View source for ChucK

{{Short description|Audio programming language}}
{{Other uses|Chuck (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox programming language
| logo = [[File:Chuck-2023.png|Chuck-2023]]
| paradigm = [[Multi-paradigm programming language|Multi-paradigm]]
| year = {{Start date and age|2003}}<ref name=dean2009/>
| latest release version = 1.5.2.4
| latest release date = {{start date and age|2024|04}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/ccrma/chuck/blob/main/notes/VERSIONS|title = github.com/ccrma/chuck|access-date=2021-01-18}}</ref>
| designer = [[Ge Wang]]
| typing = [[Strong typing|Strong]]
| operating_system = [[Cross-platform]]
| license = [[Mac OS X|Mac]], [[Linux]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]]: [[GNU General Public License|GPL-2.0-or-later]]<br/>
[[iOS]]: Closed Source (Not Public)
| website = {{URL|chuck.cs.princeton.edu}}
}}

'''ChucK''' is a concurrent, strongly timed audio [[programming language]] for real-time synthesis, composition, and performance,<ref name="wang_thesis">{{cite thesis
|type=Ph.D.
|last=Wang
|first=Ge
|date=2008
|title=The ChucK Audio Programming Language: A Strongly-timed and On-the-fly Environ/mentality
|url=https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~gewang/thesis.html
|publisher=Princeton University}}</ref>
which runs on [[Linux]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Microsoft Windows]], and [[iOS]]. It is designed to favor readability and flexibility for the programmer over other considerations such as raw performance. It natively supports deterministic [[concurrency (computer science)|concurrency]] and multiple, simultaneous, dynamic control rates. Another key feature is the ability to [[Live coding|live code]]; adding, removing, and modifying code on the fly, while the program is running, without stopping or restarting. It has a highly precise timing/concurrency model, allowing for arbitrarily fine granularity. It offers composers and researchers a powerful and flexible programming tool for building and experimenting with complex [[audio synthesis]] programs, and real-time interactive control.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/ |title=ChucK : Strongly-timed, Concurrent, and On-the-fly Music Programming Language |url-status=live |accessdate=2013-09-06 |quote = ...offers composers, researchers, and performers a powerful programming tool for building and experimenting with complex audio synthesis/analysis programs, and real-time interactive music.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031118220911/http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu:80/ |archive-date=2003-11-18 }}</ref>

ChucK was created and chiefly designed by [[Ge Wang]] as a graduate student working with [[Perry R. Cook]].<ref name=dean2009>{{cite book
 | first=R. T. | last=Dean | year=2009
 | title=The Oxford handbook of computer music
 | series=Oxford Handbooks in Music Series
 | publisher=Oxford University Press US
 | isbn=0-19-533161-3 | page=57
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=96ymxXy3wjMC&pg=PA57
}}</ref>  ChucK is distributed freely under the terms of the [[GNU General Public License]] on [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]] and [[Microsoft Windows]]. On [[iOS (Apple)|iPhone and iPad]], ChiP (ChucK for iPhone) is distributed under a limited, closed source license, and is not currently licensed to the public. However, the core team has stated that it would like to explore "ways to open ChiP by creating a beneficial environment for everyone".<ref>{{cite web
 | first=Ge | last=Wang | work=chuck-users mailing list
 | title=ChucKian greetings and updates!
 | publisher=Princeton University
 | url=https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/pipermail/chuck-users/2008-December/003604.html
 | accessdate=2011-05-24
}}</ref>

== Language features ==
The ChucK programming language is a loosely C-like object-oriented language, with [[strongly typed|strong static typing]].

ChucK is distinguished by the following characteristics:<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/chuck_icmc2003.pdf|author=Wang, G. and P. Cook|year=2003|title=ChucK: A concurrent, on-the-fly audio programming language|work=Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference}}</ref>

* Direct support for real-time [[Synthesizer|audio synthesis]]
* A powerful and simple [[concurrent programming]] model
* A unified timing mechanism for multi-rate event and control processing.
* A language syntax that encourages left-to-right syntax and semantics within program statements.
* Precision timing:  a strongly timed sample-synchronous timing model.
* Programs are dynamically compiled to ChucK [[virtual machine]] [[bytecode]].
* A [[Runtime system|runtime environment]] that supports [[Live coding|on-the-fly programming]].
*The ChucK Operator (=>) that can be used in several ways to "chuck" any ordered flow of data from left to right.

ChucK standard libraries provide:

* [[MIDI]] input and output.
* [[Open Sound Control]] support.
*HID connectivity.
*[[Unit generator|Unit generators]] (UGens) - ie oscillators, envelopes, [[Synthesis Toolkit|synthesis toolkit]] ugens, filters, etc.
*Unit analyzers (UAnae) - blocks that perform analysis functions on audio signals and/or [[metadata]] input, and produce metadata analysis results as output<ref>{{Cite web|title=FLOSS manual|url=https://en.flossmanuals.net/chuck/_full/#unit-analyzers|access-date=2021-01-18|website=Flossmanuals|language=en}}</ref> - ie [[Fast Fourier transform|FFT]]/IFFT, [[Spectral flux|Spectral Flux]]/[[Centroid]], RMS, etc.
*Serial IO capabilities - ie [[Arduino]].
*File IO capabilities.

== Code example ==
The following is a simple ChucK program that generates sound and music:

  <span style="color:#339933;">// signal graph (patch)</span>
  SinOsc s => JCRev r => dac;
  .2 => s.gain;
  <span style="color:#339933;">// dry/wet mix (for reverb)</span>
  .1 => r.mix;
  
  <span style="color:#339933;">// an array of pitch classes (semitones)</span>
  [ 0, 2, 4, 7, 9, 11 ] @=> <span style="color:blue;">int</span> hi[];
  
  <span style="color:#339933;">// do forever:</span>
  <span style="color:blue;">while</span>( <span style="color:blue;">true</span> )
  {
      <span style="color:#339933;">// choose a note, shift registers, convert to frequency</span>
      Std.mtof( 45 + Std.rand2(0,3) * 12 +
          hi[Std.rand2(0,hi.cap()-1)] ) => s.freq;
  
      <span style="color:#339933;">// advance time</span>
      120::<span style="color:blue;">ms</span> => <span style="color:blue;">now</span>;
  }

== Uses ==
ChucK has been used in performances by the [[Princeton Laptop Orchestra]] (PLOrk) and for developing [[Smule]] applications, including their [[ocarina]] [[emulator]].<ref>{{cite web
 | first=Peter | last=Kirn | date=July 22, 2009
 | title=Interview: Smule's Ge Wang on iPhone Apps, Ocarinas, and Democratizing Music Tech
 | work=Create Digital Music
 | url=http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/07/interview-smules-ge-wang-on-iphone-apps-ocarinas-and-democratizing-music-tech/
 | accessdate=2011-05-24 }}</ref> 

PLOrk organizers attribute some of the uniqueness of their performances to the [[live coding]] they can perform with ChucK.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2319579,00.asp|title=Laptop Orchestra Makes (Sound) Waves|publisher=[[PC Magazine]]|quote=The other thing that set PLOrk apart from the beginning was its use of a text-based program called ChucK, developed by a Princeton graduate student. ChucK allows the user to code quickly—similar to live coding—and "on the fly" for a performance, allowing for the spontaneity and real-time interaction that is important in live music performance. "ChucK is the only language that I know of that was designed from the outset to facilitate that," Trueman says. The program is also "concurrent," meaning that it can handle many different processes going on at once. Its "innate sense of time" allows performers to communicate during live rehearsals and performances, he says, adding that many other laptop musicians probably use a program like Max/MSP (which PLOrk uses in addition to ChucK) or another widely available commercial program. Today some other laptop orchestras—including the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), which was directly inspired by PLOrk—also employ ChucK.|first=Brittany|last=Petersen|date=2008-06-11|access-date=2017-08-25|archive-date=2017-07-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711193143/https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2319579,00.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

* [[Comparison of audio synthesis environments]]
* [[Sonic Pi]]
* [[Pure Data]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}

=== Literature by its authors ===
* {{cite book|author=Wang, G.|title=Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime|year=2018|url=https://artful.design/|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-1503600522}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G.|first2=P.|last2=Cook|first3=S.|last3=Salazar|year=2015|title=ChucK: A strongly-timed computer music language|journal=[[Computer Music Journal]]|url=https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~ge/publish/files/2015-cmj-chuck.pdf}}
* {{Cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G.|year=2008|title=The ChucK Audio Programming Language|journal=PhD Thesis, Princeton University.|url=https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~ge/thesis.html}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G|first2=R|last2=Fiebrink|first3=P|last3=Cook|year=2007|title=Combining analysis and synthesis in the ChucK programming language|journal=Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/uana_icmc2007.pdf}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G|first2=A.|last2=Misra|first3=A|last3=Kapur|first4=P|last4=Cook|year=2005|title=Yeah ChucK it! => Dynamic, controllable, interface mapping|journal=Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/chuck_nime2005.pdf}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G.|first2=P.|last2=Cook|first3=A|last3=Misra|year=2005|title=Designing and implementing the ChucK programming language|journal=Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/chuck_icmc2005.pdf}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G.|first2=P.|last2=Cook|year=2004|title=The Audicle: A context-sensitive, on-the-fly audio programming environ/mentality|journal=In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/audicle_icmc2004.pdf}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G.|first2=P.|last2=Cook|year=2004|title=On-the-fly programming: Using code as an expressive musical instrument|journal=Proceedings of the International Conference on [[New Interfaces for Musical Expression]]|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/on-the-fly_nime2004.pdf}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=G.|first2=P.|last2=Cook|year=2003|title=ChucK: A concurrent, on-the-fly audio programming language|journal=Proceedings of the [[International Computer Music Conference]]|url=https://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/chuck_icmc2003.pdf}}

=== Seemingly independent coverage ===
* Graham Morrison, (2009) ''Generate choons with Chuck''. Tired of the same old music in the charts, we create our own music from a series of pseudo random numbers. ''[[Linux Format]]'' issue [https://www.linuxformat.com/archives?issue=125 125]
* [[Alan Blackwell]] and Nick Collins, ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110727183914/http://www.ppig.org/papers/17th-blackwell.pdf The Programming Language as a Musical Instrument]'' in P. Romero, J. Good, E. Acosta Chaparro & S. Bryant (Eds). Proc. PPIG 17, pp.&nbsp;120–130
* {{cite book|editor=R. T. Dean|title=The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533161-5|pages=27 and 580|editor-link=Roger Dean (musician)}}

{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/ ChucK] homepage at Princeton University
* [https://chuck.stanford.edu/ ChucK] mirror at Stanford University
*[https://en.flossmanuals.net/chuck/_full/ ChucK] FLOSS manual


{{Computer music}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chuck}}
[[Category:Audio programming languages]]
[[Category:Free audio software]]
[[Category:Electronic music software]]
[[Category:Software synthesizers]]
[[Category:Cross-platform software]]
[[Category:Audio software with JACK support]]
[[Category:Live coding]]
[[Category:Synchronous programming languages]]