MacOS installation

Automated Installation with TidalBootstrap

For an easy, hands-off install, try tidal-bootstrap instead of the manual instructions below.

Manual Installation

Prerequisites

Required Prerequisites

Before installing Tidal, make sure the following are installed first:

• Haskell Platform - the 'full' version is strongly recommended.
• Atom Editor (if you don't like the atom editor for some reason, please check out the list of alternatives)
• SuperCollider (pick the latest version)
• Git

Optional Prerequisites

The following is optional, but recommended:

• SC3 Plugins - you may need the SuperCollider sc3-plugins if you want to use any of the synths included in SuperDirt. Most of the examples in the documentation will still work, so you could skip this step and return to it later.

Install TidalCycles

From a terminal, type and run these two commands (ignoring any complaints that cabal has of 'legacy v1 style of usage'):

cabal update

cabal install tidal

If you've never installed TidalCycles before, then the cabal install tidal step may take some time. At the end of the command output, it should say Installed tidal-x.x.x (where x.x.x is the latest version number) without any errors.

Install SuperDirt

Start SuperCollider, and in the editor window paste in the following line of code:

Quarks.checkForUpdates(); Quarks.install("SuperDirt", "v1.0")

Run the code by clicking on it, to make sure the cursor is on this line, then hold down Shift and press Enter. This will download SuperDirt and you will see it has completed when the Post Window displays:

... the class library may have to be recompiled.

-> SuperDirt

Installing SuperDirt
Installing Vowel
Vowel installed
Installing Dirt-Samples
Dirt-Samples installed
SuperDirt installed
compiling class library...
...
(then some blah blah, and finally, something like:)
...

*** Welcome to SuperCollider 3.10.0. *** For help press Ctrl-D.

Install Atom Extension

Start Atom, and install the TidalCycles plugin. You can find it via the menus under edit > settings > install, then typing “tidalcycles” into the search box. Once that’s installed, restart atom.

Once it's installed, you'll need to change the "ghci path" setting for the tidalcycles package to the following: ~/.ghcup/bin/ghci

Once that’s all installed and configured, restart atom.

Install VS Code Extension

Start VS Code, and install the TidalCycles extension by searching the extensions marketplace. You can follow the instructions from here to ensure you know how to use it correctly.

Test Your Installation

Now you are ready to Start TidalCycles and SuperDirt for the first time.