This is the new version of the Mégra installation guide, which attempts to give easier access to the Mégra Language.
It focuses on using Mégra with Portacle (https://portacle.github.io), a self-contained Common Lisp Editor that already comes with all kinds of helpers. This is especially helpful for people who don't have a lot of experience with the Common Lisp environment.
This guide assumes that you've some basic experience with handling a terminal. If you don't, here's some hints on how to familiarize yourself with it:
- http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_learning_the_shell.php (general)
- https://macpaw.com/how-to/use-terminal-on-mac (macOS specific)
WARNING: This guide prompts you to download all kinds of scripts from the internet. It's recommendable to do at least a sanity check before executing them!
- Linux installation instructions
- macOS installation instructions
- Windows installation hints
- Samples tips on how to manage a sample set for Mégra
Make sure you have the following programs up and running:
- JACK (jack2 preferred)
- SuperCollider (3.8 or later)
- sc3-plugins
- gcc
If not, now is the time to use your distro's package manager to install them. While you're at it, also install the following:
- libsndfile
- fftw
- portaudio
- portmidi
- gsl
- graphviz
- git
- wget
The exact names might vary from distro to distro. As paddywwoof reported, on Ubuntu 18.04 (and I assume derived systems), the correct packages are:
libsndfile-dev fftw-dev portaudio19-dev libportmidi-dev libgsl-dev graphviz
Important: Make sure you have real-time permissions on your system, otherwise Mégra won't start (and JACK will start in non-realtime mode, which isn't really useful for what we want to do here). That does NOT mean you need a real-time kernel!
The exact way to achieve this differs a bit between Linux distributions, here's some hints:
- General: https://jackaudio.org/faq/linux_rt_config.html
- On Arch Linux, install this package: https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/realtime-privileges/ (should come as a JACK dependency already)
Now, download Portacle from https://portacle.github.io and extract it to a location of your choice (I'd recommend your home folder). NOTE: if you already have portacle in use, I heavily recommend using a separate installation dedicated to Mégra.
Open a terminal. In the terminal, navigate to the portacle folder (that is, the folder you just extracted) and execute the following line. This will download the installation script:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/the-drunk-coder/megra/master/portacle-bootstrap-linux.sh
Next, you need to make the installation exectuable and run it. This will download and install all the necessary Lisp code and Lisp dependencies for Mégra:
chmod +x portacle-bootstrap-linux.sh && ./portacle-bootstrap-linux.sh
Now just run Portacle by executing the portacle.run script in the portacle folder:
./portacle.run
You'll end up directly in a Mégra file where you can start hacking around. Per default, the files are stored in the megra-sketchbook folder that lives in your portacle folder now.
You're ready to follow the tutorial now. You can find the tutorial in the megra-tutorial folder that also lives inside your portacle folder.
Mégra runs on macOS from version 10.12 onwards.
Make sure you have the following programs up and running:
- SuperCollider (3.8 or later)
- sc3-plugins
If not, you can find those here:
- SuperCollider: https://supercollider.github.io/download
- sc3-plugins: https://supercollider.github.io/sc3-plugins
You also need a C/C++ compiler to install certain libraries (don't worry, you don't have to interact with it in any way).
To check whether you have one already, open a terminal, type cc and press Return. If you see something along the lines of
clang: error: no input files found, you should be all set.
If not, enter xcode-select --install in the terminal to install the necessary command line tools. For more detailed
instructions, see: https://developpaper.com/install-command-line-tools-no-xcode-in-mac-os-x/.
Lastly, make sure you have the following packages installed:
- libsndfile
- fftw
- portaudio
- portmidi
- gsl
- graphviz
- git
- wget
I recommend Homebrew to install them. If you do not have homebrew, here's instructions on how to get it: https://brew.sh . With homebrew installed, just open a terminal and type:
brew install libsndfile fftw portaudio portmidi gsl graphviz git wget
If you have some other package manager like macPorts installed, you might use that as well, in which case I assume you know what you're doing.
Now you need to get portacle. Here's a guide how to get Portacle running despite Apple's security theatre: https://portacle.github.io/#get-mac . It works! After you've been through the process, you can start Portacle like any other application from your Finder or Spotlight. As a hint, do NOT put portacle in your global Applications folder, instead just move the portacle folder from the DMG to your home folder, or Desktop if you want. NOTE: if you already have portacle in use, I heavily recommend using a separate installation dedicated to Mégra.
Download the Mégra installation script by navigating to the portacle folder in the terminal and execute the following line:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/the-drunk-coder/megra/master/portacle-bootstrap-macos.sh
Next, you need to make the installation executable and run it. This will download and install all the necessary Lisp code and Lisp dependencies for Mégra:
chmod +x portacle-boostrap-macos.sh && ./portacle-boostrap-macos.sh
The next time you start Portacle, you'll end up directly in a Mégra file where you can start hacking around. Per default, the files are stored in the megra-sketchbook folder that lives in your portacle folder now.
You're ready to follow the tutorial now. You can find the tutorial in the megra-tutorial folder that also lives inside your portacle folder.
If you see an error "Division by Zero" while Portacle is starting and loading the Mégra system, make sure all samplerates of all programs are set to 48000 (or, if you've changed that in your ~/.incudinerc, the respective samplerate). It happens if there's a samplerate mismatch. If you have another audio application running (i.e. Reaper), it might change the samplerate if you pull that window into focus !
Now, I must admit that I don't have stable access to a Windows machine, and I'm not well-versed anymore in operating one. I know that Portacle works on Windows (tried it on Windows 7), and so does SuperCollider. SBCL thread support is needed by the underlying Incudine system, which is notoriously fragile on the Windows port. Another problem is that you need to compile the several dependencies (like portaudio and portmidi) by hand, so you'd need to be well-versed in Windows development. If you anybody is willing to try, please let me know.
The default installation contains a very basic set of samples that'll be enough to follow the tutorial. They're fetched from the Mégra Public Samples repository (https://github.com/the-drunk-coder/megra-public-samples) and after the installation they can be found in the megra-samples folder inside the Portacle folder.
The samples are in FLAC format and mono (important if you want to add samples later on).
When you start Mégra, it'll check for subfolders in the megra-samples folder and create an event for each of those. You'll learn in the tutorial what that means. For now just make sure there's no empty folder, and the samples are in the correct format.
Finally, if you browse through the samples folder, you'll notice that the samples have relatively meaningful names (as opposed to, say, the Dirt-samples provided by TidalCycles). We'll see in the Tutorial why this is the case.