HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
samaaron
supersonic
C++2026–2026
samaaron / supersonic

supersonic

A clockwork scsynth

2Distinct people
3Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
243GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

A clockwork scsynth

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by hour3 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2026-08-10 18:48:09 UTC to 2026-08-11 13:50:46 UTC.

012026-08-10 18:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-10 19:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsAug 10, 18:002026-08-10 19:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-10 20:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-10 20:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-10 21:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-10 21:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-10 22:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-10 22:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-10 23:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2026-08-10 23:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 01:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 01:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 02:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 02:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 03:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 03:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 04:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 commentsAug 11, 03:002026-08-11 04:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 05:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 05:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 06:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 06:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 07:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 07:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 08:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 08:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 09:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 09:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 10:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 10:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 11:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 11:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 12:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 12:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 13:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-08-11 13:00:00 UTC to 2026-08-11 14:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsAug 11, 13:00

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Aug 10, 18:002026-08-10 18:00:00 UTC2026-08-10 19:00:00 UTC101
Aug 10, 19:002026-08-10 19:00:00 UTC2026-08-10 20:00:00 UTC000
Aug 10, 20:002026-08-10 20:00:00 UTC2026-08-10 21:00:00 UTC000
Aug 10, 21:002026-08-10 21:00:00 UTC2026-08-10 22:00:00 UTC000
Aug 10, 22:002026-08-10 22:00:00 UTC2026-08-10 23:00:00 UTC101
Aug 10, 23:002026-08-10 23:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 00:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 00:002026-08-11 00:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 01:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 01:002026-08-11 01:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 02:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 02:002026-08-11 02:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 03:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 03:002026-08-11 03:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 04:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 04:002026-08-11 04:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 05:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 05:002026-08-11 05:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 06:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 06:002026-08-11 06:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 07:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 07:002026-08-11 07:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 08:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 08:002026-08-11 08:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 09:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 09:002026-08-11 09:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 10:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 10:002026-08-11 10:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 11:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 11:002026-08-11 11:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 12:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 12:002026-08-11 12:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 13:00:00 UTC000
Aug 11, 13:002026-08-11 13:00:00 UTC2026-08-11 14:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

3 sources
> In postMessage mode the client and the engine run in separate execution contexts with no shared memory, exchanging serialised OSC - the browser enforces that boundary the same way the kernel does between processes on a socket. You won't convince anyone that a WASM module running in an AudioWorklet should be considered a separate application. If you respect the SuperCollider project, you should also respect its license. The virality of the GPL is the point. Instead of trying to find loopholes, just follow the spirit of the license. > Also, the JS and Erlang clients are entirely my own code and copyright surely their licence isn’t in question. Those parts that do not directly reference scsynth code (or derived code) can indeed be released under the MIT license. However, SuperSonic as a whole must be licensed under the GPL since it's a com
Read the rest
bined work and not a mere aggregate. > I think the question you’re actually raising is what obligations fall on users who combine their software with SuperSonic. You already state that my approach in Sonic Pi is fine. Yes, but your approach with SuperSonic is not. In fact, it seems like you are actively encouraging other people to embed scsynth without following the GPL: > Your application code interacts only with the MIT-licensed client APIs and is not intended to be a derivative work of the GPL components. https://github.com/samaaron/supersonic#license > It is the project author's good-faith interpretation that application code which uses the MIT-licensed client libraries solely to send and receive OSC messages with the engine would generally not constitute a derivative work of the GPL-licensed audio engine https://github.com/samaaron/supersonic/blob/2652a28eb6cb51a4... You are correct that the client libraries themselves might not be derivatives of the GPL-licensed scsynth code (although I'm skeptical about the Erlang client), but using these libraries together with the scsynth code clearly forms a combined work and thus falls under the GPL. This is not communicated at all in the LICENSE file and only hinted at in the README. You can easily get rid of all this ambiguity and potential confusion by licensing SuperSonic under the GPL. You can still keep individual modules as MIT.
In Sonic Pi v5
Thanks for the kind response! > I’m also definitely not wanting to circumnavigate the GPL! You are going to great lengths to make sure that SuperSonic (and thus scsynth) can be used by non-GPL code. You are explicitly advertising in the README: > Your application code interacts only with the MIT-licensed client APIs and is not intended to be a derivative work of the GPL components. https://github.com/samaaron/supersonic#license Or in the LICENSE file: > SuperSonic is deliberately designed with a strict execution boundary between the GPL-licensed audio engine and application-level code. https://github.com/samaaron/supersonic/blob/2652a28eb6cb51a4... What's the point of this if not circumventing the GPL? --- Running scsynth (or a derived application) as a separate process and communicating via sockets should be fine, at least from a legal s
Read the rest
tandpoint. This is what Sonic Pi resp. the native SuperSonic clients do. The SuperSonic JS client, however, lives in the same process as the scsynth WASM module. The fact that the two modules communicate via OSC messages is not really relevant. They clearly form a single combined program and therefore must comply with the GPL. I'm pretty sure the same applies to the Erlang module. According to the LICENSE file, the scsynth engine is implemented as a shared library that the client calls into. This would be a textbook case of a combined program. I would ask you to change the licenses accordingly.
In Sonic Pi v5

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.