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

Open or create a .punc file
Toggle the Punctual REPL with Ctrl+Alt+P.
Evaluate code:
- Shift+Enter - Evaluate current line
- Ctrl+Enter - Evaluate current block (paragraph)
- Ctrl+Alt+Enter - Evaluate all code
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:

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