SUPERNOVA(1)

💖 SUPERNOVA — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay so bestie, you typed man supernova and now you're here, and honestly? iconic of you. this page lives in the General Commands Manual, section 1, and it's about supernova, the audio server of SuperCollider. yes, that SuperCollider. the real-time audio synthesis one. let's go 🦋

---

✨ NAME ✨

supernova — the SuperCollider audio synthesis server. that's it, that's the whole name. short. slay. 💅

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

supernova [options]

that's it. that's the summoning ritual. options go in, sound comes out. periodt ✨

---

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

okay so, real talk: SuperCollider is a real time audio synthesis programming language. real time. as in, it does not wait. it does not chill. it does the thing while the thing is happening.

this manual page documents, briefly, the supernova command — which is the audio server of SuperCollider. it's the part that actually makes the noises while you vibe in the language part. bestie energy: one of them writes the poetry, the other one screams it into your speakers 🔥

SuperCollider also has documentation in the HTML format, and it's chilling in the supercollider-doc package. go look, iykyk 📚✨

---

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

here's the summary of options, and listen — there's a rule, so pay attention:

⚠️ you must have a -u and/or a -t option, or -N for nonrealtime. there is no fourth option. there is no vibing without one of those. choose your fighter 🫶

• -u <udp-port-number> — a port number (0–65535). pick wisely bestie 💫
• -t <tcp-port-number> — a port number (0–65535). yes, same range. yes, they're different protocols. no, we don't need to get into it right now 😌
• -c <number-of-control-bus-channels> — default 4096. that's a LOT of control bus channels. go off 🎛️
• -a <number-of-audio-bus-channels> — default 128
• -i <number-of-input-bus-channels> — default 2
• -o <number-of-output-bus-channels> — default 2
• -z <block-size> — default 64
• -Z <hardware-buffer-size> — default 0
• -S <hardware-sample-rate> — default 0
• -b <number-of-sample-buffers> — default 1024
• -n <max-number-of-nodes> — default 1024
• -d <max-number-of-synth-defs> — default 1024
• -m <real-time-memory-size> — default 8192
• -w <number-of-wire-buffers> — default 64
• -r <number-of-random-seeds> — default 64
• -D <load synthdefs? 1 or 0> — default 1. it's a yes/no, 1 or 0, that's the whole vibe 💀
• -R <publish to Rendezvous? 1 or 0> — default 1. again with the 1 or 0. Rendezvous gets a yes by default 🫶
• -l <max-logins> — default 64. this one's doing double duty, bestie:
  • maximum number of named return addresses stored
  • also maximum number of tcp connections accepted
• -p <session-password> — okay so when you're using TCP, the session password must be the first command sent. the default is no password. and listen: UDP ports never require passwords, so for security, use TCP. like, fr fr. 🔐
• -N <cmd-filename> <input-filename> <output-filename> <sample-rate> <header-format> <sample-format> — the nonrealtime mode. six whole arguments. she's high maintenance and she's worth it 💅
• -L — enable memory locking. lock it in 🔒
• -H <hardware-device-name> — tell her which hardware device to use, queen 👑
• -v <verbosity> — how chatty is she feeling?
  • 0 is normal behaviour
  • -1 suppresses informational messages
  • -2 suppresses informational and many error messages
• -U <ugen-plugins-path> — a colon-separated list of paths. and this part matters: if -U is specified, the standard paths are NOT searched for plugins. like, at all. you overrode it. own that 🦋
• -P <restricted-path> — if you specify this, it prevents file-accessing OSC commands from accessing files outside <restricted-path>. it's giving protective bestie energy, and honestly? we love a boundary 🌸

---

😭 TO QUIT 😭

to quit, send a quit command via UDP or TCP, or press ctrl-C.

that's it. that's how you leave the party. say quit, or hit ctrl-C like a person in a hurry. no long goodbyes 💀

---

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• sclang(1)
• /usr/share/doc/supercollider-server

go read those too. be a well-rounded server bestie 📚✨

---

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

this manual page was written by Paul Brossier <piem@altern.org> for the Debian project (but may be used by others).

Modified and updated by Artem Popov <artfwo@gmail.com>.

two authors. a collaboration. we love to see it 💖

---

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this version is from Nov 18, 2008, and it's the SUPERNOVA(1) page from the General Commands Manual — shoutout to 2008 for being this ahead of its time. now go make some sounds, you main character 🔥👑💅