Extramuros: Making Music in a Browser-Based, Language-Neutral Collaborative Live Coding Environment

The extramuros soware was developed to explore live coding and network music, bringing live coding musicians to- gether around shared text buffers. Originally developed to support a globally distributed live coding ensemble, the extramuros soware has found additional application in projecting laptop orchestra performances to remote sites, in zero-installation workshop and performance seings, and in facilitating the efficient display of code by an ensemble. As the soware works by connecting shared text buffers to audio programming languages through specific network connections augmented by pipes, it is a language-neutral approach. This paper describes the overall architecture of the extramuros system, relating that architecture to perennial network music concerns for bandwidth, security, and syn- chronization. Examples of early use in workshops, rehearsals and performances by laptop orchestras and other small telematic ensembles are discussed, leading to a concluding discussion of directions for future work.