Speaking of real-time, the reason Sonic Pi is considered a “live coding” synthesizer is that you can make changes to a song while it’s playing to introduce an element of live performance.

There’s plenty of examples of this: word processors instead of typewriters, MP3 players instead of tape decks, and PDF files instead of printed material. But what about something totally new?

Sonic Pi, however, is so expressive that many live coders actually pro­ject the code on a big screen during sets so everyone can see how the music is being generated.