Glossary
Quick-reference definitions for every term in the model. For full explanations, follow the links to the relevant concept pages.
Absence — The state when Foundation is not present. The kick is not in the mix. story.name = null. No story is produced. See Story.
Accompanying Kicks — Additional transient events in or near the kick’s frequency range that do not fall on the expected beat grid positions. Off-beat kicks, sub-hits, kick doubles. A Variance Indicator.
Confirmed Value — A value in the model that must pass a Temporal Threshold before the model updates it. Confirmed values change infrequently and drive story transitions. Examples: presence gate, sustain state, variance direction.
Direction (Variance) — The trend of energy around the kick: rising, stable, or falling. A confirmed value. See Variance.
Drop — A story that occurs when the kick returns after a breakdown with high weight and high variance magnitude. The most dramatic moment in a standard techno arc. See Transition Map.
DRY — A Sustain state. Tight, punchy, immediate decay. The kick hits and stops. Industrial techno character.
Escalation — A story in the Story Matrix: heavy weight + rising variance. Peak-time building energy with full kick power.
Foundation — The stable, repeating anchor of the performance. In this model, Foundation is the kick drum — the single reliably detectable element in a live techno signal. See Foundation.
Gate (Presence) — The binary trigger derived from the continuous Presence value crossing a threshold. When the gate opens (kick confirmed absent), a story transition fires. When the gate closes (kick confirmed returned), another fires.
Groove — A story in the Story Matrix: heavy weight + stable variance. The locked-in, driving, peak-time techno state.
Hysteresis — A design technique used in the model where the threshold for entering a state is different from the threshold for leaving it. Prevents oscillation near boundaries. Applied to the Presence gate and Weight band boundaries.
Immediate Value — A value in the model that updates every frame with no delay. Drives smooth, responsive visual mappings. Examples: weight, presence (continuous), variance magnitude.
Layer Density — How many distinct spectral bands above the kick’s frequency range have sustained energy. A Variance Indicator.
Macro — A Variance timescale. Section-to-section changes (16, 32, 64+ bars). Build/breakdown/drop arcs. Set structure.
Magnitude (Variance) — How fast or dramatically the energy around the kick is changing. A continuous, immediate value (0.0–1.0). High magnitude = potential story transition. See Variance.
Meso — A Variance timescale. Bar-to-bar changes. Phrase energy, filter movements, percussion pattern changes. The primary timescale for story evolution.
Micro — A Variance timescale. Beat-to-beat variation. Swing feel, individual hit variation. Felt but rarely changes the story.
MID — A Sustain state. Some room, natural decay. Standard groove character. The baseline state.
Minimal — A story in the Story Matrix: light weight + stable variance. Sparse, precise, restrained techno.
Phase (Story) — Where we are within a story’s lifecycle: entering, sustaining, or transitioning. See Story.
Presence — How clearly the kick is perceived in the mix. A dual-natured property: continuous value (0.0–1.0) for smooth visuals + binary gate for story transitions. See Presence.
Rhythmic Complexity — The number of percussive transients per bar in the mid-to-high frequency range. How “busy” the pattern is above the kick. A Variance Indicator.
Spectral Brightness — The ratio of high-frequency energy to low-frequency energy in the non-kick portions of the signal. A Variance Indicator.
Story — The highest-level concept in the model. A named interpretation of what the music is doing right now. Determined by the intersection of Foundation state and Variance direction. See Story.
Story Matrix — The mapping table that determines story names from the intersection of Foundation Weight (3 bands) × Variance Direction (3 states), optionally modified by Sustain. See Story Matrix.
Sustain — How the kick decays after impact. A categorical property with three states: dry, mid, wet. Changes signal shifts in the character of the performance. See Sustain.
Temporal Threshold — A minimum duration a new state must persist before the model treats it as real. Expressed in beats and bars (musical time), not milliseconds. Filters transient noise from confirmed state changes. See Temporal Thresholds.
Transition Map — The graph of valid story-to-story transitions and their triggers. Defines which stories can naturally move to which others. See Transition Map.
Variance — What differentiates stories that share the same foundation. Measures how the spectral environment around the kick changes over time. Has direction, magnitude, and timescale. See Variance.
Variance Indicators — The specific audio signals that feed Variance calculations. Engineering guidance for implementers. Includes spectral brightness, layer density, rhythmic complexity, accompanying kicks, spatial width, and filter movement. See Variance Indicators.
Weight — The primary expressive value of Foundation. How heavy the kick feels (0.0–1.0). Driven by sub-bass presence, transient sharpness, and harmonic body. The single most important number in the model for visual artists. See Weight.
WET — A Sustain state. Long tail, spacious, reverberant decay. Hypnotic / atmospheric character.