Skip to content

DOCUMENTATION.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
105 lines (72 loc) · 3.27 KB

DOCUMENTATION.md

File metadata and controls

105 lines (72 loc) · 3.27 KB

at-patterns Documentation

at-patterns is a small DSL for live coding audiotool. It uses a pattern-oriented paradigm inspired by languages like TidalCycles or Strudel. It's still WIP and a bit limited at the moment, but still fun to play around with. Here's how it works.

Setup

  • at-patterns needs an Audiotool project (ideally empty) open in another browser tab
  • the open project should be playing and looping the first bar
  • to connect the app, copy the project ID from the project tab's address line to the "Project ID" field in at-patterns and press "Connect"
  • login first if you need to

Creating a Device (and Play a Sound)

To create a device with a default preset, and play some notes, do the following:

// create pulverisateur with name "hi"
// play some notes
pulv("hi").notes("a4:4 c4:4 e4:4 a4:4")

You'll see the device appear in your Audiotool project.

To play a rhythm with the beatbox8, use the patterns function instead of notes:

beatbox8("hi").pattern("x-o-x-o-C-C-C-O-")

Note Syntax

<noteOctave>:<duration> -> i.e. a4:4 has pitch a4 and a quarter note duration.

Selecting a Preset

Use the preset function to select a preset:

// create pulverisateur with name "hi"
// select preset "Trance Keys"
// play some notes
pulv("hi").preset("Trance Keys").notes("a4:4 c4:4 e4:4 a4:4")

Playing with Patterns:

There's a few functions implemented to manipulate notes & patterns. Here's an example:

The palindrome functions concatenates the notes with a mirrored version of itself.

// create pulverisateur with name "hi"
// select preset "Trance Keys"
// play some notes
// apply palindrome
pulv("hi").preset("Trance Keys").notes("a4:4 c4:4 e4:4 a4:4").palindrome()

To squeeze it into the same bar that we're looping in our project, it makes sense to combine it with the doubletime function which speeds up the playback.

// create pulverisateur with name "hi"
// select preset "Trance Keys"
// play some notes
// apply palindrome
pulv("hi").preset("Trance Keys").notes("a4:4 c4:4 e4:4 a4:4").palindrome().doubletime()

Layering

A popular technique in live coding is layering, where a sequence is layered (or juxtaposed) with a slightly modified version of itself. The clone functions allows us to do this in at-patterns:

This will create another device of the same type and preset.

// create pulverisateur with name "hi"
// select preset "Trance Keys"
// play some notes
// clone device
// apply palidrome and double time to cloned device, also transpose an octave up.
pulv("hi").preset("Trance Keys").notes("a4:4 c4:4 e4:4 a4:4").clone((p) => p.palindrome().doubletime().transpose(12))

Available Functions:

Some of these (as marked) currently only work on notes, not beatbox patterns ...

  • palindrome() -> concatenate pattern with mirrored version of itself (notes only)
  • halftime() -> play twice as slow (notes only)
  • doubletime() -> play twice as fast (notes only)
  • modtime(f) -> apply factor f to all note durations (notes only)
  • transpose(n) -> shift by n semitones (can be negative) (notes only)
  • reverse() -> reverse pattern
  • rshift(n) -> shift/rotate right by n steps
  • lshift(n) -> shift/rotate left by n steps