Beyond Sonic Pi: Tau5 & the Art of Coding with AI • Sam Aaron • YOW! 2025

This presentation was recorded at YOW! Australia 2025. #GOTOcon #YOW
https://yowcon.com

Sam Aaron - Live Coding Musician and Creator of Sonic Pi @SamAaron 

RESOURCES
https://www.patreon.com/samaaron
https://bsky.app/profile/samaaron.bsky.social
https://twitter.com/samaaron
https://github.com/samaaron
https://linkedin.com/in/samaaron

Links
https://sonic-pi.net
https://sonic-pi.net/supersonic/demo.html

ABSTRACT
For over a decade, Sonic Pi has been used in classrooms around the world to teach programming through music. Students learn sequencing, loops, data structures, and algorithms while coding beats, basslines, and shimmering synths. At the same time, professional musicians have taken Sonic Pi to stages and concert halls, using programming itself as an instrument of musical expression.

Now the story continues with Tau5, a new live coding system focused on collaboration. In music, concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance aren’t just safety nets - they are uncompromising demands. When harnessed, they can be transformed into powerful creative possibilities for human expression and connection.

Collaboration isn’t limited to humans. Tau5 also experiments with AI as a creative partner, asking not what machines can replace, but how they might improvise with us.

This keynote reflects on the lessons these explorations in music and code can teach us about collaboration, creativity, and education in the age of AI. Along the way, we’ll explore concurrency, rhythm, and the subtle but critical difference between working at the same time and working truly in time.

Don't just pattern match - rhythm catch! [...]

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
00:12 DJ set with Sam Aaron feat. Sonic Pi
09:29 Intro No. 2
13:18 Teaching kids to code
18:27 Sonic Pi demo
41:14 The Black Dog
44:11 Tau5 & Visuals
58:26 Collaborative jamming with SuperSonic
01:00:42 Outro

Read the full abstract here:
https://yowcon.com/brisbane-2025/sessions/3907

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Sam Aaron & Russell Barnes • Code Music with Sonic Pi • https://amzn.to/4hBRYtC
Hans Gruendel • Making Music with Sonic Pi • https://amzn.to/3oVxGV7
Hans Gruendel • Learn to Program with Sonic PI • https://amzn.to/3qCrLEO
Simon Monk • Raspberry Pi Cookbook • https://amzn.to/43AGPRX

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