A row of values played one after another, in time with the loops. It counts from the same downbeat every sequencer in the patch does, so its first step falls on their bar 1 and stays there however the tempo moves; with no loop running it counts on its own at the one tempo, and Play brings it back to the top with them. There is no tempo knob here and no rate in hertz, and that is the point: a second clock would be free to drift from the first.
Steps is how many go round, and Step length how long each lasts, counted against the one tempo: at sixteen sixteenths the row is one bar. Each step is a value from nothing to one. All sixteen are kept whatever Steps says, so shortening the row and lengthening it again gives back the steps it had.
Two things leave. Out is whatever arrives at In with the steps on its level: a pad through it at sixteenths is the gate every trance record is built on, a drum loop through it is a stutter. Depth is how far the steps reach there, so at nothing the signal passes untouched and at everything a step at nothing is silence. Steps is the row itself, for any modulation input: into a filter's Cutoff it is the acid line's other half, into a pan it throws the sound from side to side on the beat. How far it moves what it arrives at is set there, as it is for the LFO.
Gate is how much of each step holds its value before it falls to nothing, so two steps at the same level are two pulses rather than one long one. Glide is how much of each step is spent travelling from where the last one left off; after a short gate that is from nothing, which is a swell on every step. Both are fractions of the step, so they mean the same at every length and every tempo. The level at Out is always smoothed over a couple of milliseconds, since a gain cut mid-wave is a click; the Steps output is not, because a step that arrives sloped is not a step.
Switched off, Out is In untouched and Steps is silent. Per voice or shared, every copy counts from the same downbeat, so a chord through it is cut together.
This module carries code because nothing in the vocabulary divides one number by another and keeps the remainder, which is what turning a count of beats into a step is.
What it is made of
The Web Audio nodes inside this module and how they are wired. Fork it to open the same graph in the editor, where every part can be changed.
A patch connects to it through audio input ‘In’, audio output ‘Out’ and audio output ‘Steps’.
‘in’ is an audio input this module declares, set to input in. Its output reaches input 0 of ‘vca’.
‘position’ is a constantSource node, set to signal position. Its output modulates the position of ‘steps’.
‘steps’ is a audioWorklet node, set to processorName atmosynth-stepper, numberOfInputs 0, numberOfOutputs 2. It runs its author's own code. Its output reaches input 0 of ‘stepsout’. Its output modulates the gain of ‘vca’. A patch can set its count, through ‘Steps’. A patch can set its length, through ‘Step length’. A patch can set its gate, through ‘Gate’. A patch can set its glide, through ‘Glide’. A patch can set its depth, through ‘Depth’. A patch can set its step1, through ‘Step 1’. A patch can set its step2, through ‘Step 2’. A patch can set its step3, through ‘Step 3’. A patch can set its step4, through ‘Step 4’. A patch can set its step5, through ‘Step 5’. A patch can set its step6, through ‘Step 6’. A patch can set its step7, through ‘Step 7’. A patch can set its step8, through ‘Step 8’. A patch can set its step9, through ‘Step 9’. A patch can set its step10, through ‘Step 10’. A patch can set its step11, through ‘Step 11’. A patch can set its step12, through ‘Step 12’. A patch can set its step13, through ‘Step 13’. A patch can set its step14, through ‘Step 14’. A patch can set its step15, through ‘Step 15’. A patch can set its step16, through ‘Step 16’.
‘vca’ is a gain node. Its output reaches input 0 of ‘out’.
‘out’ is an audio output this module declares, set to output out.
‘stepsout’ is an audio output this module declares, set to output steps.
‘Steps’ is a setting a patch can turn, one of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
‘Step length’ is a setting a patch can turn, one of 1/32, 1/16 triplet, 1/16, 1/8 triplet, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 bar.
‘Gate’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Glide’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Depth’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 1’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 2’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 3’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 4’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 5’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 6’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 7’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 8’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 9’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 10’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 11’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 12’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 13’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 14’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 15’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
‘Step 16’ is a setting a patch can turn, from 0 to 1.
No published patch uses this module yet
When somebody publishes a patch built on it, that patch will be listed here.
ATMOSYNTH built-in module