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Tutorials Tutorials on MiniTidal (TidalCycles), Hydra, & CineCer0

MiniTidal: Transform Patterns

Once you have the basic structure (i.e. s "bd cp*2"), you can add transformations (after this structure) using the symbol #. This is the case for adding the vowel filter, changing the gain, adding panning (pan), changing pitch (note) and setting the sample number (n).

Other types of transformations are added before this basic structure (i.e. s "bd cp*2") using the symbol $. This is the case for slow and fast.

We will review how to apply each of the above transformations.

IMPORTANT: Be careful with the quotation marks you use. They must be this type "", not this type “” (they generate a syntax error). If you copy/paste code from this tutorial, make sure that it has the correct type since text-editing software often changes the style.

Vowel Filter (vowel)

Play/hear the following:

Now try:

  1. The sound now has the filter vowel applied. The values for vowel are a e i o u

Try with the other values:

Now try with modifying the pattern:

Changing the volume (gain) + Patterns in parameters

Play/hear the following:

Try:

Try:

The values for gain are numbers from 0 (no sound) to 2.0 (the loudest it can get). Be careful with values higher that 1.5.

The above examples have a single value, but you can also add multiple values.

Try:

You can see that each of the three samples have different volumes. This is because gain is now a pattern (using values in between quotation marks) with three values.

Try this other example:

Now, it is only two values with three samples. The gain pattern will start with the sound pattern, but then it will deviate since it is repeating sooner.

IMPORTANT: For these patterns to work on the transformations, you must have the same or a higher amount of samples in the s patterns.

Now try with more variations:

Panning (pan)

Use headphones!

Play/hear the following:

Try the following lines separately:

Values for pan go from 0 (sound totally on the left channel) to 1 (sound totally on the right channel).

You can also use patterns with the pan parameters:

Sample Number (n) + dynamic parameters

Play/hear the following:

Now try the following lines separately:

n is similar to using s "hh:1 cp:1 cp:1" but helps applying the selection of the sound file to all of the samples. Values of n start with 0 (default: first file).

You can use the dynamic value (choose[]) to generate more random variations.

Try this example:

Now, the value of n is randomly chosen from the list of values we wrote inside [].

Another dynamic value that we can use is (irand) that will give us a random number between 0 and the value we add after the function irand.

Try this example:

The value of n is randomly chosen from the first 5 sound files (remember we are counting from 0!) of each of the samples.

Try with more variations:

Modify the time of the pattern (slow and fast)

Play/hear the following:

Now try:

slow slows the time of the pattern, while fast do the opposite. Parameters for both cases start from 1 (default) and grow from there (it can also go lower). They cannot be used at the same time.

Try with more variations:

Multiple Transformation

You can mix and match all of the above!

Experiment!

Multiple Sound Patterns

stack [ s "drum drum drum drum" # vowel "a o e e" # gain 1.2, fast 2 $ s "bd hh sn:1 hh sn:1 hh" # gain "1 0.7 0.5" # pan (choose[0,1]) ]

You can add more sound patterns. Just end each one with a , (comma) at the end of each. All patterns should be inside stack []. The last sound pattern should not have a comma.

stack [ s "drum drum drum drum" # vowel "a o e e" # gain 1.2, slow 2 $ s "numbers:1 numbers:2 numbers:3 numbers:4" # pan "0 0.5 1" # vowel "a", slow 2 $ s "numbers:1 numbers:2 numbers:3 numbers:4" # pan "0 0.5 1" # vowel "a", s "drum ~ drum drum" # n (choose [0,2,3]) # gain (choose[1, 1.2,0.8]) ]

Part of live coding practices is improvising: changing values and adding transformations on the go, constantly playing what you modify.

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