Atoms

A MIDI-CV interface converts MIDI notes into the pitch voltage and gate a modular understands

A mix is a finite budget — spectrum, stereo width, and headroom shared between all voices

A mix's low-frequency rolloff point reflects its bass instrumentation and genre

A model's depth can be measured either as computation-graph length or as concept-hierarchy depth

A modular kick drum is synthesized by modulating a sine wave's pitch downward with a fast envelope

A module reads any voltage above about +3V as a high gate and below 1V as low

A monosynth's note-priority setting decides which held key sounds and has a drastic effect on playing

A naive digital sawtooth resets only on sample boundaries, causing aliasing

A NAND-gate Schmitt-trigger oscillator can be gated on/off by a control input, letting one oscillator modulate another

A near-monochrome ground with one saturated accent — letting contrast do the work, not hue variety — is the geometric palette recipe

A nn~ model's methods each define a distinct processing pipeline with its own inlet/outlet count

A no-input rig patches outputs back to inputs and is recorded live because settings are unrepeatable

A normalized parabola 4t(1−t) is a clean parametric signal for bounce, squash, and stretch animations

A passive resistor mixer sums multiple audio signals without amplification and is inherently bidirectional

A path tracer is technically a type of ray tracer that accumulates indirect lighting via random sampling

A Pd object only fires from its leftmost (hot) inlet; other inlets are cold and merely store

A pedal-tone holds one pitch while chords change above it, anchoring ambiguous harmony and adding tension

A percussive noise stab is made from a noise source through a fully open filter with a fast envelope

A PerspectiveCamera's frustum determines exactly what is visible and what is clipped in three.js

A phaser with feedback adds sweeping notches and a resonant peak that animate a static chord

A photoresistor between audio signal and ground acts as a passive, optically controlled audio gate with no batteries needed

A photoresistor converts light intensity into resistance, serving as a hands-free gestural controller

A physically meaningful base albedo is around 0.18–0.2, not 1.0, for correct lighting response

A Piezo driver and contact mic on a resonant object create a cheap plate reverb or sculptural signal processor

A plagal cadence is chord IV to chord I — the 'amen' ending heard in hymns

A projector must be an extended (not mirrored) display before launching projection software

A pulse wave's duty cycle sets its harmonic content: 50% is a pure square of odd harmonics, and moving away introduces even harmonics and thins the timbre

A Pure Data object's creation argument only sets an initial value; incoming signal or messages override it

A pure sine wave plus EQ and light reverb is sufficient to build a controlled sub-bass patch

A random-walk melody uses small steps through scale degrees so stepwise motion reads as a tune

A ratchet-retrigger subdivides a single step into a fast burst while a drum roll retriggers across multiple steps

A ray is modeled as the parametric function P(t) = A + t*b to enable intersection math

A reactive Hydra parameter must be written as a () => … thunk — a bare expression is evaluated once at eval time and frozen

A reactive visual parameter that spends most of its time pinned at its min or max fails the sanity check and needs its base, gain, or scale retuned

A real drummer has only two hands and two feet — programming more simultaneous hits than limbs allow breaks realism

A Reese bass gets its characteristic movement from overlapping glide notes that trigger portamento

A Reese bass is a detuned, filtered bass whose beating oscillators give warm, moving low-end

A reference-list SDF is dropped into a shader by adding an offset parameter subtracted from p

A render pipeline's fragment targets array must match the texture format of the color attachments used in the render pass

A Resolume composition is the top-level container for one whole performance setup

A rhythm necklace is an equivalence class of cyclic rhythms that disregards the starting point

A rhythmic motive is a short, identifiable rhythmic cell that can be repeated and varied to drive a groove

A rising audio energy arc can be mapped to rising visual motion rate or scale so that both domains accelerate together during a build

A room reverb over a sliced break restores the sonic cohesion lost by rearranging the hits

A salvaged tape head wired to an amplifier becomes a hand-played instrument reading any magnetic media

A Scene captures a snapshot of selected channel values and fades to them on playback

A semi-looping random CV source (Turing-Machine style) balances a repeating loop against occasional new random values

A Sequence is a Chaser bound to a single Scene whose steps share the same channel set

A sequencer controls an oscillator with two connections: pitch (V/Oct) and gate (trigger)

A sequential voltage source steps through programmed voltages, driving pitch, amplitude and duration at once

A shared reverb across the drum bus places every hit in one acoustic space, gluing separate samples into one kit

A shift-register sequencer like the Turing Machine generates evolving CV by looping a window of random bits, steered rather than programmed

A short downward pitch envelope models the higher-tension membrane transient at drum impact

A short pitch-envelope sweep at note onset adds punch to a modular bass sound without a distortion stage

A signed distance function (SDF) returns positive distances outside a shape, negative inside, and zero at its boundary

A single 'energy' scalar driving multiple motion parameters makes the whole image rise and fall coherently

A single label (International DeeJay Gigolos) functioned as the 'germ cell' of the electroclash scene by gathering its key artists

A slow phasor~ scaled and passed through mtof~ produces a repeating one-octave pitch sweep

A slow warp of a simple texture is the richest single source of visual complexity — it beats a complex static texture

A small single-driver mono speaker spotlights midrange balance and mono compatibility