253 [sclang] A namespace language feature 250 [IDE] Custom syntax highlighting support 238 [sclang] Support for Ableton Link 214

42. Suggestion box

See note above.

43. Where you would like to see the most development effort go in the future?

Component Count tutorials and documentation 123 sclang (language) 118 UGens 116 scsynth (server) 101 IDE 82 interfaces with other tools 76 supernova (server) 48 stability 3 standalone support 2 MIDI 1 embedded system support 1 language interoperability 1 OSC visualization 1 mailing list / forum 1 easier to create UGens 1 support for older OS’s 1 SuperCollider project concept 1 video tutorials 1 sample-accurate timing 1 graphic/musical notation 1

44. I use SuperCollider as a(n) ____.

Response Count Artist 234 Researcher 86 Teacher/Educator 82 Student 52 Hobbyist 7 Developer 2 Game developer 1 Music producer 1 Sound designer 1

45. How do you identify your gender?