ChucK

Music Programming Language

Strongly-Timed | Concurrent | On-the-Fly | Audiovisual


ChucK Team | 2003 => now
latest version: 1.5.5.7 (chai)
(What's new?)
ChucK
UpChucK operator
chuck verb, to throw carelessly.

ChucK is a programming language for real-time sound synthesis and music creation. ChucK offers a unique time-based, concurrent programming model that is precise and expressive (we call this strongly-timed), dynamic control rates, and the ability to add and modify code on-the-fly. ChucK supports MIDI, OpenSoundControl, HID device, multi-channel audio, and more! It is open-source and freely available on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It's fun, easy to learn, and offers composers, researchers, and performers a powerful programming tool for building and experimenting with complex audio synthesis/analysis programs, and real-time interactive music.


Welcome to ChucK!




Artful Design Ren
Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists
kadenze

a photo-comic introduction to ChucK
excerpt from Artful Design
(a comic book on design—and why we design)



New Ways to ChucK

ChuGL (alpha): Graphics in ChucK
strongly-timed real-time 2D/3D graphics programming
2026 Summer Workshop!

WebChucK: ChucK in browsers
embedding ChucK in your web projects
or code with WebChucK IDE


ChuMP: A Package Manager
install, update, manage chuck packages!

SmucK: Symbolic Music in ChucK
symbolic music notation and playback!

ChAI: ChucK for AI
tools for building interactive AI musical systems

Chunity (ChucK for Unity)
using ChucK in the Unity game engine!
FaucK (FAUST in ChucK)
   hybriding the best of two worlds
ChucKDesigner (ChucK in TouchDesigner)
   strongly-time audio => visual programming
Chunreal (ChucK in Unreal Engine)
   early in development Chuck~
ChucK~ (in Pure Data & Max/MSP)
   early in development; text-based + graphic patching

Extras

ChucK powers PLOrk and SLOrk
CMJ ChucK article (2015)
ChucK excerpt from Artful Design (2018)
Peruse Ge's PhD Thesis (2008)
(and check out Perry's chuck anthem!)
more ChucK + related publications

Check out Ge's talk




CCRMA | soundlab | MCD