fastcat and cat concatenate patterns in series, differing only in whether they compress to one cycle

To play patterns one after another (a sequence of sequences), Tidal offers two serial concatenators that differ only in timing. fastcat [p1, p2, p3] squeezes all the listed patterns into the space of a single cycle, so the more patterns you add, the faster each plays. cat (alias slowcat) instead maintains each pattern’s original playback speed, giving each a full cycle and cycling through the list over several cycles — a great way to build a larger form from multiple patterns. A related variant, randcat, plays a random pattern from the list each cycle. Choosing between them is a choice about time-scale: dense one-cycle medleys (fastcat) versus large-form linear sequences (cat).

Examples

// fastcat: all three squeezed into one cycle
d1 $ fastcat [sound "bd sn:2", sound "casio casio:1", sound "drum drum:2"]
// cat: one pattern per cycle, original speed
d1 $ cat [sound "bd sn:2", sound "casio casio:1", sound "drum drum:2"]

Assessment

Given a three-item list, describe how the audible result of fastcat differs from cat, and name a musical situation where each is the right choice.