Patchies is a code-first patcher for exploring computation through audio, visual, hardware and more.
It's made for creative coding: patch objects and code snippets together to explore visualizations, soundscapes and computations 🎨
Try it out at patchies.app - it's open source and free to use 😎
Patchies lets you use the audio, visual and computational tools and libraries that you know (and love!), together in one place. For example:
- Create interactive graphics with P5.js, Three.js, HTML5 Canvas and Textmode.js
- Synthesize and process video with Hydra and GLSL shaders
- Live code music with Strudel, ChucK, SuperSonic, Bytebeat, Csound and Orca
- Synthesize audio with Pure Data-style objects, Tone.js and Elementary Audio
- Run programs and games on the Uxn virtual machine and write your own with Uxntal programs.
- Compute like a witch with Assembly and Uiua, or like a wizard with Ruby and Python
- Connect to the outside world with MIDI, MQTT, SSE, WebRTC, Iframe and VDO.Ninja.
- Manage data and control flow with js, expr, filter, map, iframe, spigot, trigger and more.
- Use built-in widgets or make your own with Vue.js, DOM API, Tailwind or any library you like.
- Use any third party JavaScript library via esm.sh.
Try out the above demo which uses P5.js with Hydra to create a random walk shader.
Patchies is designed to mix textual coding and visual patching, using the best of both worlds. Instead of writing long chunks of code or patching together a huge web of small objects, Patchies encourages you to write small and compact programs and patch 'em together.
If you haven't used a patching environment before, patching is a visual way to program by connecting objects together. Each object does something e.g. generate sound, generate visual, compute some values. You connect the output of one object to the input of another object to create a flow of data.
This lets you visually see the program's core composition and its in-between results such as audio, video and message flows, while using tools you're already familiar with that lets you do a lot with a bit of code. This is done through Message Passing, Video Chaining and Audio Chaining. They're heavily inspired by tools like Max, Pd, TouchDesigner and VVVV.
"What I cannot create, I do not understand. Know how to solve every problem that has been solved." - Richard Feynman
Open patchies.app and get patching.
- Play with the demos to see what you can make with Patchies.
- Skim the docs for tutorials and object references.
- Dunno what to make? Open sparks to use your mood and interests as inspiration.
- Join our Discord to share your creations, ask for help and chat with other patchers.
Patchies is open source, AGPL-licensed. You're more than welcome to use it in your AGPL-licensed projects, or fork it and make it your own.
Patchies is only possible because of the generosity of open source library developers who made it possible! If you enjoyed using Patchies, it would make my day if you can go and support them 🧡
Please check out the thanks tab which contains the direct links to support all the amazing people who helped play a part in bringing Patchies to life through their code and support.
The lists are also available in Markdown format: complete package license list and links to support open source creators.