Contemporary music and live electronics

Write the electronic part of a piece for instruments: cues triggered from a pedal or a MIDI controller, live processing of the instruments, spatialisation, and a score that waits for the performers. Free and open-source, on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Download ossia score 3.9.0 Try it in your browser Read the documentation

Free and open-source (GPLv3) · Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi and web browser

ossia score comes from research on interactive scores for music, started at LaBRI and SCRIME in Bordeaux with the i-score project (project history). It is made for pieces where musicians and electronics play together: the timing is written, but the performers decide when things happen.

What you can do

A score that waits for the performers: triggers wait for a pedal, a MIDI note, an OSC message or a threshold on the audio input, and conditions choose between branches (breaking the timeline).
Cues from the stage: MIDI pedals, keyboards and controllers, or a keyboard key, start each section (MIDI input, cues).
Live processing of the instruments: Faust, VST, VST3, CLAP, LV2 and JSFX effects, built-in effects, and recording of the instruments into the score (Faust, audio plug-ins, audio recorder).
Listen to the instruments: envelope following, beat tracking and audio descriptors drive processing, sound files, video and light (envelope follower, analysis).
Keep your Pure Data patches: run them inside the score, or control them over OSC with libossia (Pure Data).
Spatialise: DBAP, GBAP, trajectories and control of spatialisation renderers, for concert halls and multichannel systems (see spatial audio).
Musical time when needed: tempo, time signatures and quantization next to free, performer-driven time (musical features).

A performer seated at a table on a dark stage, under a large projected image

On the Edge, Kasey Pocius, Sound Symposium XXI, St. John's: an audiovisual work for video, T-Stick and surround sound.

Live electronics needs, and how ossia score answers them

What you need	How ossia score does it
Electronics that follow the musicians, not a click track	Triggers and conditions on the timeline wait for pedals, MIDI, OSC or audio thresholds.
A part that the next performers can play again	The whole electronic part, with its cues, processing and sound files, is one project file, on every operating system.
Rehearsing a passage	Start from any point with Play from here.
Processing and spatialising the instruments	Plug-ins, Faust, Pure Data patches and spatialisation in the same score.
Video or light in the piece	Video, shaders and DMX lights follow the same cues.

For electronic music played from synthesizers, sequencers and loops, see live electronic music. See the gallery for concerts made with ossia score, such as Pía Baltazar’s The Ripples of Consequence or Alain Bonardi’s pianotronics #3.

Download ossia score 3.9.0 Try it in your browser Read the documentation

Free and open-source (GPLv3) · Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi and web browser

More ways to use ossia score

Stage and music

Show control — Cues, scenes and timecode for theatre, concerts and events.
Live electronic music — Synths, drum machines, sampler, step sequencers and plug-ins, in sync with MIDI clock, timecode and visuals.
Spatial audio — DBAP, GBAP and trajectories over any loudspeaker layout, up to 1024 channels, and control of spatialisation renderers.
Dance and interactive theatre — Pose detection, depth cameras, sensors and tracking drive sound, video and light, inside cues and scenes.

Video and light

Video, mapping and VJing — Video playback, multi-projector mapping, shaders, 3D and NDI, synchronised with sound and light.
DMX lighting and LEDs — Art-Net, sACN and DMX USB with a fixture library, LED pixel mapping, all in sync with sound and video.
Generative art — Shaders, 3D, gaussian splats and live coding, performed live or rendered frame by frame.
Recording and streaming — Cameras, SDI, NDI and SRT in; ProRes or MP4 recording, RTMP streaming and NDI or Spout out.

Spaces and experiences

Interactive installations — Sensors, cameras and tracking, sound and video, running unattended on a PC or a Raspberry Pi.
Museums and exhibitions — Exhibits that run all day without staff, with monitoring, a staff control panel and kiosk apps.
Escape rooms and attractions — Puzzles, props and sensors driving sound, video and lights, with game logic and a game master panel.
Kinetic art and robotics — Motors, pumps and robots written on a timeline, reacting to sensors, in sync with sound, video and lights.

Tools and research

OSC, MIDI and DMX timeline — Automate any OSC, MIDI or DMX parameter on an interactive timeline, with triggers and conditions.
Visual programming — Patch audio, video and interaction with nodes and a timeline, and run your Pure Data patches.
Real-time AI — Pose detection, depth from a webcam, real-time image generation, language models and machine learning by example, run locally.
Protocol bridge — Convert between MIDI, OSC, DMX, MQTT, serial, HTTP and Bluetooth LE, with mapping and filtering, always on.
Research, sonification and biosignals — LSL, HDF5 and CSV data, sonification, biofeedback, and sessions recorded and replayed on a timeline.
Teaching and workshops — One free tool for sound, video, light, sensors and code, on every OS, in the browser and on Raspberry Pi.
Custom apps — Package a project with your own interface as an app for Windows, macOS, Linux or the web.

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