14. Patterns that (almost) play themselves

.track can generate rhythms and variations for you:

chords — several notes at once, stacked with +: 1+3+5 (an instant happy chord).
roll *N — chop one step into N fast hits: x*4 = a quick drum roll on one beat.
maybe ? — “play this only sometimes,” for natural variation: x? = a coin-flip hit (x?75 = play it 75% of the time).
cycle < … > — rotate through options, one per bar: <1 5 8> plays 1 this bar, 5 next…
choice [ a | b ] — pick one at random each time it plays.
spread N — sprinkle N hits as evenly as possible across the bar (a famous trick for instant world-music grooves).
arp arp up / arp down — make a chord spell its notes out as a quick run instead of hitting them all at once.
seed — fixes the “dice” so the random bits come out the same every time you play. Change the seed to roll new dice.

seed 7
steps 16
hat   spread 11
perc  x . x? . [x|o] . x*3 . x . x? . [x|o] . x*3 .

↑ A real, playable song now: 11 hats spread evenly, then a perc line mixing a maybe-hit, a random [x|o] choice, and a 3-hit roll.

Real names: chords, ratchets/rolls, probability, Euclidean rhythms (spread), arpeggios (arp), and seeded randomness (a fixed seed makes the randomness repeatable — important so a song sounds the same every time it plays).

✅ Live now: chords (A3+C4+E4), counts (4x, 7_, 3.), seed, and all of the generators above — rolls (*N), maybe (?/?P), <cycle>, [choice], Euclidean spread, the row transforms rev / fast N / slow N, and arp up / arp down. The random ones (?, [choice]) are tied to seed, so a song plays the same every time — set seed 42 to roll a different-but-fixed version. See the language reference §5 for the exact rules.

⏳ Still coming: gate/glide, FM and sub-oscillators, more filter types, drive/crush/chorus, wobble, sidechain, fades, and automation rows — see the “NOT yet in the language” list in the reference cheat sheet.

← Index · Next → 15. Mixing, master & the limiter