Mini-notation rhythm construction

This module builds the core motor skill of algorave drum programming: typing a full, groove-worthy drum pattern into a blank Tidal or Strudel buffer using mini-notation alone. On stage, the mini-notation string is your drum machine — there is no piano roll to fall back on, so tresillo hats, uneven accents, and drifting polymetres all have to flow from a handful of operators you can type without thinking, mid-set, while the previous pattern is still playing.

The arc starts supported: with a working groove from the prerequisite modules on screen, the learner edits single steps — subdividing one slot with square brackets (“square brackets subdivide one step into a nested sub-sequence”), adding a roll with the asterisk multiplier, punching a hole with the tilde rest. Next come the two operators beginners conflate with those: replicate (”! replicates a step n times at equal duration”) and elongate (”@ elongates a step proportionally”), drilled until the *, !, @ distinction is automatic. The learner then layers with commas, contrasts square-bracket polyrhythm against curly-bracket polymetre, and drops in a Euclidean hi-hat via the (k,n) parenthesis notation. The capstone strips the scaffolding away: a blank buffer, one polymetric pattern combining all of it, plus a spoken explanation of why the cross-rhythm emerges — which is gated by the cycle-as-time-unit and cycle-not-beat atoms, since the explanation only works if you understand that everything is rescaled into one shared cycle.

Supporting atoms enrich rather than gate: the / stretch operator, angle-bracket alternation, the euclid function form, Strudel’s polymeter variants, and the Bol Processor lineage that explains where this notation’s cyclic worldview comes from.

Runnable examples

Generated from the context/ instrument corpus by concept (redistributable idioms only). Do not edit — regenerate with gen-module-examples.mjs.

euclidean-rhythm

s("bd(3,8)")

_{strudel-0004 · CC0}

d1 $ sound "bd(3,8)"

_{tidal-0004 · CC0}

polymeter

s("{bd sd, hh hh hh}%4")

_{strudel-0007 · CC0}

d1 $ sound "{bd sn, hh hh hh}%4"

_{tidal-0007 · CC0}

polyrhythm

s("bd*3, hh*4")

_{strudel-0006 · CC0}

d1 $ sound "bd*3, hh*4"

_{tidal-0006 · CC0}