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Linux

Automatic installation​

There are user-made tools to install the Tidalcycles stack. Be sure to check out the following solutions:

  • Ansible method: Ubuntu / debian / Mint (/ most debian-based distros)
    • full featured solution including SuperCollider, Haskell, Tidal, SuperDirt, code editor, and package dependencies
    • has customization options, including adding additional sample sources and bus channel settings
    • for more information, see the Tidal Club thread

Manual installation​

There are several required components for a complete Tidal Cycles system

Most modern distros will make all or most of these available for convenient install via their package managers.

The following instructions provide commands specific to different distro families. They are labelled as:

  • debian - the debian family of distros includes debian, *buntu, Mint, pop!_OS and more
  • arch - the Arch family of distros includes Arch Linux, Manjaro and more
  • fedora - the fedora distro (tested), may also apply to other RPM based distros (eg RedHat, OpenSUSE, Rocky Linux etc)
  • all - this command should be run by everyone, regardless of distro

Choose the command that matches the distro you are running.

Configure User​

1. Add your user as a member of the audio group

all

sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER

2. Logout and log back in for it to take effect. You can check it worked with

all

groups | grep audio

Package Preconfiguration​

1. Install dependencies

debian

sudo apt update; sudo apt install git jackd2 qjackctl zlib1g-dev gcc g++ ghc cabal-install

arch

sudo pacman -Syu; sudo pacman -Sy git jack2 qjackctl

fedora

sudo dnf install git-core qjackctl gcc-c++ cabal-install

2. Remove conflicts

arch

sudo pacman -R lib32-mesa-demos mesa-demos

SuperCollider Installation​

1. Install SuperCollider and SC3-Plugins

debian

sudo apt install supercollider sc3-{plugins,plugins-language,plugins-server}

arch

sudo pacman -Sy supercollider sc3-plugins

fedora

sudo dnf install supercollider

sc3-plugins for fedora is provided by a 3rd party repo (you may choose to leave it enabled)

sudo dnf copr enable ycollet/audinux; sudo dnf install supercollider-sc3-plugins; sudo dnf copr disable ycollet/audinux;

SuperDirt Installation​

tip

SuperDirt is a plugin or "Quark" for SuperCollider, and functions as the audio engine for TidalCycles as well as providing the default set of samples.

1. Get the version number of the latest SuperDirt release (you can also do this by checking the github page)

all

git ls-remote https://github.com/musikinformatik/SuperDirt.git | grep tags | tail -n1 | awk -F/ '{print $NF}'

2. Install SuperDirt, update the version number if required. Once complete press Ctrl+d to exit sclang

all

2.a. Start the sclang shell

sclang

2.b. Paste this line and press Enter (and wait, it returns immediately but processes in the background).

Quarks.checkForUpdates({Quarks.install("SuperDirt", "v1.7.3"); thisProcess.recompile()})

Tidal Installation​

1. Install tidal

arch is the only distro to support Tidal installation via it's core package manager, other distros require using the haskell package/environment manager, cabal (>=3.0.0.0)

arch

sudo pacman -Sy ghc ghc-libs haskell-{tidal,bifunctors,colour,hosc,mwc-random,network,primitive,random,vector,microspec}

all others

cabal update; cabal install tidal --lib
tip

cabal can be notoriously fickle. If for some reason it fails, you can safely reset the environment by renaming your ~/.ghc and ~/.cabal folders, and re-running the above commands.*

Choose a Text Editor​

TidalCycles is supported by a wide variety of text editors, you will need one to get started:

... and more.

Start Tidal​

You're almost there! Follow these instructions to get Tidal started