1-2.md

MiniTidal Audio Workshop 1-2 - Mini-notation Sequencing and Patterning Concepts (~1h)

Goals:

• discover stack for building multiple sound statements in the same cell
• apply n notation to reference different sample indexes within a set
• understand euclidean rhythms and their notation and usage within tidal

Reference:

• https://estuary.mcmaster.ca
• https://tidalcycles.org/docs/

Setup Cells!

!presetview twocolumns

Choose MiniTidal from the language dropdown for both cells

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Using stack to handle multiple sounds in the same cell

Two cells are not a lot to work with when you're introducing layers of sounds. We can always add more cells, or more parallel sequences using [ ], but this can also get unwieldy quickly - and may not even be possible if you are jamming with a large group.

Introducing stack which allows us to stack multiple sound statements in the one cell

stack [
  sound "bd sd",
  sound "hh*8",
  sound "[~ ho]!2"
]

Note that each subsequent line must be separated by a comma ,

It's also possible to prefix a comma on a new line (and in many cases this is preferable when commenting lines in and out)

stack [
  sound "bd sd"
  , sound "hh*8"
  , sound "[~ ho]!2"
]

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n Notation for Sample Index References

In 1-1 we learned that different samples can be chosen from the sample folders using :N where N is the index or numbered position of the sample within the folder name specified

sound "bd:3 hc sd:1 hc bd bd:3 hc sd ho:4"

If all the sounds come from the same folder, it's easier to pattern using n notation - sprvibe is a series of ascending notes sampled from the "supervibe" synth

n "0 3 [4 5] [8 7]" # sound "sprvibe"

This is equivalent to:

sound "sprvibe:0 sprvibe:3 [sprvibe:4 sprvibe:5] [sprvibe:8 sprvibe:7]"

...but much more concise! Also, we can do some funky arithmetic with n and round brackets

n ("0 3 [4 5] [8 7]" + "0 2") # sound "sprvibe"

Try changing the additional section and modifying/evaluating changes live

-- example
n ("0 3 [4 5] [8 7]" + "2 4 ~") # sound "sprvibe"

Because we're putting our additional section in " ", we can also use mini-notation. Try using different brackets in there

-- example
n ("0 3 [4 5] [8 7]" + "<2 4 ~>") # sound "sprvibe"

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Euclidean Patterns ... great for music?

Euclidean patterns use a specific formula to divide a cycle into pieces, then fit a number of sample events between the pieces as evenly as possible.

For example, we can divide a cycle into 8 pieces, then fit 4 sample events evenly between the pieces

sound "bd(4,8)"

That is, 4 sample events (in this case, bd) fitted into a sequence length of 8 which has a pattern that looks like

|x.x.x.x.|x.x.x.x.|

yawn right?

Euclidean patterns get rhythmically interesting when you use numbers that don't fit evenly into the sequence. This example fits 5 bd events into an 8 slot sequence

sound "bd(5,8)"

Which has a pattern that looks like

|x.xx.xx.|x.xx.xx.|

You can optionally offset or shift the euclidean pattern using a third number (or parameter) which indicates the number of steps to shift:

sound "bd(5,8,1)"

Which has a pattern that looks like this (compare it to the non-offset pattern above)

|.xx.xx.x|.xx.xx.x|

Of course we can also pattern them with mininotation

sound "bd(<3 5>,<8 8 16>,<0 2>)"

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Exercises:

1. Using n notation, investigate the glitch and/or jazz soundbanks

n "<[0 1 2 3] [4 5 6 7]>" # sound "glitch"

2. Investigate using multiple samples at a time with a euclidean pattern, what happens?

sound "[bd sd](3,8)"

3. Investigate stacking multiple samples at a time with euclidean patterns

stack [
  sound "bd(5,8)",
  sound "sd(3,8,2)",
  sound "hh(11,16)"
]

4. Using stack, investigate dropping sounds in and out using comment syntax (--)

stack [
  sound "bd(5,8)",
  -- sound "sd(3,8,2)",
  sound "hh(11,16)"
]

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For Bonus Points

5. Samples can be pitch adjusted using note in the same format as n notation, investigate using the single gtr:0 sample

note ("0 3 [4 5] [8 7]" + "<0!3 2>") # sound "gtr:0"

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