About The Patchbay
A reference for making music with code — the tools, the languages, and the numbers you look up while you work.
What this is
The Patchbay catalogs the software for writing music as code: live-coding languages, Python and JavaScript music libraries, synthesis engines, MIDI tools, and the reference tables (MIDI numbers, frequencies, controllers, plugin formats) that go with them. One page per tool, one page per lookup, no filler.
How the data is verified
Every tool entry is checked against the project's own source — its repository and homepage — not scraped or guessed. Licenses come from the actual LICENSE file. "Maintained" reflects real release and commit dates, and tools that have gone quiet are flagged honestly rather than hidden. Where a first-release year couldn't be confirmed from a primary source, it's marked approximate. The reference tables are computed from the specifications (equal temperament at A4 = 440 Hz, the MIDI 1.0 controller assignments, General MIDI) so the numbers are exact.
Who's behind it
Built and maintained by Clint Johnson, a software engineer who also writes music entirely in code (see The Headless Studio). This is a working reference kept current by a human who uses these tools.
Spotted an error?
Accuracy is the whole point. If something's out of date or wrong, corrections are welcome via the contact links on clintjohnson.cloud.