Generative mutation drifts a pattern imperceptibly moment-to-moment but completely over minutes

Generative-mutation slowly mutates a pattern’s notes or parameters over time so it drifts somewhere new without any discrete sectional change. Techniques include nudging a filter cutoff slightly each cycle, swapping one note per bar, or creeping a probability up or down gradually. The mutation is imperceptible moment-to-moment but total over minutes — the engine of ambient and generative sets where nothing repeats exactly and change is felt as drift rather than as an event. It pairs with every-n-transform, which by contrast makes change periodic and audible for signposting.

Examples

// Strudel: slowly drift a filter over 64 cycles s(“bd sn hh”).lpf(sine.range(200,2000).slow(64)) // Or: .someCyclesBy(0.05, x => x.add(1)) — mutate pitch occasionally

Assessment

Describe generative-mutation and contrast it with every-n-transform in terms of change rate and perceptibility.