Angle brackets in mini-notation pick one value per cycle, rotating through the list

In Tidal/Strudel mini-notation, angle brackets <...> step through their contents one item per cycle, cycling through the list on successive repetitions and then repeating: <0 1 2> plays 0 on the first cycle, 1 on the second, 2 on the third, then loops. This slows a list out across cycles rather than packing it into one, and is the primary tool for slowly varying a pattern over multiple cycles without editing the pattern string. Angle brackets apply equally to sound names and to effect-parameter values. The key contrast — and a common beginner confusion — is with square brackets [...], which pack all their contents into a single cycle (a subsequence, all-in-one-cycle), whereas <...> is one-per-cycle. Both differ again from comma-separated items, which play in parallel at the same time.

Examples

d1 $ n "<0 3 5>" # s "superpiano"   -- one note per cycle, cycling 0,3,5
d1 $ s "drum*4" # speed "<1 2>"      -- playback speed alternates each cycle
d1 $ sound "bd <sd cp arpy>"        -- only the second slot rotates each cycle
d1 $ sound "drum*4" # vowel "<a o e e>"  -- rotating effect value

Assessment

Predict the first four cycles of n "<0 2> 4", then explain how it differs from n "[0 2] 4". Distinguish the output of sound "bd sd", sound "[bd sd]", and sound "<bd sd>". Write a 4-beat pattern where the third beat rotates through three sounds over three cycles.