Tidal: boolean structure and step sequencing

This module turns rhythm from something you type hit-by-hit into something you generate and reshape from data — the move that separates a preset drum loop from a live-coded set. In a techno or footwork context on a standard Tidal + SuperDirt rig, the payoff is concrete: while the kick keeps the floor moving, you can swap the entire hat grammar with one edit, because the rhythm lives in a boolean template that is separate from the sounds it gates.

Start supported: take a dense hat pattern and carve space into it, leaning on “mask gates a pattern with a boolean mask” versus “struct imposes a boolean rhythmic structure” to feel the difference between silencing an existing groove and re-gridding it. Then build each voice’s template from a different generator — the function form of Euclidean placement (“euclid k n”), a binary-string groove where a single integer names a whole bar (“ascii, binary, and binaryN”), and inter-onset intervals for asymmetric, Balkan-flavoured cycles (“necklace”). Along the way, use the drum-machine-style “step” string as a legible on-ramp, produce interlocking counter-voices with the Euclidean complement (euclidInv/euclidFull), and push accents off the isochronous grid with “@N sets an event’s duration”.

Every required atom is load-bearing for the capstone: without struct, mask, the three generators, complements, step strings and @N, one of the three voices — or the live switching itself — cannot be delivered. The supporting atoms enrich rather than gate: the general Euclidean live-coding idiom and its Strudel, Sonic Pi and SuperCollider cousins show the same ideas across rigs, and run opens the door to sweeping through binary grooves by incrementing a number.

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}