Strudel samples may not sound on the first play until you stop and restart

Strudel loads remote samples asynchronously from URLs. When a pattern that relies on externally-hosted samples is first evaluated and played, the samples may not have finished downloading, so the opening of the pattern can play as silence — especially an intro built from a sample. The practical workaround is to press Play, let it run for a few seconds so the fetch completes, then press Stop and Play again; on the second start the samples are cached and audible. This is a loading-order quirk, not a bug in the pattern: the code is correct but the audio engine had no sample data ready in time. Newcomers who hear nothing on first play often assume their pattern is broken when it merely needs a warm-up cycle.

Examples

A collaborative track whose intro uses a Folkways spoken-word sample plays silent for the first bars on initial load. Pressing Stop then Play after a few seconds makes the intro audible because the sample is now cached.

Assessment

A learner reports their Strudel pattern using loaded samples plays silence at the start. Explain the likely cause and give the two-step fix, and say why the same pattern works on the second play.