glicol-cli

2023-03-18.21-45-39.mp4

What's this?

It's a command line interface that you can use for music live coding with Glicol.

It watches a file changes and then update the music in real-time.

How to use it?

Step 1

You need to have cargo installed (see here).

Step 2

In your Terminal:

cargo install --git https://github.com/glicol/glicol-cli.git

Step 3

Create a new file called test.glicol, then run this command in your Terminal:

glicol-cli test.glicol

For more OPTIONS, call --help in your terminal:

~ glicol-cli --help

Glicol cli tool. This tool will watch the changes in a .glicol file

Usage: glicol-cli [OPTIONS] <FILE>

Arguments:
  <FILE>  path to the .glicol file

Options:
  -b, --bpm <BPM>        Set beats per minute (BPM) [default: 120]
  -d, --device <DEVICE>  The audio device to use [default: default]
  -H, --headless         Disable the TUI
  -h, --help             Print help
  -V, --version          Print version

Step 4

Start live coding. Edit test.glicol with your favourite editor:

// test.glicol
~t1: speed 4.0 >> seq 60 >> bd 0.2 >> mul 0.6

~t2: seq 33_33_ _33 33__33 _33
>> sawsynth 0.01 0.1
>> mul 0.5 >> lpf 1000.0 1.0

out: mix ~t.. >> plate 0.1

Load your own samples

Run the line in your terminal first:

export GLICOL_CLI_SAMPLES_PATH=/path/to/your/samples

For example:

export GLICOL_CLI_SAMPLES_PATH=~/Downloads/samples

Development

If you are developing the glicol-cli source code itself, you can setup a convenient self-recompiling debug binary alias:

• Install Just

cargo install just

• Put the alias into your shell init (~/.bashrc):

# Point this to the Justfile found in your git clone:
alias glicol-cli='just -f ~/git/vendor/glicol/glicol-cli/Justfile run'

This special glicol-cli alias can be run from any directory, and the program will automatically recompile itself before running the program. You can still provide glicol-cli command line arguments as normal.