Music feedback-loop and visual feedback-trail are the same self-feedback mechanism — a signal fed back into itself with less-than-one gain — expressed in two domains

In audio, a feedback loop is a signal (audio bus) routed back into its own input with gain < 1, producing comb resonance, echo regeneration, or a smeared tail. In visuals, a feedback trail is the previous frame routed back into the current render with a blend factor < 1, producing trailing persistence. Both are the same mathematical operation — delayed self-convolution with attenuation — applied in different media. Running a feedback-loop (e.g. Glicol ~fb bus) alongside a feedback-trail (Hydra src(o0)) produces coherence by shared mechanism: both domains smear/persist their material identically. This is the cleanest structural analogy in the AV system.

Examples

Glicol ~echo: ~fb >> delayms 300 >> mul 0.6 ≙ Hydra src(o0).blend(osc(10),0.05).out(o0). Both produce a decaying echo/trail; changing the attenuation factor in one suggests a corresponding change in the other.

Assessment

Explain the structural analogy between feedback-loop and feedback-trail. Why does running both simultaneously produce AV coherence by shared structure, and what parameter in each domain controls the decay rate?