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Canon

Purpose

Section titled “Purpose”

Canon takes a stream of note voices and copies it into several layers that move at related tempo ratios. Each layer plays the same material at a different speed or phase, so a single line becomes a web of interlocking parts. It is a fast way to build dense polyphony or Nancarrow-style tempo canons from one source.

TouchDesigner Use

Section titled “TouchDesigner Use”

Wire your note source into Input 0 and a timeline clock into Input 1. Set Voicecount, choose a Mode, and dial the per-layer Ratio values. The out voices carry every layer at once and drive a polyphonic instrument. Use the input mode to decide whether Canon follows your live notes or pools them first.

Inputs And Outputs

Section titled “Inputs And Outputs”
  • Input 0: voices note voices to layer. Required.
  • Input 1: timeline timeline clock. Required.
  • Output 0: out emits all canon layers as note voices.

Main Controls

Section titled “Main Controls”
  • Mode: layer relationship. raw, mensural, phasing, hocket, crab, or strum.
  • Inputmode: snapshot, hold, soak, or swarm for how live notes are gathered.
  • Voicecount: how many layers are generated, up to eight.
  • Ratio1 to Ratio8: the tempo ratio for each layer.
  • Gate, Density, Velocityscale: note length, how many notes fire, and level.
  • Spread: pitch offset between layers in semitones.
  • Offsetbeats and Phasejitter: timing offset and randomized phase between layers.
  • Humanize: timing and velocity looseness.
  • Soak and Inertia: input pool fill rate and stability.
  • Foldrange with Low and High: fold layered pitches back into a note range.
  • Sourcewalk and Seed: source stepping behavior and repeatable randomness.

Notes

Section titled “Notes”
  • More voices and wider ratios make denser, more complex textures.
  • crab runs a layer in reverse and hocket splits notes across layers for interlocking patterns.
  • Use Foldrange with Low and High to keep fast high layers from drifting out of a usable register.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

This operator does not expose user parameters in the extracted schema.

Catalog metadata

Roles

  • transform
  • mixer
  • composer
  • rhythm
  • polyphony

Tags

  • tempo-ratio
  • canon
  • nancarrow
  • phasing
  • note-voices

Search groups

  • midi
  • control
  • timeline
  • music
  • composer