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niminal

Units and rates

Units

Section titled “Units”

Strict units, free rates: anything can be patched into anything; the scale factor states the meaning (like an attenuverter on a patch cable).

  • Rates never block a connection. Audio into a control parameter upgrades it to audio rate.
  • Raw signals are unitless (oscillators, noise, envelopes, LFOs). Unitless × hz = hz; hz + hz = hz; hz + db is an error.
  • Unit suffixes are unit methods: 800hz is 800.hz; noise().abs.hz attaches a unit.
  • Related units convert: note names to hz, db to linear gain, beats to seconds at the current tempo, semitones applied to a frequency.
  • Unrelated units are an error. Strip with .num to reinterpret deliberately: (-6db).num.hz.
  • Bare literals in unit slots are errors with a quick fix (cutoff: 800 → did you mean 800hz?). Exception: gain parameters accept unitless linear factors (0.5) as well as decibels.
  • Unit names (reserved, at least two characters): sec, ms, samples, hz, khz, db, st, deg, bpm, beat/beats, bar/bars, plus %.
  • Attaching units: on literals (440hz, 4bars), including rationals (1/8beat). Outside brackets, a space is fine (4 bars). Inside pattern, envelope, line, and tracker brackets, a space separates steps — attach the unit or parenthesize: (1/8 beat).
  • Ranges use ..: 20hz..20khz. A range as a parameter type (bright: 0..1) declares a bounded unitless parameter.
lpf(cutoff: 800hz + osc(sine, 110hz) * 600hz)    // audio-rate modulation
lpf(cutoff: lfo(1/4 beat).range(200hz..4khz))    // mapped range
lpf(cutoff: noise().abs.hz * 8000)               // attach a unit

Rates

Section titled “Rates”

Signals run at init (once per note), control (once per block), audio (every sample), or spectral (once per FFT frame) rate. The compiler infers rates.

Force a rate with a method: x.init, x.control, x.audio.

A parameter fixed at note start declares init before its type:

length: init sec