Thank you @tyleretters , you are too kind!
So this rings very true in my case:
I learned SC in 2019 because of norns, but fates and the shield weren’t really a thing yet, and the OG norns was a bit spendy for me. SC was the most intriguing aspect to me as well. As I got my bearings with the SC IDE, I found the syntax pretty awkward, but I set bite-sized targets, working toward those and making daily progress until { SinOsc.ar(55) }.play; became a reflex.
I kept a code journal to create good habits and build a reference. I also went through some tutorials built into the (great) documentation, striving to write code for each section and add them to the journal. After a while (less than a month for sure) I felt fluent enough to make “windchimes” or simple generative, heavily randomized sketches - think of Why? from norns.
This became boring after a while, mostly due to not knowing how to make interesting sequences. I started playing with TidalCycles, a nice change of pace with its fast, terse sequencing. After a while, I realized I could use any SC synth with TC, and the synth side of SC became more interesting again.
I started to feel restricted by some of TC’s limitations, so eventually I returned to SCIDE to explore SC by itself. I still felt limited by my sequencing vocabulary, but with a slight sense of resignation I just decided to enjoy the things I could do and try to be patient with learning. One time I was on the couch with SCIDE while my wife watched TV. I patched up a mouse-controlled delay line, with mic input as source, and right then something clicked in a big way. Latency was so low, and control felt so fluid, and it ran flawlessly on my battered old Thinkpad. I had a dozen different ideas to build from there, so build I did.
Shortly after that I strung a rubber band from the latches of the laptop lid and turned SC into a 1-string guitar. The rubber band is still there as a souvenir.
The real key for me was that moment it stopped feeling like a big ugly thing to learn, an academic exercise, and more like a playground to jump right into, on my own terms. Since then, I guess I just trust SC, and nothing seems insurmountable, just a matter of breaking things down into the right pieces, and reaching out when I need help - scsynth.org is great for this.
That said, this path is fairly winding and probably not what I’d recommend. I’d love to make some simple engines or other examples to help share what knowledge I do have. I think that sense of an infinite collection of audio Lego pieces is the key - once you really feel that, you’re ready for anything.
