Fact
A discrete, checkable piece of information — a value, a name, a threshold.
794 atoms · grouped by primary domain
A · Music theory & musicianship — 56
19-TET adds pitches between the cracks of standard 12-note tuning while keeping octaves aligned
7th extensions are the most useful chord color in electronic music; minor-7 and major-9 define the deep-house/dub-techno pad sound
A boom bap hi-hat line runs steady 16ths with a cowbell on bar-2 beat 1 and an open hat on bar-2 beat 4
A cabasa sample substitutes for an open hi-hat in UK Garage because it adds energy without the harshness of an open hat
A cent is 1/100 of a semitone; cents are logarithmic so intervals add while ratios multiply
A chord is multiple pitches sounded at the same time
A dot after a note extends its duration by half, creating in-between values useful for compound rhythms
A major key and its relative minor share the same key signature but have different tonics (relative minor tonic = 6th degree of major)
A pitch class is one of the 12 chromatic notes named independently of octave
A swing setting of 60–65% produces the rolling feel characteristic of UK garage
Applying different MPC 3000 swing amounts per element (8ths on the kit, harder 16ths on hats) creates boom bap's head-nod
Baltimore club's tempo rose from 125-128 BPM to 130+ and keeps accelerating
Bresenham's algorithm for drawing digital straight lines is an implementation of the Euclidean algorithm
Dark Berlin techno drums run at 120–130 BPM with 50–55% swing using classic analogue hits and effected noise
Deep house's characteristic harmonic sound comes from jazz-influenced minor7 and major7 chords rather than simpler triads
Different electronic genres use characteristic swing percentages that define their feel
Doubling a frequency raises the pitch by exactly one octave
Dozens of traditional world-music timelines are rotations of Euclidean rhythms
Dub techno runs slower than mainline techno, typically 110-125 BPM
Early minimal techno was constructed around the Roland TR-808 or TR-909 drum machine, both still used today
Electronic genres cluster around characteristic tempo ranges
Electronic music leans on a handful of workhorse chord progressions, each with a genre home
Every major key contains 7 diatonic triads: I, IV, V are major; ii, iii, vi are minor; vii is diminished
Four-on-the-floor places a kick drum on every beat of a 4/4 bar
Grime's canonical 140 BPM tempo originated partly because FL Studio's default tempo is 140 BPM
Hi-hats on every offbeat define the garage rhythmic framework
In a minor key, all three primary triads (i, iv, v) are minor, giving the minor tonality its characteristic mellow, introspective mood
In roots reggae, a four-on-the-floor kick pattern is called 'steppers'
J Dilla mastered MPC swing to create grooves that feel simultaneously late and propulsive
Miami bass doubles snare and clap on the same pattern, layering a rimshot, for a hybrid backbeat sound
Minimal techno is less afrocentric than minimal house and focuses on middle frequencies rather than deep bass
Minimal techno's canonical tempo range is 125–130 BPM with 128 BPM cited as the sweet spot
Note values (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth) are fractional proportions of a whole note
Pelog is a seven-note Indonesian scale whose pitches do not correspond to any notes in 12-TET
Pitch is frequency measured in Hertz; A4 = 440 Hz is the universal tuning standard
Roger Linn's 1979–80 LM-1 introduced machine swing by delaying every other quantised step
Seventh chords add a 7th above the triad root; major sevenths (maj7) have 11 semitones, minor sevenths (7) have 10
Sgubhu, a gqom variant, differentiates itself from standard gqom by using a consistent four-on-the-floor kick
Sonic Pi, SuperCollider, Strudel, and Tidal are theory-native for harmony; Glicol, ChucK, and Punctual require hand-spelling frequencies
Swing time alternately stretches and shrinks the two halves of each beat
Swing was first popularized in 1930s US jazz, with no single formula across players
Thai classical music uses approximately 7-tet because Thai instruments have bar-like spectra whose dissonance curves have minima near 7-tet steps
The Amen break is the most legendary drum break and the rhythmic foundation of DNB
The archetypal house pattern is four-on-the-floor kick, clap on 2 and 4, closed hats on off-beats
The backbeat — a loud snare answering the kick — is the foundational pattern under most contemporary popular music
The chromatic scale divides the octave into 12 equal semitones, one for each adjacent key on the keyboard
The complement of a Euclidean rhythm is also Euclidean
The DnB two-step places kick on beat 1 and the and-of-2, creating a syncopated broken feel
The leap-year patterns of the Jewish and Islamic calendars are Euclidean necklaces
The Miami bass kick is a long-decay 808 hit with a present transient, giving the genre its boomy low end
The natural minor scale follows T-S-T-T-S-T-T, starting on the 6th degree of its relative major
The Standard Pattern, the most widespread sub-Saharan bell timeline, is E(7,12) started on its third onset and matches the major-scale pitch pattern
The techno kick is harder and often longer or more distorted than a house kick
The techno template shares house's four-on-the-floor kick but drives with dense low-velocity 16th hats
This up-front future-garage beat is specced at 125–135bpm with 55–65% swing
UK garage drums require MPC-style swing at ~68-69% to produce the characteristic shuffled groove that distinguishes UKG from straight house
B · Sound design & synthesis — 48
A harmonic spectrum has partials at exact integer multiples of a fundamental frequency
A sawtooth contains every harmonic with the nth at 1/n the fundamental's amplitude
Ableton's Echo is the closest built-in device to a hardware dub delay; slight L/R timing error adds character
An analog signal is literally an electrical analogy of the physical quantity it represents
ATK decoders output channels in counter-clockwise order starting from front-center; call .directions to verify routing
Chowning discovered FM synthesis from fast vibrato and licensed it to Yamaha, who shipped the DX7 a decade later
Continuous tone sensation begins around 20-30 Hz pulse rate
Csound is a text-based software sound synthesis system, created by Barry Vercoe in 1985
Dub techno bass is deliberately simple — often a single sustained sine note pushed forward in the mix
Dub techno melody ranges from old-school one-note to structured lines, usually in a minor key with D a common root
Filter pole count determines the steepness of frequency rolloff: each pole adds 6dB per octave of attenuation
Flanger uses 1-20 ms LFO-modulated delay; chorus uses 20-30 ms; slapback uses 10-120 ms
FM concepts from the DX7 apply to all six-operator and four-operator Yamaha FM synthesizers
FM generates rich spectra with just two oscillator lookups, making it computationally viable for 1980s digital chips
FM total bandwidth is approximately twice the sum of frequency deviation and modulating frequency
Frequency measures how many complete wave cycles occur per second, in hertz
Frequency, amplitude, and waveform are the three fundamental parameters of a sound
Granular grains are less than 50 ms long, typically 10-30 ms
Human hearing peaks in sensitivity at 3–4 kHz due to ear canal resonance
In classic EDM production the TR-808 supplies the drums and the TB-303 supplies the bassline
Listeners typically cannot hear below 16-bit resolution in normal listening conditions
Max/MSP's cycle~ object generates a continuous cosine wave at a specified frequency
Only three frequencies — sr/3, sr/4, sr/6 — produce sine waves with zero quantization error at any amplitude
Sawtooth, square, and triangle waves have distinct harmonic series that determine their timbral character
Source waveform sets harmonic complexity in a ladder from sine (pure) to noise (harsh)
Synth Secrets is a 63-part Sound On Sound series covering synthesis from waveforms to instrument emulation
The 'hoover' sound came from the Roland Alpha Juno 2 and became a signature of Belgian techno and hard dance
The 'orchestra hit' stab, first sampled on a Fairlight for 'Planet Rock', became a ubiquitous electro/hip-hop signature
The ATK uses a right-hand coordinate system: azimuth 0°=front, positive=counter-clockwise, elevation 0°=horizon
The decibel formula changes from 10·log to 20·log when comparing voltages instead of powers
The decibel is a relative amplitude ratio: every 6 dB doubles (or halves) the amplitude
The DX7 pitch EG applies to all operators simultaneously and cannot be isolated per operator
The FM fundamental frequency equals fC/N1 = fM/N2 when the carrier-to-modulator ratio is N1:N2
The FM modulation index I = d/m is the ratio of peak frequency deviation to modulating frequency
The Korg Poly-61 gave electro producers an affordable polysynth for bass, strings, and arpeggios in place of a Prophet-5
The micro time scale spans from ~200 microseconds to ~100ms
The Oberheim DMX used sampled sounds rather than analog synthesis, giving electro an alternative drum palette to the TR-808
The Roland JP-8000 supersaw became trance's signature dense detuned-saw texture
The Roland TR-909 and TR-808 are the canonical drum machines of techno — cheap when released, later highly collectible
The sawtooth wave produces a brassy, harmonically rich sound because it contains all harmonics
The theremin is played by moving hands in an electromagnetic field with no physical contact
The TR-808 hi-hat circuit mixes six oscillators through a bandpass filter and is impractical to replicate in modular
The TR-808 kick drum — down-pitched and elongated — became a foundational sound in drum and bass production
The TR-808's sounds are fully synthesized via Web Audio API — no samples are used
The TR-909 hi-hat is a recorded sample, not a synthesized sound
Two sine waves of close but different frequencies produce audible beats at a rate equal to their frequency difference
Voltage controls oscillator pitch: higher voltage produces higher pitch
White, pink, and brown noise differ in how power is distributed across the frequency spectrum
C · Sampling, field recording & sample culture — 25
AI-generated audio is permitted on Freesound if tagged with GenAI and the generating model is named in the description
Breaks tracks span roughly 110–175 BPM, letting DJs mix them across many genres
Clearing a sample requires separate permissions from both the master recording owner and the song's publisher
Copyright terms extending to life-plus-50 years lock cultural material away from reuse for decades after an author's death
DJ break compilations like Ultimate Breaks and Beats were how sampled drum breaks spread to producers
DJ Kool Herc extended the drum break by alternating the same record across two turntables
Early sampling culture predated rights-clearance, leaving source performers uncompensated
Every Freesound sound carries its own independently chosen license
Extreme cold degrades cables and microphone capsules before electronic circuits fail
Freesound API enforces per-minute and per-day rate limits that are stricter for write operations
Freesound is the largest Creative Commons audio repository, born as a research project at UPF Barcelona
Freesound's APIv2 lets you filter sounds by perceptual qualities like brightness, hardness and depth — not just text
Freesound's Broad Sound Taxonomy sorts sounds into five browsable top-level categories
Journalists routinely reprint and cannibalize what others have written without checking sources — making media manipulation easy
Jungle tracks circulated primarily via acetate dubplates that wore out after ~50 plays, creating a hyper-local release cycle
Miami bass is built around the Roland TR-808 as its defining drum machine
Sampling+ is a retired CC license that Freesound cannot unilaterally remove from existing sounds
Sampling+ works like CC-BY-NC but additionally forbids using the sound in commercial advertising
Session musicians whose performances are sampled often receive no royalties because they were paid as hired performers, not composers
Sound recordings were not protected by US copyright until 1976
Sounds uploaded to Freesound are automatically processed then manually moderated before appearing publicly
The 'Think break' from Lynn Collins' 'Think' is Baltimore club's signature breakbeat
The Amen break became the single most reused drum loop in dance music
The Amen break is a ~7-second drum break from the Winstons' 1969 B-side 'Amen, Brother'
The Biz Markie lawsuit made recognizable unauthorized sampling infringement and forced labels to clear all samples
D · Mixing, mastering & loudness — 23
0 dBm is 1 milliwatt; it implies an impedance context unlike dBu
A 24-bit container may hold only 16-bit content — verify via bit scope before mastering
A dense modern rock master typically targets RMS around -10 to -9 dBFS to retain transient headroom
A limiter typically thins the low end slightly and brightens the top end of the material it processes
Commercial club PAs omit deep sub-bass because pop music does not use those frequencies
Consumer gear operates at –10 dBV; professional gear at +4 dBu — an ~12 dB gap
Dynamic range is the dB difference between the loudest and quietest signals in a program
Each frequency band of an electronic mix has designated owners; the low-mid 250-500 Hz 'mud zone' is easiest to overfill
EBU R 128 sets -23 LUFS as the broadcast target for integrated programme loudness
In this rig frequency-budgeting and masking-avoidance are predictive — no framework surfaces a wired metering or perception bridge
ISRC codes uniquely identify each recording and are embedded in the CD's Q-channel subcode during mastering
Mastering engineers like Ron Murphy shaped the sound of underground Detroit techno as creative collaborators
Ratio 2:1 for gentle bus glue, 4:1 is a starting point for individual parts, higher ratios for heavy control
Rock arrangements balance guitar, bass, and drums co-equally, unlike bass-led hip-hop and pop
Spotify normalizes all tracks to -14 dB LUFS at playback using the ITU 1770 standard
Summing a stereo mix to mono lifts centred sounds ~3 dB relative to edge-panned ones
Tape echo delay is a defining element of dub aesthetics across reggae and dub techno
Tape machines running at high speed roll off steeply below 50 Hz, shaping the spectral signature of 1970s–80s rock
The budget Alesis 3630 compressor became a defining piece of 1990s French touch production
The decibel is a logarithmic ratio, because the ear judges level in ratios rather than absolute differences
The LFE channel in 5.1 surround has an additional 10 dB of headroom for low-frequency effects
The lowest axial room mode frequency equals 172 divided by the room dimension in meters
True peak measures the reconstructed waveform between samples; capping at -1 dBTP leaves headroom for inter-sample peaks and lossy encoding
E · Modular, Eurorack, grooveboxes & dawless — 45
1V/oct pitch is exponential, f = f₀·2^V, with audio oscillators baselined at C4 (261.63 Hz) at 0 V
A control voltage can only do three things: rise, fall, or stay constant
A Eurorack case's power supply must cover the summed current of every module across the +12V/-12V/+5V rails, with headroom
A first Eurorack case should be at least 3U x 84 HP, and 6U x 84-104 HP gives room to grow without outgrowing quickly
A module reads any voltage above about +3V as a high gate and below 1V as low
An open-source hardware licence let the Turing Machine spawn third-party panels, expanders, and free software clones
Audio connections longer than 8 inches require shielded cable to prevent electromagnetic hum pickup
Banana jack colors on the Buchla 200e encode signal direction and type at a glance
Buchla explored hybrid analog/digital and software-controlled systems from the mid-1970s before the 200e
Buchla systems use 1.2 volts per octave for pitch CV, not the Eurorack 1V/oct standard
Buchla's 1966 system included light and projector modules to control visuals from the same patch
Buchla's first modular system grew from a 1963 San Francisco Tape Music Center commission
DAWless is a spectrum: sessions can record to standalone stereo or multitrack hardware, or a DAW at mixdown only
Eurorack case size is measured in HP (horizontal pitch, width) and 3U rows (height), and modules are sized in HP
Eurorack is the dominant modular format: 3U tall, 3.5 mm jacks, from a Doepfer standard
Eurorack modules are interconnected with 3.5 mm mono miniature jack patch cables
Eurorack modules are powered from +12V and -12V bus rails
Eurorack modules are sized in HP (1HP = 5.08mm) width, and module depth must fit the case's clearance
Eurorack power runs on three rails (+12V, -12V, +5V) distributed from a PSU through busboards to modules
Eurorack/VCV signals are ~10 Vpp: audio swings ±5 V, CV is 0–10 V unipolar or ±5 V bipolar
In 1V/octave pitch control, each additional volt raises oscillator pitch by exactly one octave
In VCV Rack 0 dBFS equals 10 V, and 0 dBVU sits at −18 dBFS by hardware convention
Marbles' Y output is a slow smooth random source, immune to DEJA VU, ideal for self-patched modulation
MATHS descends from Buchla 281/257 and Serge DUSG — it packages West-coast analog computing into Eurorack
Maths inverts a logic gate signal using CH.4 Signal IN with EOC as the inverted output
Maths OR output performs half-wave rectification by passing only positive portions of a bipolar signal
MIDI carries digital performance data — notes, tempo, position — over one cable across up to 16 channels
Modulargrid is the standard tool for planning a Eurorack system — it tracks cost, power draw, HP, and module placement before purchase
Open-source DIY Eurorack modules can be built for around $20 and an hour each, making modular affordable
Resistor color bands encode value and tolerance using a fixed two-digit-plus-multiplier scheme
Resistors in series add; in parallel the net is a little less than the smaller one
Switches are classified by the number of circuits they control (poles) and the number of positions they switch between (throws)
The 267e noise source provides three spectrally distinct noise outputs — integrated (−3dB/oct), musically flat (0dB/oct), and white (+3dB/oct)
The Buchla 200e behaves like an analog modular at the panel but stores knob and switch settings digitally
The Buchla system made live real-time electronic performance possible by removing the tape-splice workflow
The Roland TR-808 cymbal uses six detuned square waves mixed and heavily filtered to create metallic noise
The scoop bass bin is a classic Jamaican sound-system low-bass cabinet, carried into DnB rigs
Tides accepts V/Oct pitch CV for musically-calibrated frequency tracking alongside exponential FM
Tides automatically adapts its behavior at audio range to keep waveshapes musical and prevent aliasing
Tides frequency-multiplication output mode makes just-intonation chords at audio rate and polyrhythmic triggers at LFO rate
Tides has three ramp modes: one-shot AD, cyclic oscillation, and one-shot AR envelope
Tides uses different clock-following algorithms at LFO vs. audio rate: phase-locked for swing at LFO, pitch-accurate at audio
VCO sub-octave outputs add a square wave one or more octaves below the main pitch to fatten bass sound
VCV Rack defines standard signal voltages: ±5 V audio, 0-10 V or ±5 V CV, 10 V gates and triggers
VCV Rack is a free, near-limitless software modular synthesizer that closely approximates hardware Eurorack for learning and planning
F · Live coding: music — 114
A Glicol node name not in the reference is a parse error that leaves the graph unswapped
A pattern must be tagged .analyze('hydra') to be visible to the audio-visual bridge
A Sonic Pi live_loop automatically cues its own name each cycle, making sync :loop_name safe without explicit cue calls
A Sonic Pi live_loop with no sleep and no sync throws a 'did not sleep' error and stops
A SuperDirt sample name must match a dirt-samples folder; sound "kick" is silent because the folder is bd
A tilde or hyphen in mini-notation inserts a silent step that preserves the grid
Algorave is a global movement, born in 2011, of live-coded electronic dance music with the code projected
All of Western music can be expressed with two Sonic Pi commands: play (pitch) and sleep (timing)
An unknown Sonic Pi synth, sample, or fx name usually errors, though a bad sample name can just fall silent
ChucK has no hot-reload path in this rig and runs as a separate process
ChucK has no native scale, chord, or euclidean primitive; these must be hand-rolled from arrays and Std.mtof
ChucK UGen class names are CamelCase-exact and must be verified against `names/ugens.txt`
ChucK UGen names are exact CamelCase and must be verified against the rig's ugens list
ChucK's `signal()` wakes one waiting shred while `broadcast()` wakes all
Each independent Strudel voice in a multi-pattern session must be on its own $: prefixed line
Estuary maintains a single shared tempo (CPS/BPM) that all languages and ensemble members follow
Estuary runs a subset of Tidal (Mini-Tidal) in the browser with no installation
Estuary's entire interface, tutorials and help texts are translated into multiple natural languages
Estuary's ExoLang interface lets external JavaScript live-coding languages be loaded at runtime
Eulerroom is the live streaming platform and video archive for Algorave and live coding performances
Every >> in Glicol must sit between two nodes; a trailing or orphaned >> is a syntax error
Glicol BPM is set at launch with `-b` and cannot be changed in-file during a session
Glicol CLI has no embedded sample bank; samples must be placed in the `samples/` folder
Glicol CLI keeps the previous graph running on a parse error, reporting it in the TUI console
Glicol compiles to WebAssembly for garbage-collection-free real-time audio in the browser
Glicol has no mini-notation, Euclidean syntax, or per-step probability operators
Glicol has no native scale or chord primitive; pitches must be hand-listed as frequencies or seq integers
Glicol has no note names, scales, or chord primitives — pitches are hand-coded as MIDI integers
Glicol parameters are safest written with a decimal point, as the grammar's float rule wants a `.`
Glicol requires exactly one named chain per line; multiple chains on one line cause a parse error
Glicol suits ambient drones because its modular graph natively sustains and slowly modulates signals
glicol_synth is a standalone graph-based Rust audio DSP library usable outside Glicol
Glicol's sp sample set is separate from Strudel's dirt-samples and requires its own samples folder
Hydra is a browser-based live coding environment for visual synthesis, enabling collaborative networked visual performance
In Glicol `seq`, top-level spaces divide the bar while adjacent digits subdivide a step
In Glicol a `~name` bus is silent until another chain references it
In Sonic Pi, .tick mutates the ring counter while .look only reads it — calling .tick twice in one pass advances twice
In Strudel the tempo is set as cps (cycles per second), where bpm = cps × 60 × beats per cycle
In this livecoding rig a file save is the performance action: Strudel hot-swaps gaplessly and Hydra re-evals on the same GL context
ixi lang organises musical notation into three real-time-synchronised modes — melodic, percussive, and concrète — each with its own bracket syntax
Live coding emerged from computer music history that begins with MUSIC-N and flows through Max, SuperCollider, and real-time audio in the 1990s
Live coding emerged from hacker culture and could not have developed in a commercial music industry context
Live coding's hacker-derived 'what you do, not who you are' ethos supports an inclusive community
Mid-to-late 1990s software democratised music production and enabled laptop performance and live coding as new techno practices
Network music performance has latency thresholds: below 10ms is unnoticed; 10-40ms requires tempo negotiation; above 40ms demands independent tempi
Orca's R operator outputs a random value between min and max each frame
Quarks extend SC's language with community-contributed classes; UGen plugins extend the audio server with new signal processors
Referencing a Glicol bus before it is defined on its own line causes an unresolved-reference error
Renardo 1.0 replaces the legacy Tkinter editor with a browser-based Svelte web client as its default interface
Renardo is the actively maintained successor to FoxDot for Python live coding over SuperCollider
Renardo pre-defines Roman numeral chord constants I–VII as PGroups for quick chord progressions
Renardo ships a large built-in scale library covering modes, bebop, world, and symmetric scales
Renardo supports just intonation as an alternative tuning system via `Tuning.just` on any scale
Renardo supports microtonal pitches as floating-point scale degrees interpolated between semitones
Renardo supports SuperCollider, REAPER, Ableton Live, and MIDI as swappable audio backends
Renardo's `.eclipse(dur, every, offset)` periodically silences a player for automatic arrangement breaks
Renardo's `.fadein(n)` method ramps amplitude from 0 to full over n beats
Renardo's Ableton backend can automate parameters with TimeVar at up to 300Hz via AbletonOSC
Renardo's gatherer module enables downloading sample packs and instrument chains from a community server
Renardo's VRender extension converts note sequences and lyrics into a vocal WAV via sinsy.jp singing synthesis
s.freeAll (Cmd-.) frees every running node but leaves the server booted and SynthDefs loaded
setcpm() sets global tempo in cycles per minute; the default 30 cpm equals 2-second cycles
Several Tidal functions like rot, whenmod, and layer throw undefined in installed Strudel 1.2.6
Some quality checks are permanently not-possible on this rig because the 4-bin FFT cannot supply the required feature
Sonic Pi cannot feed the rig's 4-bin FFT bridge for audio-reactive visuals — it runs in its own IDE with a bundled SuperCollider server
Sonic Pi idiomatically uses symbols not strings for samples and notes — play :e3 or play 52 work but play "e3" does not
Sonic Pi sleep arguments are in beats, not seconds — use use_bpm to set the tempo that determines their duration
Sonic Pi synth, sample, and fx names must exist in the bundled set; names like :kick, :bass, :verb are errors — the real names are :bd_haus, :tb303, :reverb
Sonic Pi was built to teach programming to school children through music-making
Sonic Pi's use_bpm is thread-local; setting it in one live_loop does not change the tempo in another
speed() changes sample playback rate; negative values reverse the audio waveform
Sporked ChucK shreds die when their parent shred ends
Standard two-letter abbreviations map to drum kit sounds in Strudel's default sample set
Strudel audio requires a user gesture to unlock the AudioContext — code cannot force it
Strudel is a browser-based JavaScript port of the TidalCycles pattern language
Strudel is a browser-native, Tidal-style pattern language that shares TidalCycles' syntax
Strudel patterns must include .analyze('hydra') for visuals to receive FFT data — an untagged pattern plays audio but the visuals see a.fft = 0
Strudel produces no sound until the first user click unlocks the browser AudioContext — silence at startup is autoplay policy, not a bug
Strudel re-evaluates on save without cutting audio — a syntax error keeps the previous pattern playing while the edit is not applied
Strudel runs entirely in the browser at strudel.cc, requiring no install to start making sound
Strudel sample names must match folders in the loaded bank — s("kick"), s("clap"), s("snare") are silent because the real folder names are bd, cp, sd
Strudel's crush takes a bit-depth (1–16), not a 0–1 knob — crush(4) is heavy, crush(16) is nearly clean
Strudel's MiniREPL is an inline interactive editor for running and editing code samples in the docs
Strudel's setcpm is cycles-per-minute not BPM — setcpm(120) is very fast; use setcpm(BPM/4) for the standard 4-beats-per-cycle feel
Strudel's setcpm takes cycles per minute, not BPM — use setcpm(bpm/4) for 4-beat cycles
SuperCollider 2's proxy system enabled true live coding by making it possible to rewrite any component of a running program at runtime
SuperCollider audio-analysis UGens are not wired to this rig's AV bridge and cannot drive its visuals
SuperCollider has four enclosure types: () for argument lists and code blocks, [] for arrays, {} for functions, and "" for strings
SuperCollider produces no sound until the audio server is explicitly booted with s.boot
SuperCollider serves both as a standalone live-coding environment and as the audio back-end for many front-end languages
SuperCollider's 2002 release as free software made it the foundational audio engine for live coding
The algorave moved live coding from experimental venues into clubs with dancefloors, first held in London in 2012
The International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC) has been live coding's primary academic and community venue since 2015
The laptop's portability and price point make it a more accessible instrument than a piano, democratising music production
The TOPLAP Manifesto and 'Live Coding: A User's Manual' are the canonical texts for the field
The TOPLAP manifesto demands transparency — 'show us your screens' and 'obscurantism is dangerous'
Tidal does not run in this rig; every Tidal pattern must be compiled to Strudel to be heard
Tidal evaluates a block on the editor's eval keystroke, not on file-save like the rig hot-reload
Tidal names a scale with a space-separated root — scale "c minor" — not Strudel's colon form
Tidal users without functional programming background can make music with it, showing DSL usability decouples from host language difficulty
Tidal writes chords with the apostrophe form n "c'min7" and has no separate .voicing() step
Tidal's # operator applies a named control to a pattern; its right side must be a control name, not a bare string
Tidal's d1..d16 channels and p come from BootTidal.hs and have no Strudel equivalent
TidalCycles emerged from the need to make live music without minutes of dead air — Perl was too slow for real-time performance
TidalCycles is a live coding environment designed for exploring musical pattern
TidalCycles is designed exclusively for live coding algorithmic patterns, with a mini-notation for rhythms and an extensive combinator library for pattern manipulation
TidalCycles is split across two repos: the Tidal pattern language (Codeberg) and SuperDirt sound engine (GitHub)
TidalCycles learners use Tidal Club (forum), Discord, and the Codeberg repository as distinct support layers
TidalCycles' pattern model originates from Indian tabla rhythm analysis via Bernard Bel's Bol Processor syntax
TOPLAP is the international live coding arts organisation, founded in 2004, with local nodes and shared community channels
Unbalanced brackets in Tidal mini-notation produce a GHCi parse error, leaving the old pattern playing
Unbalanced mini-notation brackets in Strudel throw a parse error that shows in #err while keeping the old pattern playing
Web Audio API, WebMIDI, and Tone.js are the browser-native stack for interactive music apps
WebChucK runs ChucK in the browser via WebAssembly and the Web Audio AudioWorklet
G · Shaders & GPU programming — 18
A glslViewer feedback buffer only fills if its render code is wrapped in the matching `#ifdef`
Conway's Game of Life updates each cell based on neighbor count: fewer than 2 or more than 3 active neighbors → dies; exactly 3 → activates; 2 → unchanged
Every GLSL fragment shader must define void main() and assign gl_FragColor at least once
GLSL ES requires a precision mediump float block at the top of every shader
GLSL requires a decimal point on all floating-point literals
GLSL syntax must match the `#version` directive — mixing ES 1.00 and 3.00 syntax fails to compile
GLSL uniforms must be declared before use; only glslViewer-provided names are available without declaration
glslViewer in this rig has no audio input — `a.fft` does not exist and reactivity must use `u_time`
Interactive computer graphics still depends on rasterization hardware; ray tracing cannot yet replace it
IQ's first SDF-raymarched image, Slisesix (2008), won a 4KB demoscene procedural-graphics competition
Named noise colors (pink, brown, yellow) map to specific fBm spectral slopes and Hurst exponents
On GL ES 1.00, `for` loop bounds must be compile-time constants, not uniforms
Physically Based Rendering is a free CC-licensed textbook coupling rendering theory with a full implementation
The 12 principles of animation provide a checklist of techniques that make procedural characters feel alive
The Book of Shaders defines three standard uniforms: u_resolution, u_mouse, and u_time
The four core radiometric quantities for rendering are energy, flux, irradiance, and radiance
The terminal-rig glslViewer has no audio-reactivity bridge; use u_time for motion instead
Unbounded `u_time` loses float precision over minutes, causing visible jitter in periodic motion
H · Creative coding & live-coded visuals — 33
A Hydra chain rendered to o1..o3 stays invisible unless that buffer is selected with render()
createFont() loads a font at a chosen size; loading it large keeps text crisp when scaled
Each Hydra save runs `hush()` then re-evals the whole file on the same GL context — frame buffers survive
Every Hydra chain must end with .out() or .out(oN) to be visible on the canvas
Hydra buffer objects (`s0`, `o0`) are not chainable sources — they must be wrapped in `src(...)`
Hydra FFT bins stay at 0 until a Strudel pattern is tagged `.analyze('hydra')`
Hydra functions fall into five categories: source, geometry, color, blending, and modulation
Hydra is a browser-based, JavaScript live-coding language for networked video-synth visuals
Hydra's a.setSmooth sets smoothing for all bands globally — to smooth one target differently, write a per-value lerp in the thunk
Hydra's audio FFT array has exactly 4 bands (indices 0..3); reading index 4 or higher produces NaN
Hydra's speed global scales the global time variable that drives parameter animation
In P5LIVE with HY5 loaded, Hydra's noise() is aliased to noize() to avoid collision with p5's built-in noise()
In this rig, Hydra's `a` object is a 4-bin shim fed from Strudel, not the native mic FFT
p5.js claims the name noise() so Hydra's noise function must be called noize() inside P5LIVE
p5.js sketches that load external files require a local web server to avoid cross-origin errors
P5LIVE runs p5 in global mode; instance-mode sketches (function sketch(p){}) must be rewritten before they work
Processing provides point, line, rect, ellipse, and bezier as core drawing primitives
Punctual 0.5 removed the 0.4 output operators >> video, >> hsv, >> red, and >> left; old code silently fails or parse-errors
Punctual changes take effect at the next cycle boundary by default — use <> 0 for near-immediate switching
Punctual has no coherent noise, voronoi, kaleidoscope, or pointer primitive — these must be faked with available functions
Punctual is not wired into this livecoding rig — no file hot-reload, no 4-bin a.fft shim; run it at its own URL or in Estuary
Punctual uses a normalised -1 to 1 coordinate space with (0,0) at the centre of the screen
Punctual uses three distinct arrows: << (define), >> (output), and <> (crossfade) — mixing them causes errors or wrong behavior
Punctual's cps is fixed at 0.5 when run standalone; it only reflects the ensemble tempo inside Estuary
Punctual's lo/mid/hi analyse the program's own audio output — they are zero if no audio statement is running
Punctual's lo/mid/hi analyse the program's own audio output; ilo/imid/ihi analyse microphone input — reading lo with no audio output gives 0
Punctual's three arrow operators have distinct roles: >> routes to output, <> sets crossfade duration, and << is assignment (synonym for =)
Reading a.fft[4] or higher returns undefined, causing NaN arithmetic and a frozen or black Hydra frame
Strudel voices must call .analyze('hydra') for audio data to reach Hydra's a.fft array
The Hydra rig shim exposes only 4 FFT bins — onset, tempo, RMS and spectral centroid do not exist
The Nature of Code is a 12-chapter, 67-video p5.js track on simulating natural systems in code
The official Processing tutorials split into video links and leveled text lessons across four sibling platforms
There are exactly 17 distinct symmetry groups for periodically tiling the plane
I · VJing, projection mapping, LED/DMX & video — 28
1960s liquid light shows established live music-synchronized visuals before video existed
A Collection runs multiple QLC+ functions simultaneously as a single triggerable unit
A fixture Head groups channels belonging to one light output device within a multi-output fixture
Affordable laptops, cheap projectors, and growing rave/club culture drove the 2000s VJ boom
Click And Go provides a visual one-click interface for selecting colors and gobos on fixture channels
DMX defines 512 channels per universe, each with a 0–255 value range
E1.31 (sACN) sends DMX over multicast UDP, with universe numbers matching QLC+ numbers directly
Fixture Modes let one fixture definition cover multiple channel-count configurations
Moving from broadcast NTSC/PAL to computer displays freed VJs from fixed 4:3 resolutions
One E1.31 universe carries 512 DMX channels, controlling up to 170 RGB LEDs at 3 channels each
QLC+ Blackout forces all HTP channels to zero regardless of running functions
QLC+ exposes a web interface for headless remote control of the Virtual Console and Simple Desk over HTTP
QLC+ kiosk mode locks the UI to Virtual Console only, preventing editing during live operation
QLC+ maps MIDI beat clock start/stop and beat signals to special channels 530–531 for BPM-sync
QLC+ transmits DMX over Ethernet using Art-Net UDP with universe-numbering offset by 1
QLC+ uses OSC over UDP with auto-assigned ports derived from universe numbers
Spout (Windows) and Syphon (macOS) share live video between applications on one machine
The 1971 Sandin Image Processor pioneered an open, roll-your-own philosophy prefiguring open-source tool culture
TouchDesigner is a node-based visual platform for real-time interactive multimedia
Use -1 in a WLED ledmap to mark absent pixels in non-rectangular shapes
VJing originated in 1970s New York club culture, predating MTV's adoption of the term
VJs release clip libraries under Creative Commons and Public Domain so others can reuse them in mixes
VPT emits OSC loopreport and cliptime events so external tools can sync to video progress
VPT exposes its full parameter set as typed OSC commands across sources, layers, presets and control
VPT's prefs.txt text file sets startup behaviour: framerate, screens, source bank and autostart
VPT's SoundTrigger app maps left/right audio channels to VPT controllers for audio-reactive visuals
WLED supports Art-Net and DDP as E1.31 alternatives, but DDP always uses Multi RGB regardless of DMX mode
WLED supports multiple named ledmaps selectable per preset
J · Audio-visual integration & sync — 19
A MIDI 2.0 device must implement MIDI-CI-with-discovery plus a feature, or UMP-with-discovery plus a feature
A Strudel voice must be tagged `.analyze('hydra')` to contribute to the FFT — an untagged voice is inaudible to the visuals even if loud in the speakers
a.fft is updated once per rendered frame at ~60 Hz — sub-frame transients are averaged away, making onset detection impossible
a.fft values are not clamped to 0–1 and can exceed 1 under normal use, so bounded visual parameters must be clamped in the sketch
AbletonOSC uses a fixed port pair: commands arrive on 11000, replies go out on 11001
All couplings requiring onset, tempo, beat-phase, or per-instrument signal share one root blocker and are not achievable with the 4-bin bridge
Audio-reactive texture intensity (band amplitude to grain/warp) is realizable now; onset-triggered glitch bursts are not possible in this rig
Clip launch quantization in AbletonOSC maps integer codes to musical durations, from None to 1/32
Hydra reads only the browser's default microphone input, not desktop audio; DAW output requires virtual audio routing
In this rig, audio-reactive visual motion is envelope-following only — beat-locking and onset-triggering are not available
Max for Live devices come in three types — Audio Effect, Instrument, and MIDI Effect — each with distinct signal roles
MIDI Channel Voice Messages carry per-note performance data including Note On, Control Change, and Pitch Bend
MIDI-CI runs over any MIDI 1.0 transport because it is carried in System Exclusive messages
p5.FFT provides both frequency-domain analyze() and time-domain waveform() readings
Punctual runs audio and visuals in one program, eliminating the need for an external AV bridge — audio reacts to its own sound natively
Sound reaches Hydra through exactly one path: a 4-element FFT array filled from Strudel's Web-Audio analyser — no MIDI, OSC, or per-instrument bus exists
Strudel and Hydra have no shared clock — Hydra's bpm and Strudel's transport are independent and will drift
Tempo-locked visual changes are not achievable in this rig because the bridge exposes only FFT energy with no beat-phase or onset
The seed mapping uses bass for brightness, high-mid for rotation speed, and low-mid for warp depth — three of four bands are assigned, highs are unused
K · AI & real-time generative AV — 26
A community Google Colab notebook enables RAVE training without local GPU hardware
A cosine noise schedule gives gentler early-stage transitions than the linear schedule, improving likelihood
ComfyUI embeds the full workflow JSON in generated PNG files
ComfyUI supports {option|option} wildcard syntax in text prompts for random variation
ComfyUI weights a prompt term with (term:weight) syntax to strengthen or weaken it
ComfyUI's security scope is limited to localhost by design — --listen exposes the server to the network at user's risk
Ctrl+B bypasses a node in ComfyUI as if it were removed with wires reconnected through
Demucs automatically rescales output stems to prevent clipping but this breaks relative stem loudness
Demucs ships multiple model variants trading speed, quality, size, and stem count
Demucs' internal separation output is a 4-D tensor shaped [batch, sources, channels, time]
Dropping per-timestep loss weights and training with uniform MSE on noise prediction improves DDPM in practice
Every KL term in the diffusion VLB compares two Gaussians and is therefore analytically tractable
Extending stem separation to guitar and piano is harder than the standard four-stem split
Key DDPM follow-up works include improved variance learning, cascaded generation, classifier guidance, and classifier-free guidance
Learning the reverse-process variance as an interpolation between two fixed endpoints improves likelihood
LoRA strength in ComfyUI scales the weight delta additively and can be negative or greater than 1
mc.nn~ processes multiple audio channels through one RAVE model instance to cut CPU and RAM
MIDI note numbers map to Hz via a tuning formula centered on A4=440 Hz
MUSDB-HQ is the standard benchmark dataset for music source separation research
Pre-trained RAVE streaming models are available for immediate use without training
Random horizontal flipping during training improves sample quality in image diffusion models
RAVE can be exported to ONNX format for deployment in environments that do not support TorchScript
RAVE requires a CUDA GPU with 5–32 GB VRAM depending on config, and hours of audio
Stable Diffusion runs in two modes: text-to-image and image-plus-text (img2img)
StreamDiffusion achieves 106 fps txt2img and 93 fps img2img on RTX 4090 with SD-Turbo plus TensorRT
The reparameterization trick lets you sample a noisy x_t at any timestep t directly without simulating the full chain
L · Visual foundations — 12
Audio can drive emphasis in a composition but cannot move focus on the beat in the current rig
CIE color matching functions empirically measure how much RGB is needed per spectral wavelength
Color memory is far weaker than auditory memory — the same color name evokes many different hues in different people
Creative coding at intermediate level assumes fluency in loops, conditionals, arrays, and objects — not specific language knowledge
Driving a shape's radius or count from audio is realizable now; making a shape appear on-the-kick is not
Human trichromacy means any color sensation can be described by three numbers
In the 4-bin rig, audio bands can drive color brightness, saturation, or palette phase but not onset-triggered color events
Magenta has no spectral wavelength — it is the brain's response to simultaneous red and blue stimulation
Most people cannot reliably identify which of two different-hued colors is lighter — 60% of answers are wrong
P5LIVE is not part of the 4-bin Strudel+Hydra rig — a.fft[] does not exist in P5 and must never be emitted there
sRGB is the default internet color space, matching Rec. 709 primaries with D65 white point
The sRGB TRC is piecewise: linear near black, then a power curve with exponent 2.4
M · Performance, DJing, live-set & stagecraft — 14
70% of noise-induced hearing loss cases show no tinnitus warning before damage occurs
A commercially released mix tracklist is only final once every track clears licensing
A frenchcore DJ set ranges from 180 to 220+ BPM, sometimes closing with terror or speedcore
A microphone's polar pattern is non-uniform front-to-back, making rear-pointing feedback tests inaccurate
Concave-well keyboards like the Kinesis Advantage curl fingers along their natural arc to prevent strain
Echoic memory lasts only ~20 seconds, making accurate cross-room comparison unreliable
Frenchcore performance shifted from vinyl soundsystem DJing to commercial sets with added live instruments
IEM stage monitoring should average no more than 95–97 dB for multi-hour performances
Noise-induced hearing loss produces a characteristic 3000–6000 Hz notch in the audiogram
QWERTY was intentionally designed to slow typing, making it worse than a random layout ergonomically
Switching to the Dvorak layout reduces RSI pain via natural, hand-alternating typing motions
The dubstep DJ rewind (reload) originates in Jamaican reggae sound systems and signals crowd approval
The NIOSH recommended exposure limit is 85 dBA over an eight-hour shift
Wearing wrist braces during sleep holds the wrists in the optimal healing posture for circulation
N · Tools & free/open software stack — 12
Blender is a free, open-source 3D suite spanning modeling, animation, rendering, compositing, and scripting
Bridging a stereo amplifier combines both channels in mono to roughly double the power output
Daft Punk's Homework was tracked entirely in hardware with DAT as both recording medium and source
Every Pure Data object has an interactive helpfile opened by right-clicking it and choosing Help
LMMS ships LB-302, a built-in monophonic synth that imitates the Roland TB-303 acid architecture
OBS captures desktop audio and microphone by default; a wrong device selection yields a silent stream
Pure Data is extended with community externals installed via the Deken package manager
ReBirth RB-338 (1997) was an early software emulation of the TB-303 and TR-808/909, democratising the classic techno sound
Sonic Pi is designed for school children to learn programming through live coding music, with pedagogical materials built in from the start
SOURCE presets are XML files where PRESET > SOUND > SOUND_SAMPLE hierarchy mirrors the sampler's class structure
Speaker cable must be large-gauge to minimize resistance and preserve amplifier damping factor
Speech reinforcement needs 70–80 dBA; music reinforcement requires 85–100 dBA with 10–20 dB headroom
O · Culture, history & theory — 307
'Algorave' was coined in 2011 by Alex McLean and Nick Collins; the first named event was London 2012
'Electronic body music' was coined by Kraftwerk's Ralf Hütter in 1977 but only became a genre label in the 1980s
'Industrial dance' is a North American umbrella term covering both EBM and electro-industrial, not a synonym for EBM
'Progressive' in dance music descends from 1970s progressive rock through 'progressive dance' of the late 1980s
'We Have Arrived' by Marc Acardipane is regarded as the first hardcore track and the blueprint the Dutch turned into gabber
1970s German Krautrock generated electronic organ and synth drones as an alternative to Anglo-American pop
1980s EBM hybridizing with acid house and new wave laid the foundation for hardcore techno
2 Live Crew's obscenity case ended with rap ruled protected speech, a landmark for recorded music
4x4 garage evolved from a stylistic alternative to 2-step into bassline, a distinct Northern subgenre with heavy modulated sub-bass
A 'burden tone' is a static sustained note used as harmonic backbone in pre-functional-harmony folk traditions
A 2001–02 Detroit trip exposed footwork producers to a faster, more polished ghetto-tech scene and pushed them toward a radio-friendly sound
A characteristic gabber/early-hardcore sound first appeared on T99's 'Anasthasia' (1991)
A demoscene group is built around three core roles: coder, musician, and graphician
A genre can predate its name by years — 'dub techno' was coined in The Wire in 2001, ~8 years after the music appeared
A second wave of Detroit techno broke through in the early 1990s around UR and +8
Acid house is a Chicago house subgenre defined by the squelching TB-303 basslines pioneered by Phuture c.1986
Acid house triggered Britain's Second Summer of Love (1988), dissolving social divisions through shared dance and ecstasy
Acid house was born when Chicago producers twisted an unprogrammed Roland TB-303's knobs to make squelching basslines
Acid techno emerged from applying Chicago acid house's TB-303 squelch to harder European techno
Affordable Roland drum machines and the TB-303 bass synthesizer were the defining production tools of Chicago house
Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock fused Kraftwerk's European machine music with the Bronx, seeding a universal electronic sound
Algorave inherits a lineage of algorithmic dance music running from Eno's generative practices through 1990s rave/techno
Algorave is a meeting point of hacker philosophy, geek culture, and clubbing
Algorave is tool-agnostic: multiple live coding systems produce its music and visuals
Algorave, coined by Alex McLean from 'algorithm' + 'rave', spread worldwide into a distinct movement
Algorithmic pattern-making long predates computers, e.g. knitting, Maypole dancing, and bell-ringing
Ambient techno fuses techno's rhythmic and melodic elements with ambient atmospheres
Baltimore club emerged in the late 1980s by fusing house, UK rave, Miami bass and hip-house
Belgium's Bonzai Records defined a harder, driving trance aesthetic parallel to Germany's melodic approach
Berghain in Berlin has been described as 'possibly the current world capital of techno'
Berlin techno and the Love Parade framed the post-Wall dance floor as a liberation ritual for a reunifying Germany
Berlin's Tresor club created a Berlin-Detroit 'mutual admiration pact,' reviving Detroit careers and making Berlin techno's second centre
Big Apple Records in Croydon was the physical hub where dubstep's founding producers learned from each other before any clubs existed
Big beat crossed from clubs to mainstream via The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim's chart success in 1995–1999
Big beat declined from 2001 as its leading acts shifted to house/techno/trance characteristics and the novelty faded
Big beat established templates for arena-scale electronic music that later genres (brostep, EDM) inherited
Big beat inherited its breakbeat and sampling approach from British turntablism pioneers like Coldcut
Big beat spread into mainstream culture through film and video-game soundtracks, not only record sales
Big beat's decline was caused by overexposure through licensing, rising cocaine culture, and creative stagnation
Breakcore is the clearest example of a genre whose development is intrinsically linked to peer-to-peer distribution
Brian Eno's act of naming 'ambient music' gave a scattered practice a genre identity
Bristol's Purple sound (2008) fused dubstep with 1980s synth-funk and G-funk, seeding future bass
Broken beat is nicknamed 'West London' because its scene clustered around Ladbroke Grove studios
By 1986 house crossed to the UK, which embraced it more than its US birthplace did
By the 2010s nu-disco production had permeated mainstream pop, with producers often working anonymously for pop acts
By the early 2000s 'minimal' named a German-popularized techno style tied to Kompakt, Perlon and Hawtin's M-nus
Charanjit Singh's 1982 album used a TB-303 prominently five years before acid house was named
Chicago footwork battles use randomly chosen neutral judges from outside the competing crews to prevent favoritism
Chicago house emerged from underground disco culture that survived the mainstream 'Disco Demolition Night' backlash of 1979
Cybotron (Juan Atkins + Rik Davis) bridged New York electro and Detroit techno after hearing 'Planet Rock' and buying an 808
Cybotron and Juan Atkins carried electro's machine aesthetic into the birth of Detroit techno
Dance Mania was the Chicago label that distributed ghetto house before ceasing around 2000 and reviving in 2013
Dark ambient emerged in the mid-1980s as industrial artists adopted ambient's spaciousness while wielding noise and shock tactics with more subtlety
Dark garage production in the late 1990s was the common ancestor of both grime and dubstep
Deep house originated with Larry Heard (Mr Fingers) returning house music toward soulful disco warmth in 1985–86
Derrick May's 'Strings of Life' defined Detroit techno by fusing European electro with funk through machines
Detroit techno arose from radio station competition that gave DJs creative autonomy and budget to make exclusive music
Detroit techno drew from Krautrock and industrial minimalism, creating a through-line to ambient house
Detroit techno found its first large audience in Europe — especially the UK — before achieving recognition at home in the US
Detroit techno is 1980s Detroit dance music fusing electro, Chicago house, industrial and synth-pop
Detroit techno originated with the Belleville Three, who fused Kraftwerk's machine sound with funk
Detroit techno was celebrated as high art in Europe while its creators remained largely anonymous in their home city
Detroit techno's early industrial edge came from techno and industrial club scenes physically cross-pollinating their audiences
Detroit techno's founding artists frame the music as an expression of Black working-class survival
Detroit techno's founding producers each launched their own record labels to maintain creative and commercial control over their music
Detroit techno's futurism grew from a post-riot industrial city where dreaming of the future was a way to escape it
DJ Fulltono of Osaka pioneered Japanese footwork from 2008, persisting past crowds who found the tempo too fast
DnB achieved its first UK Number 1 single in 2012, 20 years after its origins, marking a delayed mainstream breakthrough
DnB distribution shifted from 12-inch vinyl singles to digital download to streaming, tracking the wider EDM market
DnB is named for its two pillars: fast breakbeat drums and deep heavy basslines
DnB tempo rose from ~130 BPM in 1990–91 to a stable 170–180 BPM by 1996, where it has remained
Downtempo emerged from the late-1980s Bristol scene that fused hip-hop with electronic music as trip hop
Drexciya extended electro's afrofuturism into a sustained science-fiction aquatic mythology
Drone metal fuses the drone with high-volume distorted guitar, pioneered by Earth and Sunn O)))
Drone technique spread from the avant-garde into rock and electronic music via key transmitting figures
Drum and bass is dominated by independent labels run by DJ-producers, which maintained genre control outside major labels until 2016
Drum and bass typically runs 160-175 BPM, faster than jungle but derived from it
Dub techno fuses Jamaican dub's echo-heavy production with Detroit techno's minimal, repetitive structures
Dubstep emerged from Croydon's social insularity where limited entertainment options concentrated creative youth into the same rooms
Dubstep sits around 140 BPM, a bass-led tempo slower than drum & bass
Dubstep was born from producers who loved UK garage's antecedents but were disillusioned by its homogenization
Dubstep's minimal production was made viable by Plastic People's soundsystem, which could make even sparse tracks feel physical
Dutch hardcore was reborn from gabber's ashes via DJ Promo's darker, PCP-inspired sound
Early 2-step's ~130 BPM tempo came from DJs pitching up American garage imports
Early Detroit techno producers completed tracks in single 24-hour studio sessions, often within 12 hours
Early Detroit techno was self-distributed by car, sold COD to Chicago record stores
Early Grime producers made instrumentals on FL Studio (Fruity Loops) on basic home computers, treating software limitations as aesthetic constraints
Early trance tracks ran 8–10 minutes and were built on Roland JP-8000, TB-303, and TR-909 analog hardware
EBM was the first style to blend synthesized sounds with an ecstatic style of dancing (e.g. pogo)
Electro treats voices as machines, using vocoders and speech synthesis for robotic vocal content
Electro's mainstream peaked in the early 1980s, then returned in recurring revival waves
Eno discovered ambient aesthetics accidentally when a quiet, single-channel record merged with room noise
Erik Satie's 'furniture music' designed music to blend into the environment rather than command attention
Fabio coined liquid funk in 1999 via a Creative Source compilation
Footwork emerged when West Side Chicago DJs began playing 33 RPM ghetto house records at 45 RPM, accelerating the groove
Footwork settled at 160 BPM after DJs escalated the tempo to meet dancers' demands for speed
Footwork split off from Chicago Juke / Ghetto house in the mid-1990s as a local splinter scene
Footwork spread in Chicago through peer-to-peer mixtape exchange in public schools, making early works hard to obtain
Footwork spread internationally by proxy: Rashad toured RP Boo's tracks abroad before RP Boo ever traveled
Footwork spread to Latin America in the late 2010s, with Mexico's JukeMX blending it with Latin percussion and baile funk
Footwork's founding canon was made by RP Boo, DJ Rashad, and DJ Clent, who formed the Beatdown House crew in 1998
Footwork's signature emerged from removing the bass kicks and replacing claps with snares and hi-hats
Form 696 let London police suppress Black music events through venue licensing rather than prosecution
Forward>> (FWD>>) was the founding London club night that incubated dubstep from 2001
Frankfurt's Dorian Gray and Omen clubs incubated early trance as a complement to techno
Frankfurt's early 1980s electronic scene coined the word 'techno' before Berlin's scene existed
Frankfurt's early-90s scene, seeded by DJ Dag's trance-leaning sets, became the birthplace of the trance sound
Frenchcore broadened from strict 4/4 into 3/4, 5/8 and pitched-kick harmonic forms since the mid-2010s
Frenchcore developed from French hardcore scenes as a faster style with a rolling offbeat distorted bass
Gabber began as an anti-establishment underground movement with illegal warehouse raves in early 1990s Rotterdam
Gabber developed a distinct youth subculture look: tracksuits, shaved heads, and Nike Air Max trainers
Gabber labels and artists explicitly organised against racism and fascism within the scene
German kosmische Musik / Berlin School synthesizer music laid the groundwork for ambient
Ghetto house is the Chicago root that spawned ghettotech, juke and footwork
Goa trance began as DJs remixing Western electronic tracks into dancefloor mixes in 1980s Goa
Goa trance emerged in the early 1990s from Goa, India's underground hippie party scene, not from a record industry
Goa trance parties have a definitive visual identity using fluorescent paint, psychedelic tapestries, and spiritual iconography
Goa trance traditionally uses vocal samples referencing psychedelia, cosmic science, and spirituality rather than sung lyrics
Goldie elevated DnB from underground rave music to a respected art form through artistic ambition
Goldie's 'Timeless' elevated drum and bass from sample-looping into long-form orchestral composition
Grime artists distributed music through sell-or-return white-label vinyl at independent record shops before any digital distribution infrastructure existed
Grime is defined by 140 BPM and an aggressive street-realist aesthetic rather than by instrumentation or melody
GTA: Vice City (2002) helped turn attitudes toward the 1980s from parody to homage, seeding synthwave
Happy hardcore evolved in the late 1990s by losing its breakbeats and adopting a distorted 909 kick pattern
Hardcore techno evolved from industrial music and EBM via Belgian new beat and acid house
Hardstyle bifurcated into euphoric and raw camps when part of the audience wanted a harder, darker sound
Hardstyle emerged in the late 1990s from the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, out of hard trance and hardcore
Hardstyle's production techniques spread outward into big room house, frenchcore and happy hardcore
Hardstyle's tempo rose from about 140 BPM in the early 2000s to roughly 150-160 BPM in modern material
Harsh noise emerged in the early 1980s from the Japanoise scene and European power electronics
Hearing Ron Hardy in Chicago gave May a goal: make music worth playing, not music that sounds like anything
High tech soul names Detroit techno's core identity: Black electronic music with soul
House (Chicago), techno (Detroit), and garage (New York) emerged in parallel as three related early-1980s US dance scenes
House music takes its name from Chicago's Warehouse club, where Frankie Knuckles was resident DJ
House music was invented in Chicago by Black DJs and musicians, not in London or Europe
I-F's 1997 'Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass' bridged electroclash and nu-disco by reviving melodic European electro-disco
ID&T's Thunderdome was the mega-rave brand that carried gabber to a mass audience
Illbient is a dub-based trip-hop offshoot that fuses ambient with industrial hip-hop
Industrial music emerged in the 1970s from avant-garde and early electronic music
Industrial techno's 2010s revival drew a post-dubstep audience but faced 'sounds old' criticism
Industrial techno's earliest projects grew from a Detroit-techno/industrial crossover, exemplified by Final Cut (1989)
Inner City's 'Big Fun' was built on a vocal written and phone-sung by Paris Grey before she was flown to Detroit to record
Israeli psychedelic trance continued the Goa tradition and added cosmic alien-sounding textures
Jacking, a rippling forward-and-backward torso motion to the beat, is the core Chicago house dance that named the genre
Jamie Principle's 'Your Love' spread via cassette copies-of-copies before any vinyl release, proving house could build a scene without records
Japan's Kansai no wave scene, rooted in New York no wave, gave rise to the Japanoise movement
Jersey club emerged from Newark DJs self-pressing and selling club-track CDs in 2001
Jersey club spread from Newark to college campuses and the internet via MySpace around 2005
Jersey drill fused Jersey club kick patterns with drill flows, formalised from a 2021 viral skit
Jesse Saunders' 'On and On' (1984) is regarded as the first house record on vinyl
Joey Beltram's 'Energy Flash' was re-labelled techno by the market though its maker considered it house
Juan Atkins is credited as the originator of Detroit Techno
Juan Atkins was the originator who introduced Detroit's Black youth to the creative possibilities of electronic music
Jungle music emerged from Detroit techno and hip-hop breakbeats filtered through reggae influence and London's Black urban community
Jungle scene participants saw breakbeat as the UK music most fully pushing music technology in the early 1990s
Jungle underwent multiple revivals showing that underground scenes can re-emerge decades after apparent commercial extinction
Jungle was rooted in Black and working-class London communities who were actively excluded from mainstream clubs
Kevin Saunderson pioneered a remix method in 1988 that discarded the original track and rebuilt it around just the vocal and key
Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra were the immediate European and Japanese forebears of electro
Kraftwerk is to techno what Muddy Waters is to the Rolling Stones — the authentic origin
Kraftwerk's 'Trans Europe Express' and 'Numbers' were the direct sonic blueprint for 'Planet Rock,' making Kraftwerk electro's European ancestor
La Monte Young's 1958 'Trio for Strings' is the first Western piece made entirely of sustained tones, originating drone music
Larry Levan's Paradise Garage in New York City directly inspired the soulful, emotional dimension of Kevin Saunderson's music
Listeners often cannot identify algorithmic origin in music; those who are told context show measurably different responses than naive listeners
Live coding is a community of practice, organised since c.2000 around TOPLAP
Lofi hip hop is a 2010s downtempo derivative that became a major YouTube streaming genre
London pirate radio stations were instrumental in developing and distributing drum and bass before the internet
Lyn Collins's 'Think (About It)' breakbeat is a foundational sampled element of Baltimore and Jersey club
Mainstream crossover can dilute an underground scene's credibility and hasten its decline
Manchester's Madchester movement shows how acid house aesthetics crossed into guitar-based rock in 1988-90
Marshall Jefferson's 'Move Your Body' added piano to house music despite resistance, naming the genre in the process
MCs are integral to dubstep's live experience, inheriting toasting traditions from Jamaican reggae
Melodic techno emerged gradually from late-2000s German techno rather than from a single founding release
Miami electro (locally 'freestyle', later 'bass music') was a regional variant amplifying the TR-808's bass impact
Microhouse spread from its European origins to worldwide scenes, boosted by the mid-2000s minimal boom
Mille Plateaux was the label that turned clicks-and-cuts into an international phenomenon
Model 500's 'No UFOs' (1985) is widely regarded as the first techno production
Motorbass's Pansoul (1996) established the sampled filtered-loop formula that defined French house
Musical minimalism grew out of tape-loop and repetition experiments
Musique concrète's tape-loop and splicing techniques are a direct precursor to modern sampling
New beat began when DJ Dikke Ronny played the EBM record Flesh at 33 rpm instead of 45
New beat is a late-1980s Belgian EDM genre fusing new wave, hi-NRG, EBM, and hip-hop
New beat spawned hard beat (heavier, more EBM) and skizzo (faster, techno-influenced) subgenres
New beat was the immediate precursor to Belgian hardcore techno and gabber
Noisia's Stigma set a technical benchmark for neurofunk via bass resampling and transient design
Norwegian 'Norse House' fused space disco with nu-disco into a cosmic sub-scene led by Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas and Todd Terje
Nu-disco emerged from UK labels Black Cock Records and Nuphonic in the 1990s as house that reintroduced live disco elements
Oval pioneered glitch by physically interrupting optical disc reading to produce skipping textures as compositional events
Overexposure, parody, commercial exploitation and negative media all collapsed the gabber scene by the late 1990s
Pan Sonic built a 'hard-edged' glitch aesthetic from handmade sine-wave oscillators and inexpensive effect pedals, not studio equipment
Paradox (Dev Pandya) is the producer credited with championing the drumfunk subgenre
Paul Oakenfold's remix of Happy Mondays looped an NWA sample under rock vocals, creating the indie-dance fusion template
Philip Sherburne coined 'microhouse' in a July 2001 Wire article to name house stripped to rhythm, soul, and silence
Phuture's 'Acid Tracks' established the TB-303 in house music after DJ Ron Hardy played it repeatedly at the Music Box
Pirate radio was jungle's primary distribution infrastructure before legal stations adopted it in 1994
Pixel art as a discipline developed within the demoscene alongside the related artscene subculture
Planet Mu's Bangs and Works compilations (2010–11) and Hyperdub broke footwork to an international audience
Portishead's Dummy (1994) consolidated trip-hop's mainstream profile and introduced film-soundtrack sampling as a method
Power electronics is a strictly noise-oriented style enabled by cheap synthesizers and non-musician participation
Progressive house commonly uses I–V–vi–IV and vi–IV–I–V progressions for emotional melodic journeys
Progressive house emerged in the early-1990s UK rave scene as a marketing break from American house
Progressive house grew as a natural progression of late-1980s North American and European house
Progressive house sits at 122–128 BPM with most producers targeting 126–128 BPM for the dancefloor
Proto-dubstep emerged from South London producers' experiments on the B-sides of UK garage releases around 1999–2002
Psychedelic trance developed directly out of Goa trance as its successor genre
Psytrance tempos run 125–150 BPM, faster than most trance and techno
Rapid foot-centered dance predates footwork and recurs across tap, Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African traditions
Rave's aesthetics and its drug culture co-evolved, so a shift toward ecstasy's 'dark side' turned the music darker
Ravi Shankar's sitar drone entered Western pop via the Beatles' 'Revolver' in 1966
Real-time computer control of sound synthesis dates to Max Mathews' GROOVE system (1968)
Rinse FM as a pirate station and BareFiles as an archive site distributed early dubstep globally before any label releases
Robert Hood's Minimal Nation was made on secondhand pawn-shop gear with no reverb or compression
Ron Hardy's Music Box created a physically overwhelming intensity that raised the energy floor for Chicago house
Rotterdam Records, founded by Paul Elstak in 1992, was the first Dutch hardcore/gabber label
RP Boo keeps the Roland R-70's analog warmth because digital transfer loses the punch that defines footwork's bass
Russolo's 1913 Futurist manifesto established noise as a principled musical aesthetic
Sambass is a Brazilian DnB fusion that incorporated samba and bossa nova rhythmic elements into the genre
Schranz is hard, fast, abrasive German techno named onomatopoeically, associated with Chris Liebing since the late 1990s
Self-playing musical automata have a history of over a millennium, predating computers as models of algorithmic composition
Sequenced electronic music by Raymond Scott and Delia Derbyshire is cited as a technical precursor to techno's machine-rhythm approach
Shadertoy and Three.js trace their origins directly to demoscene real-time graphics practice
Shut Up and Dance sped up hip-hop breakbeats to house tempo, creating the foundation for jungle and UK garage
Speed garage emerged when DJ EZ played US garage house at 130 BPM instead of 120 BPM to match UK hardcore energy
Strings of Life was performed live on a keyboard, not sequenced — it was a real-time production
Sub-bass at extreme volumes produces physical, full-body crowd responses that feel like a delayed wave through the audience
Sustained-tone music is worldwide, but the label 'drone music' is reserved for the Western avant-garde lineage
Tale of Us's Afterlife label gave mid-2010s melodic techno its identity and global main-stage reach
Techstep coined tech from Belgian hardcore, not Detroit techno
The 'chillout' genre emerged from British rave chillout rooms outside the main dancefloor
The 'intelligent drum & bass' label created a damaging implied hierarchy within the scene
The 'Reese bass' — the foundational timbre of drum and bass and jungle — originated on Kevin Saunderson's 1988 track 'Just Want Another Chance'
The 'Reese bassline' — a 1988 Kevin Saunderson synth line — became a canonical DnB bass vocabulary element
The 'Some Cut' bed-squeak sample functions as a sonic tell identifying Jersey club
The 'trip hop' label was coined by Mixmag in 1994 but was rejected by the Bristol artists it described
The 1979 anti-disco backlash targeted Black and gay music and pushed dance music underground
The 1991 Love Parade unified Germany's scattered techno-house scenes into a national movement
The 2007 UK smoking ban changed dubstep venue dynamics by breaking continuous crowd immersion and increasing drug variety
The 2011 film Drive was the placement that catapulted synthwave into mainstream recognition
The 2020s breakcore revival blends the genre's intensity with nostalgia, anime, and Y2K internet aesthetics
The 8-bar loop is Grime's fundamental compositional unit, facilitating MC competition and crowd engagement through regular structural switching
The algorave definition parodies UK rave law, swapping 'repetitive beats' for 'repetitive conditionals'
The Amen break — a 1969 drum solo — became the rhythmic foundation of drum and bass
The Birmingham sound stripped Detroit/Berlin bassline funk into unchanging minimalist textures that seeded Berghain-era techno
The brostep split from dubstep happened when mid-range aggression replaced sub-bass restraint, driven by a Fabriclive compilation that wasn't representative of the scene
The collapse of Chicago's Dance Mania label left a vacuum that pushed a younger generation to define footwork independently
The demoscene emerged from software cracktro culture in the 1980s as a realtime audiovisual art form
The demoscene is the first digital subculture added to national UNESCO intangible cultural heritage lists
The earliest recordings of computer-generated music date to 1950s machines, with Turing's lab among the origins
The Electrifying Mojo's eclectic late-night Detroit radio show seeded the funk-plus-electronic fusion of techno
The first frenchcore act was Micropoint, founded by DJ Radium and Al Core in 1992
The first Love Parade in West Berlin (July 1989) preceded the Wall's fall by months and positioned techno as a soundtrack to reunification
The four-on-the-floor kick pattern — house music's signature — became the dominant rhythmic template in all contemporary dance music
The Frankfurt tape scene of the early 1980s was an experimental electronic movement that preceded the German techno scene
The genre label 'techno' was fixed by the 1988 UK compilation 'Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit'
The internet's free distribution of music destroyed the record-shop economy that had incubated dubstep's scene
The label 'ghetto house' was applied by a magazine, not chosen by the artists who made the music
The Mentasm stab — a Roland Juno-Alpha derived drone — became hardcore's defining early sonic marker
The Music Institute was Detroit's underground techno club, where May and Saunderson held residencies that attracted international visitors including Richie Hawtin
The Music Institute was the first underground techno club, giving Black Detroit an all-electronic venue when other clubs shunned the sound
The name 'acid house' has multiple contested origin stories, none definitively established
The next generation of Chicago footwork producers worked primarily in Fruity Loops rather than hardware drum machines and samplers
The Paradise Garage paired NYC's best soundsystem with Larry Levan's total control of the room to model dance music as physical, felt sound
The Roland TB-303 appeared in electro as a melodic sequenced line before its later acid-house role
The Roland TR-808's booming low-frequency bass drum made it the universal foundation of classic electro
The Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 polyphonic synthesizer was the go-to keyboard for 'icy synth strings' in early electro
The Sheffield/Yorkshire 'bleep' scene of the late 1980s was a British take on Chicago/Detroit electronics filtered through local industrial heritage
The TB-303 failed commercially because its pattern sequencer was hard to program compared to bass guitar
The term 'big beat' was coined in 1989 by Iain Williams of Big Bang, predating the 1990s genre
The term 'IDM' originated from a fan mailing list in 1993, not from artists or labels
The term 'Intelligent Dance Music' derives from Warp Records' 1992 Artificial Intelligence compilation series
The term 'juke' was put on the map by DJ Poncho and Gant-Man's 1998 track, since the ghetto-house and house scenes both refused to claim the new sound
The term 'nu skool breaks' was coined by Rennie Pilgrem and Adam Freeland at their Friction club night in 1996
The term 'nu-disco' first appeared in print in a 1996 XLR8R interview with Chicago house artist Cajmere
The transition from jungle to drum & bass involved removing reggae samples, partly in response to violence and media stigma
The UK garage MC role derives from Jamaican dancehall toasting and sound-system culture
The UK's Criminal Justice Act 1994 effectively ended the British free party scene, dispersing its participants across Europe
The Warp Artificial Intelligence albums (1993-5) reframed rave-derived electronics as 'listening music' while keeping rave roots
The word 'dubstep' was coined informally in an office conversation about the dub influence on 2-step
The word 'techno' as a genre label came from Alvin Toffler's 'techno rebels' concept and was popularized by a Detroit compilation
The word 'techno' was used in Europe and Japan for electronic music before it was associated with Detroit
Todd Terry brought a hip-hop sampling sensibility to house music and pioneered disco looping later adopted by Daft Punk
Trance emerged from the German (Frankfurt) techno/EBM underground in the late 1980s, adding melody and psychedelic atmosphere to techno
Trax Records and DJ International were the primary Chicago house labels that distributed the music to New York and London
Trax Records co-founder Larry Sherman exploited Chicago house producers by withholding royalties
Trax Records' week-long turnaround gave Chicago house its first distribution infrastructure but exploited artists
Trip-hop's characteristic female-led vocals trace to its jazz and early-R&B influences
Two women were structurally essential to dubstep: Sarah Lockhart organized the scene and Mary Anne Hobbs broadcast it globally
UK anti-club laws pushed acid house events into illegal warehouse raves, founding the rave scene
UK breakbeat hardcore fragmented around 1992–93 into happy hardcore, jungle, and darkcore by selectively keeping or dropping elements
UK garage broke into UK mainstream charts from 1999 with 2-step tracks reaching number one
UK garage established itself in the marginal 'Sunday Scene' slot because jungle/DnB dominated prime weekend nights
UK garage fractured around 2002 as MC-led, darker production diverged from its soulful mainstream, birthing grime
UK garage fused imported US garage house with jungle, ragga/dancehall, and R&B into a hybrid style
UK garage has undergone multiple revival cycles showing the genre's structural durability beyond its 1999–2002 commercial peak
UK garage's heyday was defined by an aspirational dress culture that later became a class-based fault line as the scene fragmented
UK hard house began as a gay-club-scene sound before broadening into the mainstream dance scene
UK illegal raves in 1988-89 used phone-chain systems to direct attendees to locations announced only on the day
UK rave music accelerated from ~130 BPM in the late 1980s to ~175 BPM by the mid-1990s through a DJ-producer feedback loop
UK tabloid moral panic in late 1988 got acid house banned from radio, TV and shops almost overnight
Underground Resistance positioned itself as an anti-commercial, anonymous movement against the music industry
Underground Resistance was founded explicitly to do everything that established Detroit labels had failed to do
Unlike subcultural EBM, new beat records were made mainly to chart commercially
WBMX FM and the Hot Mix 5 DJs were the radio platform that spread Chicago house beyond its initial club context
West Side Chicago production favored sample-free rhythmic 'beat tracks', unlike the sample-based South Side style
Whodini's 'Magic's Wand' crossed early hip-hop with art-pop production, using Simmons drums and a PPG instead of a TR-808
Without direct label relationships and paper trails, underground producers are exposed to credit theft
Wonky emerged in 2006 as a colourful reaction to the austerity of concurrent UK dubstep and grime
P · Community, scenes & practice — 14
A regional Spanish-language live-coding collective sustains itself by bridging into TOPLAP's global infrastructure
Algorave and live coding are a genuinely global, internationally distributed practice, not a local scene
Algorave guidelines encode the scene's egalitarian ethos into how events are run
Algorave is not a protected brand — anyone can host one freely
Latin American live coding communities — CLiC, TOPLAP MX, LiveCodeNet — are globally significant and often more Spanish-speaking than English-speaking in the TOPLAP ecosystem
Live Coding: A User's Manual is published CC-BY-SA, enabling free use with attribution and share-alike — a license choice that itself reflects live coding's ethos
Live coding's online-performance culture long predates the 2020 pandemic
Pre-internet DIY labels were economically precarious and required supplementary income to survive
The algorave movement is driven by decentralised local community groups, not a central body
The first generation of live coders came from art schools where tutors taught them code as creative material — not from computer science departments
The Mexican live-coding scene grew from a 2006–2014 institutional hub into a geographically dispersed network
The TOPLAP manifesto demands code visibility, algorithmic insight, and rejects obscurantism — and was always intended as a draft
TOPLAP is the informal global organisation connecting live coding communities worldwide
TOPLAP was founded at the 2004 Changing Grammars symposium in Hamburg, giving live coding a name and community