Make sound with Volta · Volta reference

Volta is a musical instrument you can write. Describe a sound, give it a rhythm, and change it while it plays. A few words can become a bass line, a shimmering pad, a drum machine, or the beginning of a complete track. You can start without knowing how to program or read sheet music.

This Reference connects what you hear to what you write. Start with a sound below, follow a short learning path, or look up a particular technique.

Hear a first idea#

Listen for: four rounded notes, with space after each one. "keys" chooses the instrument; the second pair of quotation marks holds the notes. The number after a note letter is its octave: larger numbers sound higher.

Listen to this example · four bars, then the tail

tempo = 120bpm
timingVersion = 2
play "keys" "c4 e4 g4 b4" |> release 180ms

Make it yours: change e4 to eb4 (E flat). One changed note gives the phrase a different color. In Studio, edit the example where it is and choose Run live; Open in editor copies it into a new song tab. On the public pages, the audio player plays a recorded preview; Open in the workbench takes you to the editable workflow.

A small pattern can hold a whole groove#

Listen for: a steady kick, a snare on the backbeat, and quieter offbeat hats. The bass leaves gaps so the drums can speak. ~ makes a rest; *8 repeats a sound eight times within its slot. Each line adds another part.

Listen to this example · four bars, then the tail

tempo = 116bpm
timingVersion = 2
sound "bd*4" |> gain 0.65
sound "~ sn ~ sn" |> gain 0.35
sound "hh*8" |> gain "[0.3 0.12]*4"
play "bass" "c3 ~ [c3 g3] ~" |> cutoff 700Hz

Make it yours: replace [c3 g3] with [eb3 g3], or change 116bpm to 100bpm. The parts stay together. These three drum samples come with Volta.

Sound can move, too#

Listen for: the brightness gently opening and closing while the notes stay the same. A low-pass filter removes some high frequencies. Here an LFO—a slow, repeating control—moves that filter automatically.

Listen to this example · four bars, then the tail

tempo = 120bpm
timingVersion = 2
play "saw" "c3 ~ g3 ~"
  |> cutoff (lfoSine 0.5Hz * 700Hz + 1000Hz)
  |> resonance 2
  |> release 350ms
  |> reverb 0.28 0.2

Make it yours: change 0.5Hz to 2Hz for faster movement. Hz means cycles per second. The same unit measures audio pitch and the speed of a slow control; their frequency ranges make them behave differently to our ears.

Choose a path#

I want to…	Start here	Then explore
Make my first sound	Your first sound	Build a synth sound
Write a beat	Rhythm and groove	Design a drum kit
Write melodies and chords	Melody and harmony by ear	Interweaving melodies
Make evolving textures	Bring a sound to life	Wavetables, Granular synthesis
Work with recordings	Make music from samples	Slicing, Time-stretching
Finish a track	From loop to finished track	Mixing, Mastering and export
Find a sound to steal and change	The sound recipe book	Ready-made instruments
Look up exact syntax	Language reference	Symbols in Studio's Reference

Four ideas to keep with you#

A patch describes how an instrument makes one note.
A pattern describes events over time: notes, drum hits, or changing values.
A track brings a pattern and an instrument together.
A song arranges tracks into sections, with a mixer to balance them.

You can begin with built-in instruments and grow into your own patches. Later, use the same building blocks for physical models of strings and resonating objects, custom tunings, resampled loops, and live performance. The code remains something you can read, keep, share, and change.

How to use this Reference#

Featured examples are complete programs. Listen for explains the intended result in words; Make it yours suggests one change. In Studio every example is editable in place: Run live plays your edited code in a separate Reference example song tab, leaving your own song untouched, and Open in editor makes a working copy you can save. See Find your way around Reference. Some later reference snippets show only one part of a program; they are labeled or explained in context.

The Manual follows musical topics. Symbols looks up individual commands, their arguments, and short examples. The glossary explains unfamiliar words; When something does not sound right helps when you get stuck. For guided exercises with goals, open the Learn course.