ChucK-in-the-Box is a collection of computer music development tools for 64-bit Raspberry Pi computers. Any 64-bit Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, 4 or 5) can be used. It might also run on the Raspberry Pi 3B+ but I have no plans to get one to test.
ChucK-in-the-Box for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is built on the command-line Raspberry Pi OS Lite and contains
- the ChucK audio programming language. The current version is 1.5.5.6 built from GitHub source. repositories,
- the Faust audio programming language. The current version is 2.79.3 from the Debian repositories,
- the default ChuGins, the Faust and WarpBuf ChuGins, and
- Audio tools:
- PulseAudio,
- rtkit, and
- ALSA.
On larger systems - at least one GiB of RAM and four cores, running the Raspberry Pi OS Desktop - ChucK-in-the-Box also contains
- The miniAudicle integrated development environment for ChucK, and
- the qpwgraph PipeWire graph Qt GUI interface.
All of the Raspberry Pi boards I use - Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 - have HDMI output. So if you're hooked up to an HDMI monitor with audio, you don't need to buy anything for audio output.
If you're running headless, you can use an HDMI audio extractor or HDMI capture card that has audio outputs. However, I don't own one, so I can't recommend one. And there's no audio input by default on a Raspberry Pi - if you need audio input, you'll need additional hardware.
Another option is a plug-and-play USB audio device. There are expensive ones and inexpensive ones. Most of the inexpensive ones only do 16 bit / 48 kilohertz audio, so check the specifications carefully. I have had good results with USB gaming headsets, although you'll have to use great caution to protect your ears as you would with any headset.
There are a number of audio HATs for the Raspberry Pi boards, and probably dozens of DIY setups if you want to go that route. I have a Blokas Pisound HAT on one of my Raspberry Pi 5s and Chuck-in-the-Box supports it.
Finally, ChucK-in-the-Box supports Bluetooth audio, including microphones, speakers, headphones and headsets. Pairing and connection setup is done with the control panel on the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 PiOS desktop and from the command line in the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.