Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Sonic Pi VS Pixi.js

Compare Sonic Pi VS Pixi.js and see what are their differences

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Sonic Pi logo Sonic Pi

Sonic Pi is a new kind of instrument for a new generation of musicians. It is simple to learn, powerful enough for live performances and free to download.

Pixi.js logo Pixi.js

Fast lightweight 2D library that works across all devices
  • Sonic Pi Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-05
  • Pixi.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-14

Sonic Pi features and specs

  • Educational Tool
    Sonic Pi is designed to be an educational tool, making it a great resource for teaching programming and music together. It simplifies the learning curve for new programmers by providing immediate auditory feedback.
  • Live Coding
    It supports live coding, allowing users to create and modify music on the fly. This is particularly beneficial for live performances and experimental music creation.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Sonic Pi comes with comprehensive documentation and built-in tutorials that guide users through various features and capabilities of the software.
  • Community Support
    A strong, active community provides support, shared scripts, and collaborative opportunities. This can be invaluable for both beginners and advanced users.
  • Open Source
    Sonic Pi is open-source software, allowing users to contribute to its development and customize it according to their needs.

Possible disadvantages of Sonic Pi

  • Performance Limitations
    Because it is designed for educational purposes and live coding, Sonic Pi may not meet the performance requirements of professional music producers who need more robust and feature-rich DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations).
  • Limited Features
    Compared to traditional DAWs, Sonic Pi has a limited set of features and effects. Users requiring advanced sound design and production tools may find it insufficient.
  • Learning Curve
    While it is designed to be user-friendly, there is still a learning curve associated with mastering the syntax and capabilities of Sonic Pi, especially for those new to both programming and music composition.
  • Dependency on Code
    Music creation in Sonic Pi is entirely code-based, which might not appeal to musicians who prefer a visual and more tactile approach to composing and producing music.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running live code environments can be resource-intensive, and older or less powerful computers might struggle with performance when using Sonic Pi for more complex compositions.

Pixi.js features and specs

  • High Performance
    Pixi.js utilizes WebGL to deliver high-performance rendering, which is ideal for building fast and responsive web applications and games.
  • Cross-Platform
    It supports multiple platforms, allowing developers to build applications that work seamlessly across different devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Pixi.js has comprehensive and well-documented resources that help developers understand how to use the library effectively, including tutorials and examples.
  • Rich Feature Set
    The library comes with a wide range of features such as textures, sprites, and filters, enabling developers to create visually complex and appealing content.
  • Active Community
    Pixi.js benefits from a large and active community, which means frequent updates, a wealth of plugins, and abundant community support.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source library, Pixi.js is free to use and modify, making it accessible to developers with different levels of expertise and budgets.

Possible disadvantages of Pixi.js

  • Learning Curve
    Despite its extensive documentation, beginners may find Pixi.js challenging to learn and integrate into their projects because of its extensive feature set.
  • WebGL Dependencies
    While WebGL provides high performance, it can also cause compatibility issues on older devices or browsers that do not fully support WebGL.
  • Limited 3D Capabilities
    Pixi.js is primarily a 2D rendering engine, so it may not be suitable for projects that require advanced 3D graphics and interactions.
  • Size
    Compared to simpler libraries, Pixi.js can be relatively large in terms of file size, which could impact the loading times of web applications, especially on slower networks.
  • Complex Debugging
    Debugging issues in Pixi.js can be complex, especially in large applications, as it often involves low-level graphics operations and WebGL debugging tools.

Sonic Pi videos

Making Music with Code (Using Sonic Pi)

More videos:

  • Review - Sam Aaron - Live Coding - Sonic Pi Practice Streaming
  • Review - CPEU3 - Sonic Pi: Teaching computer science with music. SAM AARON

Pixi.js videos

PixiJS Crash Course

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Sonic Pi and Pixi.js)
Music Generation
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100
Music Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Sonic Pi seems to be a lot more popular than Pixi.js. While we know about 67 links to Sonic Pi, we've tracked only 5 mentions of Pixi.js. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Sonic Pi mentions (67)

  • Reviving a Dead Audio Format: The Return of ZZM
    Amazing context! Yeah the article’s snippets reminded me of Sonic Pi https://sonic-pi.net/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: Tools or frameworks to build music theory games
    It's not really a framework, but I've been having a lot of fun live coding music in Sonic Pi: https://sonic-pi.net/ It has built-in functions for chords and scales and is pretty easy to make catchy loops. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Algorithmic Music Generation with Python
    You might also find Sonic Pi interesting: https://sonic-pi.net/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
    Not specifically game related, but adjacent. Sonic Pi (https://sonic-pi.net/) is designed for making music specifically with kids in mind, and they might accidentally learn a whole bunch of programming concepts as a side-effect. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Seeking Ideas for Preschool/School Projects
    With my 7 years old I started to thinker with https://www.scratchjr.org/. She like to create short movies with it. The next level will be https://sonic-pi.net/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

Pixi.js mentions (5)

  • Release Radar • March 2024 Edition
    If you're into video game dev, then PixiJS is something you need to know about. It's a HTML5 game engine that provides a lightweight 2D library across all devices. This latest update has a new package structure, custom builds, graphics API overhaul, and lots more. You can read about all these changes in the PixiJS Migration Guide. Also big congrats to PixiJS for being part of the open source community for ten... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Advice about useful libraries to create a 2D car game (hill climb racing style)
    I would need a renderer to display the graphics of my calculations on the "backend". After some research I think pixijs which is written in TS could be a great tool. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Is programming just not for me?
    And if that seems to up your alley you could look into Javascript game/renderer frameworks. They have 2D engines like https://github.com/photonstorm/phaser or https://github.com/pixijs/pixijs . Or my personal choice A-Frame which is a 3D, AR and VR engine (XR) https://github.com/aframevr/ . Source: over 2 years ago
  • Pixie – A full-featured 2D graphics library for Nim
    This has a high risk of being confused with pixi.js: https://github.com/pixijs/pixijs. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Custome game engine: what stack ?
    WebGL, I hear, has a similar API to OpenGL. (Also, WebGPU is coming at some point.) Or, you could use a thin library that handles the WebGL drawing of sprites for you. I prefer that option over using a full game engine: I find it's better to only include dependencies when they become necessary. I recently tried a web rendering library called PixiJS, and it seemed like a pretty clean and nice-sized API, and... Source: almost 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Sonic Pi and Pixi.js, you can also consider the following products

SuperCollider - A real time audio synthesis engine, and an object-oriented programming language specialised for...

Anime.js - Lightweight JavaScript animation library

Pure Data - Pd (aka Pure Data) is a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical...

p5.js - JS library for creating graphic and interactive experiences

ChucK - A strongly-timed music programming language

D3.js - D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.