Punctual Integration for Pulsar Editor

Punctual is a language for live coding audio and visuals. Pulsar is a fork of the dead Atom editor. punctual-pulsar integrates Punctual into Pulsar.

This is a work in progress. Bugs are to be expected. I hope they're minimal! 💜💜

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7ade7426-b351-486e-b681-fd49c49b3ef2

Features

• Allows evaluation of punctual code in the Pulsar editor in .punc files, effectively a REPL. Effectively atom-hydra but for Punctual.
• Displays visuals in the Pulsar editor behind text.
• Integration with Tidalcycles/SuperCollider to sync tempo and cycles through /dirt/play for audio-reactive visuals.
• Ability to adjust punctual's phase slightly to account for imperfect timing between Punctual, Tidalcycles, and SuperCollider.
• (Planned) More robust OSC integration to allow more dynamic visuals based on code evaluated within tidalcycles' REPL.
• (Planned) Audio integration that isn't built on sticks and glue. ihatethebrowsersihateelectronihatetheweb
• (Planned) Punctual event highlighting

Usage

1. Open or create a .punc file
2. Toggle the Punctual REPL with Ctrl+Alt+P.
3. Evaluate code:
   • Shift+Enter - Evaluate current line
   • Ctrl+Enter - Evaluate current block (paragraph)
   • Ctrl+Alt+Enter - Evaluate all code
4. To sync CPS:
   • Punctual's cps will natively sync with tidalcycles' cps if beyond the configured tolerance and phase sync is enabled. You may force this by setting cps in tidalcycles, e.g. executing setcps(120/60/4) (perceived as 4/4 120bpm).

There are some example functions in punctual-examples.punc. In a .punc file, you may also just use the evaluate hotkey and Punctual will auto-enable and evaluate.

Keybinds:

Shift+Enter          pulsar-punctual:evalLine               -- Evaluate Current Line
Ctrl+Enter           pulsar-punctual:evalBlock              -- Evaluate Current Block (Paragraph)
Ctrl+Alt+Enter       pulsar-punctual:evalCode               -- Evaluate Whole File
Ctrl+Alt+P           pulsar-punctual:toggle                 -- Toggle Punctual REPL
Ctrl+Shift+H         pulsar-punctual:toggleVisibility       -- Show/hide Pulsar UI (keeps Punctual visuals)
Ctrl+Alt+V             ^^^                                  -- alt keybind for toggling Pulsar UI
Ctrl+Alt+Up          pulsar-punctual:increaseMasterVolume   -- Increase master volume for punctual by 5.
Ctrl+Alt+Down        pulsar-punctual:decreaseMasterVolume   -- Decrease master volume for punctual by 5.
Ctrl+Alt+M           pulsar-punctual:panic                  -- Panic! Mute audio and kill visuals from Punctual.

SuperCollider Integration

Add the following to your startup.scd to send OSC messages to pulsar-punctual:

(
    ~punctual = NetAddr("127.0.0.1", 57121);
    OSCdef(\forwardDirtPlay, { |msg, time|
        ~punctual.sendMsg(*msg);
    }, '/dirt/play', recvPort: 57120).permanent_(true);
);

Note that the port needs to respect the configuration options in Pulsar.

Audio through SuperCollider

To get audio from Punctual and Tidalcycles to go through a single application, you can use VB-Audio Virtual Cable on Windows. Set the audio output of Pulsar to CABLE In, and the audio input of SuperCollider to CABLE Out. Additionally, append the following in your startup.scd:

s.options.inDevice = "VB-Audio Virtual Cable";

(
    ~listenPulsar = {
        var sig = SoundIn.ar(0!2); // from virtual device
        Out.ar(0, sig * 0.8);
    }.play;
);

This is not resource-intensive. If you run into issues, I recommend investigating your SuperCollider server load and adjusting parameters accordingly. One such easy optimization one can make is to enable lazy-loading of samples, particularly if you hoard samples like me:

~dirt.doNotReadYet = true;

Configuration

The following configuaration options are currently available:

Other Documentation

• Punctual Reference - Complete function reference
• Punctual Visual Guide - Joan Queralt's comprehensive tutorial

Inspiration/Kudos/Links

• atom-hydra by Olivia Jack (ojack)
• tidalcycles by Alex McLean (yaxu)
• pulsar-tidalcycles maintained by Andrea Bertagnolli (ndr-brt)
• Punctual by David Ogborn (dktr0)
• SuperCollider