Atoms
5,034 knowledge atoms — one concept each, the smallest teachable units. This is the reference library, not a course: atoms back the hands-on lessons on the two course paths and are here to look up, not to learn from in order. To find something specific, use search or browse by domain, level or type.
Showing 1,501–1,560 of 5,034 · page 26 / 84
A snare roll foreshadows a trance transition by escalating in velocity, frequency, and volume
A soft knee makes compression progressively engage below the threshold, producing more transparent results
A solid source's resolution sets mask edge quality: higher resolution gives smoother edges
A Solo Frame in QLC+ enforces mutual exclusion so only one button is active at a time
A source assigned to a layer becomes that layer's texture, so one source can feed many layers independently
A spectrogram is a time-frequency power map created by computing the STFT frame-by-frame and plotting energy per bin
A spectroscope displays a signal's spectral content — amplitude vs. frequency — in real time
A spectrum analyzer supplements limited low-frequency monitoring by visualizing octave balance at the bottom end
A Speed Dial widget adjusts multiple functions' fade and duration speeds in real time with tap tempo
A static DC voltage (offset) can open VCAs, transpose pitch, reset sequencers, and bias any CV destination
A strong focal point is created by contrast, isolation, or convergence — not by competing elements
A Strudel voice must be tagged `.analyze('hydra')` to contribute to the FFT — an untagged voice is inaudible to the visuals even if loud in the speakers
A sub oscillator one or two octaves below the main oscillator adds low-end weight without audibly changing the main timbre
A sub-30 ms Haas delay widens a mono signal but is mono-incompatible and lopsided
A sub-synth reinforcing a bass can thin the low end when its waveform is out of phase with the bass fundamental
A supersaw lead is built from two detuned saw-wave oscillators with many voices and a subtle LFO pitch modulation
A swing setting of 60–65% produces the rolling feel characteristic of UK garage
A SynthDef is a reusable named synth recipe; a Synth is a running instance of it
A SynthDef is a reusable recipe for sound; a Synth is one execution of that recipe
A synthesized snare combines a pitched sine transient with white noise through a fast filter envelope
A synthesized snare combines a tuned membrane tone with a decaying noise component
A Synthwave bassline is built by following the root note of each chord
A Synthwave lead should be simple enough to whistle after one or two listens
A tan() wave drives motion that shoots off-screen and returns from the opposite side, unlike a bounded sin() wave
A tempo-matched delay sinks into the groove; an unmatched delay pops out as a distinct echo
A tempo-synced square-wave LFO on pitch produces a rhythmic octave-jumping lead
A three-terminal voltage regulator (78xx) turns a noisy wall-wart into a clean, fixed supply voltage
A three.js Mesh is the combination of a Geometry (shape) and a Material (appearance) and nothing is drawn until both are combined
A Tidal pattern is a function from a time arc to a list of events, not a stored sequence
A TidalCycles pattern is built in two layers: a mini-notation sequence as source material, then transformations applied to it
A tone response curve encodes intensity non-linearly to match human brightness perception
A too-fast release causes audible pumping; a too-slow release causes the compressor to ride gain continuously
A tool's affordances and omissions silently shape the musical ideas a performer can conceive
A trance gate rhythmically chops a sustained chord to add motion
A trap hi-hat roll is 32nd notes whose velocities are sculpted into accents to make a stuttering texture
A triggered drum sample must be timing- and phase-aligned to the original by hand, or it cancels instead of reinforcing
A uniform buffer holds per-draw-call constants visible to all shader invocations, unlike per-vertex attributes or writable storage buffers
A VAE generates sound by encoding a spectrogram to a latent point, decoding it, and inverting the STFT
A variance schedule beta_t controls how quickly noise accumulates across DDPM timesteps
A VC Slider in Playback mode combines function start/stop and intensity control in one fader
A VC Submaster Slider scales the intensity of all other widgets in the same frame
A VCV Rack polyphonic cable carries up to 16 channels so one patch chain voices multiple notes
A very short reverb behaves like EQ or a sustain enhancer rather than a spatial effect
A vignette darkens frame edges to concentrate attention inward and give a generative field coherence
A visual pulse is amplitude-following, not beat-locked, and will drift from the musical grid
A vocoder imposes a voice onto a synth carrier to produce robotic 80s-style vocals
A voltage-controlled amplifier driven by an envelope generator shapes a sound's loudness over time
A voltage-controlled filter at maximum resonance self-oscillates into a sine-wave oscillator
A voltage-controlled oscillator's frequency is set by an applied control voltage, not just a manual knob
A VPT playlist auto-crossfades through a clip sequence, requiring each clip to outlast twice the crossfade
A VPT preset stores the whole live state of layers and sources, not a rendered image
A walking bass outlines the harmony by passing through chord tones and chromatic approach notes between roots
A wavefolder reflects a wave back on itself past a threshold, creating high harmonics instead of clipping
A waveform and its set of harmonics are two equivalent descriptions of the same sound
A wavetable oscillator scales a phasor by the table size to index a stored waveform array
A WebGPU canvas context must be configured with a device and the device's preferred texture format before drawing
A WebGPU draw call requires setPipeline, setVertexBuffer, and draw called in sequence on a render pass encoder
A WebGPU render loop re-records and re-submits a command buffer each frame; requestAnimationFrame or setInterval drives the cadence
A WebGPU render pass with loadOp 'clear' and a clearValue fills the attached texture with a solid RGBA color
A WebGPU uniform is a shader global held constant for every invocation of one draw call