Strudel
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 4 music programming languages
Free, browser-based music programming language with a visual REPL and no setup needed. Critics say it confuses people without music theory and slows on complex pieces.
Free, browser-based music programming language with a visual REPL and no setup needed. Critics say it confuses people without music theory and slows on complex pieces.
86 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 77
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 90%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 77 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Runs in browser without setup
“Being able to just play in the browser without setup helps me focus on the music and less on fiddling with the tool.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” “you can just go to strudel.cc and start coding music right from your browser”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “How to Synthesize a House Loop” “more interactive UI in the browser without installing anything”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Tidal Cycles – Live coding music with Algorithmic patterns” - Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: See chords as flags – Visual harmony of top composers on musescore”
Visual feedback while coding
“I get more motivated when I can see it working directly and change some code here and there!”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” “the syntax and visualization are just making the whole thing a real pleasure to use”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” “one of Strudel strong point is the browser based rich visualization”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” - Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?”
Clear, pretty syntax
“Strudel is my favorite, it has pretty syntax, and their interactive guide (with inline REPL) is extremely well done too.”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “Programming languages used for music” “the syntax and visualization are just making the whole thing a real pleasure to use”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” “the visual feedback, the simplicity of musical expression”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?” Easy to get started
“Strudel is easier to get started with, and definitely more visual/immediate”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” “The main benefit of strudel is it’s much easier to get started.”
Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Tidal Cycles – Live coding music with Algorithmic patterns”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Struggles on complex pieces
“both Strudel and Tidal Cycles seem to struggle on moderately complex compositions”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “The Tulip Creative Computer” “the webapp starts struggling and I find myself back at the drawing board”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” “It had a little problem with stuttering on more complex examples.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Learning music with Strudel” License limits use and embedding
“strudel's license is so restrictive that it's impossible to use on anything”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Sonic Pi v5 Released” “I wanted to embed it on my blog but couldn’t because of the license.”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “loopmaster – Livecoding Music IDE”
Other music programming languages people recommend
The three most recommended other music programming languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StrudelThis page | 77 | 9 | 90% | 12 | — | Approved |
| SuperCollider | 12 | 2 | 86% | 6 | — | Approved |
| ÆTHRA | 6 | 1 | 86% | 1 | — | — |
| Csound | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 94 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“more interactive UI in the browser without installing anything”
“They publish JS modules so you can just import them and build an app around them”
“The main benefit of strudel is it’s much easier to get started.”
“strudel's license is so restrictive that it's impossible to use on anything”
“It has a dry run mode so you can see the actual commands being run, which was important to me to have so there's no mystery about what's happening.”
“I wanted to embed it on my blog but couldn’t because of the license.”
“the most intuitive music livecoding experience I've come across”
“Looks like it's copylefted, too. And present on the Fediverse. Very nice!”
“the visual feedback, the simplicity of musical expression”
“I am fascinated by it and have been attempting to riff off it and create new creative interfaces.”
“for a taste of what Strudel is capable of in "real time"”
“both Strudel and Tidal Cycles seem to struggle on moderately complex compositions”
“Strudel is my favorite, it has pretty syntax, and their interactive guide (with inline REPL) is extremely well done too.”
“The live-coding community around tidal cycles will point you to a the fruit of missing projects like tidal-cycles and strudel”
“Switch Angel live-code using Strudel. Really impressive and interesting stuff.”
“Strudel blends the language with a js runtime and that's really powerful and fun.”
“I just found out about the Strudel musical programming language and watched an amazing video of someone making Trance with it.”
“have a much better toolset for producing stuff that actually sounds great”
“comes with an extensive sample bank of actually quality samples”
“Even Strudel has tools for basic GUI components because once you get past the novelty”
“you can just go to strudel.cc and start coding music right from your browser”
“the webapp starts struggling and I find myself back at the drawing board”
“It's incredible, though, what people are able to obtain with it”
“It had a little problem with stuttering on more complex examples.”
“Strudel is easier to get started with, and definitely more visual/immediate”
“the syntax and visualization are just making the whole thing a real pleasure to use”
“it's a pretty well crafted instrument that is ideal for these performances”
“Quite possibly one of the most interesting things is just how competent the REPL is.”
“Love Strudel, trying to learn it but inevitably you also need some musical foundation.”
“TidalCycles doesn't have the interactive code that shows you what is playing or have inline sliders”
“I found that annoying on the editor, but if used on a 2nd screen to build graphics programmatically”
“IMO this is an good choice, and people who know music theory and composition should feel right at home”
“one of Strudel strong point is the browser based rich visualization”
“I found them incredibly well put together and hence really useful to learn”
“Strudel is dope and a ton of fun, but every single piece of its interface seems determined to confuse people who already know music theory and composition.”
“Being able to just play in the browser without setup helps me focus on the music and less on fiddling with the tool.”
“This is great! I'm not really into electro, but I really like this one!”
“Strudel is a great tool and is helping me to make EDM from scratch.”
“I get more motivated when I can see it working directly and change some code here and there!”
“makes me jump right into strudel.cc and experiment with chords”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.