OSC lets SuperCollider send and receive timestamped musical messages over a network

Open Sound Control (OSC) is a UDP-based protocol for sending structured musical data across a network. In SuperCollider, NetAddr creates an address (IP + port) to which you send messages via sendMsg(). OSCFunc or OSCdef registers callback functions triggered when messages arrive at a given address path. Messages can be bundled with a future timestamp for precise synchronisation across machines. OSCFunc.trace(true) logs all incoming traffic for debugging. This enables network music setups where multiple machines share musical state, or SuperCollider talks to Max/MSP or Pure Data. The server itself communicates with the language entirely via OSC.

Examples

n = NetAddr("127.0.0.1", 57120);
n.sendMsg("/freq", 440);
OSCFunc({|msg| msg.postln}, '/freq');

Assessment

Set up two SuperCollider instances on the same machine exchanging a shared tempo value via OSC. Verify the receiving instance updates a playing Routine’s clock speed in response.