Control
spin
spin
will “spin” and layer up a pattern the given number of times,
with each successive layer offset in time by an additional 1/n
of a cycle,
and panned by an additional 1/n
. The result is a pattern that seems to spin
around. This function work well on multichannel systems.
_spin
chop
chop
granularises every sample in place as it is played, turning a
pattern of samples into a pattern of sample parts. Can be used to explore
granular synthesis.
Use an integer value to specify how many granules each sample is chopped into:
Different values of chop
can yield very different results, depending on the
samples used:
You can also use chop
(or striate
) with very long samples to cut them into short
chunks and pattern those chunks. The following cuts a sample into 32 parts, and
plays it over 8 cycles:
The loopAt
takes care of changing the speed of sample playback so that the
sample fits in the given number of cycles perfectly. As a result, in the above
the granules line up perfectly, so you can’t really hear that the sample has
been cut into bits. Again, this becomes more apparent when you do further
manipulations of the pattern, for example rev
to reverse the order of the cut
up bits:
chopArc
_chop
striate
Striate is a kind of granulator, cutting samples into bits in a similar to chop, but the resulting bits are organised differently. For example:
This plays the loop the given number of times, but triggers progressive portions
of each sample. So in this case it plays the loop three times, the first
time playing the first third of each sample, then the second time playing the
second third of each sample, and lastly playing the last third of each sample.
Replacing striate
with chop
above, one can hear that the ‘chop
version
plays the bits from each chopped-up sample in turn, while striate
“interlaces”
the cut up bits of samples together.
You can also use striate
with very long samples, to cut them into short
chunks and pattern those chunks. This is where things get towards granular
synthesis. The following cuts a sample into 128 parts, plays it over 8 cycles
and manipulates those parts by reversing and rotating the loops:
_striate
mergePlayRange
striateBy
The striateBy
function is a variant of striate
with an extra
parameter which specifies the length of each part. The striateBy
function still scans across the sample over a single cycle, but if
each bit is longer, it creates a sort of stuttering effect. For
example the following will cut the bev
sample into 32 parts, but each
will be 1/16th of a sample long:
Note that striate
and striateBy
use the begin
and end
parameters
internally. This means that you probably shouldn’t also specify begin
or
end
.
striate'
DEPRECATED, use striateBy
instead.
_striateBy
gap
gap
is similar to chop
in that it granualizes every sample in place as it is played,
but every other grain is silent. Use an integer value to specify how many granules
each sample is chopped into:
_gap
weave
weave
applies one control pattern to a list of other control patterns, with
a successive time offset. It uses an OscPattern
to apply the function at
different levels to each pattern, creating a weaving effect. For example:
In the above, the pan sine
control pattern is slowed down by the given
number of cycles, in particular 16, and applied to all of the given sound
patterns. What makes this interesting is that the pan
control pattern is
successively offset for each of the given sound patterns; because the pan
is
closed down by 16 cycles, and there are four patterns, they are ‘spread out’,
i.e. with a gap of four cycles. For this reason, the four patterns seem to
chase after each other around the stereo field. Try listening on headphones to
hear this more clearly.
You can even have it the other way round, and have the effect parameters chasing after each other around a sound parameter, like this:
weaveWith
weaveWith
is similar to the above, but weaves with a list of functions, rather
than a list of controls. For example:
weave'
An old alias for weaveWith
.
interlace
(A function that takes two ControlPatterns
, and blends them together into
a new ControlPattern
. A ControlPattern
is basically a pattern of messages to
a synthesiser.)
Shifts between the two given patterns, using distortion.
Example:
slice
slice
is similar to chop
and striate
, in that it’s used to slice
samples up into bits. The difference is that it allows you to rearrange those
bits as a pattern.
The above slices the sample into eight bits, and then plays them backwards, equivalent of applying rev $ chop 8. Here’s a more complex example:
_slice
randslice
randslice
chops the sample into the given number of pieces and then plays back
a random one each cycle:
Use fast
to get more than one per cycle:
_splice
splice
splice
is similar to slice
, but the slices are automatically pitched up or down
to fit their ‘slot’.
loopAt
loopAt
makes a sample fit the given number of cycles. Internally, it works by
setting the unit
parameter to "c"
, changing the playback speed of the sample
with the speed
parameter, and setting the density
of the pattern to match.
It’s a good idea to use this in conjunction with chop
, so the break is chopped
into pieces, and you don’t have to wait for the whole sample to start/stop.
Like all Tidal functions, you can mess about with this considerably. The below
example shows how you can supply a pattern of cycle counts to loopAt
:
hurry
hurry
is similar to fast
in that it speeds up a pattern, but it also
increases the speed control by the same factor. So, if you’re triggering
samples, the sound gets higher in pitch. For example:
smash
smash
is a combination of spread
and striate
— it cuts the samples
into the given number of bits, and then cuts between playing the loop
at different speeds according to the values in the list. So this:
is a bit like this:
This is quite dancehall:
smash'
An alternative form of smash
, which uses chop
instead of striate
.
Compare the following variations:
echo
Applies a type of delay to a pattern.
It has three parameters, which could be called depth
, time
and feedback
.
depth
is an integer, and time
and feedback
are floating point numbers.
This adds a bit of echo:
The above results in 4 echoes, each one 50% quieter than the last, with 1/5th of a cycle between them.
It is possible to reverse the echo:
_echo
echoWith
echoWith
is similar to echo
, but instead of just decreasing volume to
produce echoes, echoWith
applies a function each step and overlays the
result delayed by the given time.
In this case there are two overlays delayed by 1/3 of a cycle, where each
has the vowel
filter applied.
In the above, three versions are put on top, with each step getting higher in
pitch as |* speed "1.5"
is successively applied.
_echoWith
stut
DEPRECATED, use echo
instead
_stut
stutWith
DEPRECATED, use echoWith
instead
_stutWith
stut'
DEPRECATED, use echoWith
instead
sec
Turns a pattern of seconds into a pattern of (rational) cycle durations
msec
Turns a pattern of milliseconds into a pattern of (rational) cycle durations, according to the current cps.
trigger
Align the start of a pattern with the time a pattern is evaluated, rather than the global start time. Because of this, the pattern will probably not be aligned to the pattern grid.
qtrigger
(Alias qt
) Quantise trigger. Aligns the start of the pattern
with the next cycle boundary. For example, this pattern will fade in
starting with the next cycle after the pattern is evaluated:
Note that the pattern will start playing immediately. The start of the pattern aligns with the next cycle boundary, but events will play before if the pattern has events at negative timestamps (which most loops do). These events can be filtered out, for example:
Alternatively, you can use wait
to achieve the same result:
qt
Alias for qtrigger
.
ctrigger
Ceiling trigger. Aligns the start of a pattern to the next cycle
boundary, just like qtrigger
.
rtrigger
Rounded trigger. Aligns the start of a pattern to the nearest cycle boundary, either next or previous.
ftrigger
Floor trigger. Aligns the start of a pattern to the previous cycle boundary.
mtrigger
(Alias <strong>mt</strong>
) Mod trigger. Aligns the start of a pattern to the
next cycle boundary where the cycle is evenly divisible by a given
number. qtrigger
is equivalent to mtrigger 1
.
In the following example, when activating the d1
pattern, it will start at the
same time as the next clap, even if it has to wait for 3 cycles. Once activated,
the arpy
sound will play on every cycle, just like any other pattern:
mt
Alias for mtrigger
.
triggerWith
This aligns the start of a pattern to some value relative to the
time the pattern is evaluated. The provided function maps the evaluation
time (on the global cycle clock) to a new time, and then triggerWith
aligns the pattern’s start to the time that’s returned.
This is a more flexible triggering function. In fact, all the other trigger
functions are defined based on triggerWith
. For example, trigger
is just
triggerWith id
.
In the next example, use d1
as a metronome, and play with different values
(from 0 to 1) on the const
expression. You’ll notice how the clap
is
displaced from the beginning of each cycle to the end, as the number increases:
This last example is equivalent to this: