Atoms

OSC (Open Sound Control) is a network-based messaging protocol for real-time musical control, designed to supersede MIDI's limitations

OSC targets parameters with a left-to-right hierarchical address path plus a value

OSCdef registers a named function to respond to incoming OSC messages by address

Oscillator retrigger controls whether each note starts from the same phase, affecting attack consistency

Oscillator start phase controls whether a note begins at a zero crossing or at a waveform peak, affecting click harshness

Oscillator sync locks harmonic partials to a fixed relative phase, but on non-harmonic partials it injects extra harmonics

Oval pioneered glitch by physically interrupting optical disc reading to produce skipping textures as compositional events

Overexposure, parody, commercial exploitation and negative media all collapsed the gabber scene by the late 1990s

Overlay blends Multiply and Screen conditionally on the base layer: darks get darker, lights get lighter, midtones are unaffected

Overt audio-reactivity breaks the stillness of a minimal visual — subtle smoothed bass or no reactivity at all

p5.FFT provides both frequency-domain analyze() and time-domain waveform() readings

P5LIVE is not part of the 4-bin Strudel+Hydra rig — a.fft[] does not exist in P5 and must never be emitted there

P5LIVE realizes particle systems with real per-element p5.Vector state, making the concept portable from GLSL-fake to genuinely simulated

Pairing a blinking LED with a photocell inside opaque tubing creates an optically isolated audio gate, panner, or ring modulator

Pairing a four-to-floor kick with a filtered low tom on off positions gives techno a sub-heavy bouncy groove

Pan Sonic built a 'hard-edged' glitch aesthetic from handmade sine-wave oscillators and inexpensive effect pedals, not studio equipment

pan() positions each event in the stereo field, from full left at 0 to full right at 1

Pan2 places a mono signal in a stereo field; its pos argument ranges from -1 (left) to +1 (right)

Pan2 places a mono signal in the stereo field: -1 hard left, 0 center, +1 hard right

Panning ranges from decisive L/C/R placement to evenly spread positions, by taste

Parallel distortion lets you shape and blend added harmonics independently of the dry signal

Parallel expansion isolates transients or spill for controlled re-blending

Parameter locks let every sequencer trig carry its own unique parameter values

Partial quantization moves notes toward the grid by a percentage, preserving human timing

Particle density controls the opacity and transparency of a granular texture

Passing an array to a UGen argument duplicates the whole signal graph, one copy per array element

Patcher languages like Max and Pure Data are visually rich but their primary syntax ignores spatial position

Patching a signal to a MATHS function-generator input integrates it, producing lag, slew, or portamento

Paul Oakenfold's remix of Happy Mondays looped an NWA sample under rock vocals, creating the indie-dance fusion template

Pauline Oliveros coined 'deep listening' as an aesthetic of expanded attention rooted in long resonance

Pbind can drive any custom SynthDef by naming it with \instrument; SynthDef argument names become Pbind keys

Pbind durations are in beats; a TempoClock sets BPM, defaulting to 60 BPM if none is provided

Pbind has a built-in pitch hierarchy: midinote, note, degree all resolve to freq if the SynthDef uses 'freq'

Pbind maps keyword-value pairs into a timed stream of playable musical events

Pbind maps symbol-value pairs to a SynthDef's arguments, creating a timed stream of Synths

Pbind plays named SynthDefs via \instrument; SynthDef args become Pbind keys; freq and gate must be spelled exactly

Pbind rests are written as Rest(duration) and can appear in any parameter stream

Pbind specifies pitch four mutually exclusive ways: \degree, ote, \midinote, and req

Pbind supports named scales via \scale and chords via nested lists in pitch keywords

Pbind's stretch key converts rhythmic fractions to absolute seconds; quant locks changes to a grid

Pbrown implements a bounded random walk that moves musical parameters in small steps

Pd's trigger object splits one input into typed outputs fired right to left

Peak normalization matches peaks but not perceived loudness, which drove the loudness war

Per-step firing probabilities create a living sequence with a fixed skeleton and flickering ornaments

Perceived pitch and loudness interact: intensity shifts perceived pitch and sensitivity varies with frequency

Perceived tempo is set by rhythmic density and note length, and can diverge sharply from the metronomic BPM

Perceived tonal balance shifts with monitoring level, so listen at varied and consistent levels

Perceptual loudness in DDSP uses A-weighting to match human hearing sensitivity across frequencies

Perlin noise produces smooth, continuous pseudo-random values, unlike the erratic jumps of raw random()

Perlin-noise modulation produces smooth, continuously-varying CV that never repeats, unlike stepped random LFOs

PGroups in Renardo trigger multiple notes simultaneously on a single beat as a chord

Phantom power delivers DC polarizing voltage to a condenser mic over the two balanced signal conductors

Phase problems in stereo field recording are most damaging in mono playback

Phase random produces analog-feel variability per note; phase retrig produces a phase-locked, punchy attack

Philly club heavies the Baltimore template with hardstyle detuned saws and sirens, up to 150 BPM

Physically treating CDs with scissors and knives generates controlled digital errors as composition

Physics simulation models position with velocity plus acceleration, where each value updates the next

Pink noise distributes equal energy per octave, rolling off 3 dB per octave versus white noise

Pinning a free-running audio tremolo and a visual brightness-pulse to the same rate value makes them move in lockstep without a shared transport

Pitch correction should target pitch centers while preserving natural short-term fluctuations