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Sonic Pi synth opts (amp:, pan:) control per-note volume and stereo position

Concept L1Foundations F · Live coding: music

Opts are key-value pairs passed to play or synth after the note: play 60, amp: 0.5, pan: -1. amp: controls loudness (0 = silent, 1 = normal, >1 triggers the compressor which can muddy sound). pan: positions sound in stereo (-1 = full left, 0 = centre, 1 = full right). Opts affect only the single call they are attached to. Values can be any float in the valid range; unknown opts are silently ignored.

Examples

play 60, amp: 0.5 play 60, pan: -1 play 60, amp: 0.3, pan: 0.5

Assessment

Play two simultaneous notes panned hard left and right. Explain why the docs recommend keeping amp in the 0-0.5 range.

Prerequisites — understand these first

play and sleep are the two primitives for pitch and timing in Sonic Pi

Don't confuse with

use_bpm sets the tempo so sleep, envelopes, and FX phases all scale accordingly

Sources

“compressor to squash them all to make sure things aren't too loud for your ears”

corpus · sonic-pi-built-in-tutorial · chunk 4

Taught in modules

Sonic Pi: first loops and timing

Unlocks (5) — atoms that build on this