SonicLife

Interactive, cellular automaton-based controller for iPad / iPhone / iPod Touch

SonicLife sends Open Sound Control messages over a Wi-Fi network using the UDP protocol.

Features

The application runs a simple cellular automaton on a grid of cells.

The cells can be interacted with by touch and triggers of three different colors can be placed on the grid. The automaton can be set to five different rule-sets, from classic Game of Life to simple horizontal or vertical stepping.

Triggers are fired by “alive” cells and send their state as OSC messages to a configurable host on the same Wi-Fi network. Cells and triggers can be randomized by shaking the device.

The application is compatible with software that supports the OSC protocol such as:

Videos

SonicLife + OSCulator + Ableton Live

iPhone + SonicLife + Supercollider

SonicLife + Pd-extended + MIDIYoke + Ableton Live

Usage

To start using SonicLife you have to configure a computer to receive the OSC messages sent by the application.

In the Host field enter the hostname or IP address of your computer, these values can usually be found in the “Network Settings” or a similar control panel.

In the Port field enter the port number the software on the receiving computer is set to listen for messages on.

To test if your setup is working correctly you can download and install a version of Pure Data Extended for free. Open of the example PureData patchers from the list to the right and set the Port field in SonicLife to 8000.

Downloads

Max/MSP

soniclife-receive.maxpat

OSCulator

soniclife-midi-cc.oscd
Triggers in SonicLife mapped to MIDI CC’s
soniclife-midi-note.oscd
Triggers in SonicLife mapped to MIDI Notes

Pure Data

soniclife-receive.pd
soniclife-receive-midi.pd
Same as the receive patch, but sending MIDI CC messages for the triggers

Supercollider

soniclife.scd
GUI example (by Wilm Thoben)

Requirements

Compatible with iPhone / iPod touch / iPad
Requires iOS 3.0 or later

Support

If you run into problems or have feature suggestions,
please contact us or visit the forum and let us know!

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