# Introduction

Sattern is a [JavaScript](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript) environment for creating musical patterns. It can be used to generate sequences and trigger various targets inside an audio graph. An audio graph is a collection of targets or "audio units" and these can be [MIDI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI) ports, [OSC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Sound_Control) ports, or internal [Samplers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampler_\(musical_instrument\)) and or [SOUL](https://soul.dev/) patches. Sattern can run as a standalone application or as an AU/VST3 plugin on macOS.

![Sattern.app](https://4154459719-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MBl1xAat6IKX6uyp_w0%2F-MCxei_MDgHSzRtbsNK5%2F-MCxf4UelPGAlDJaQq42%2FScreen%20Shot%202020-07-23%20at%202.54.13%20PM.png?alt=media\&token=37bb69b2-5489-4e8a-bb10-e4a7367d3496)

The primary goal of Sattern is to provide a way to approach musical ideas through programming. This is not a new concept and there are lots of amazing tools and environments available that do this sort of thing already, like [Sonic Pi](https://sonic-pi.net/), [TidalCycles](https://tidalcycles.org/index.php/Welcome), [Overtone](http://overtone.github.io/), [Extempore](https://extemporelang.github.io/), and [many more](https://github.com/pjagielski/awesome-live-coding-music). Sattern is intended to provide a self contained [IDE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment) (Integrated development environment) without the need to install any external dependancies and to allow this environment to run as a standalone application or to be hosted inside a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) as an AU/VST3 plugin to enhance an already established workflow.

{% hint style="info" %}
Sattern was never designed to be a "live" coding environment like the above mentioned platforms (they do this extremely well), but you can whip up your own "live" coding system using `eval();`
{% endhint %}

Sattern makes use of JavaScript for its main programming language. We ❤️ all programming languages and went through a couple iterations before landing on JavaScript. I personally come from a background of C style languages and JavaScript supports much of the structure programming syntax from [C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_\(computer_language\)) (e.g., `if` statements, `while` loops, `switch` statements, `do while` loops, etc.), so it was a natural choice for me. Another reason for choosing JavaScript was accessibility, it's everywhere and you're more likely to find examples and bits of useful code written in JavaScript than other languages.


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