ABOUT

CLAVIER-36 is a live programming language for generative music. It was inspired by Orca, but differs in a few regards. It runs on the web at clavier36.com. The full version is coming soon on Steam. Please see the user manual for instructions on using the software. There is a somewhat outdated video introduction here, which should be updated soon.

The project is still in development. Please don't share it publicly yet! We're hoping to have an initial release out within the next few weeks (as of 2025-03-10).

DIVERGENCE FROM ORCA

CLAVIER-36 aims to be a self-contained instrument, whereas Orca is designed to control an external piece of hardware or software. This is achieved primarily through the inclusion of a sampler.

Because CLAVIER-36 is in control of the entire signal processing pipeline, it can be more precise with timing. (Devine has discussed some of the timing problems in Orca's implementation here, around 41:24.) CLAVIER-36 programs can run at extremely high tempo with sample-accurate timing (up into the audio rate range). This opens up a new mode of use, as a kind of granular synthesizer.

The language semantics are also substantially different. For example, CLAVIER-36 distinguishes between operators and literals in a way that Orca doesn't. If you're coming from Orca, do not expect the language to work in exactly the same way.

FUTURE WORK

I'm interested in adding more general signal processing capabilities to the language. For now, though, I just want to do sampling very well. I think there is a huge amount of creative potential with sampling alone.

CONTACT

There is a discord server.

Please email me! I want to hear about how you are using the software.

CREDITS

Created by River Dillon.

Inspired by Orca.

Additional web programming by Greg Technology. Deployed using Disco.

Thank you to Paul Batchelor, Dan Friedman, Jack Leightcap, Shenai Chan, and Won Chun for design and programming discussion.

Thank you to the Recurse Center for providing beautiful space to work. (I encourage you to apply, if you have the chance.)