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Phrasing

The Phrasing card shapes how notes are played — articulation, phrase length, micro-timing feel, note duration range, and velocity (range plus optional shaping curve).

Articulation Styles

StyleWhat It DoesDuration Multiplier
SustainedNo articulation processing. Notes play at their full generated duration. Suitable for drones and sustained textures.1.0
LegatoSustained, connected notes with slight duration reduction.0.80–0.95
StaccatoShort, detached notes. Punchy, rhythmic character with clear separation between events.0.20–0.40
AccentSlight duration boost on each note for emphasis.1.00–1.15
MixedProgressive shortening through each phrase — begins near legato (0.85) and shortens toward staccato (0.35) by phrase end.0.85→0.35

Velocity

ParameterIDRangeDefaultDescription
Velocity MinvelocityMin1–12760Minimum MIDI velocity
Velocity MaxvelocityMax1–127100Maximum MIDI velocity
Velocity CurvevelocityCurveShapeOff / Swell / Ramp / Drive / Fade / CapturedOffPhrase-level dynamic envelope shape
Curve AmountvelocityCurveAmount0.0–1.00.0Blend between random-within-range (0) and full curve (1)
Velocity is distributed within [velocityMin, velocityMax]. With Curve set to Off, distribution is uniformly random within that range. Other curves apply a phrase-level shape:
  • Swell — corpus-informed phrase-level natural swell
  • Ramp — linear rise across the phrase
  • Drive — sustained high-energy weighting
  • Fade — linear fall across the phrase
  • Captured — uses the velocity envelope from a MIR Capture fingerprint

CC Controllers

RESERVOIR streams continuous controller data organized into five groups, each with its own update rate and envelope shape:

Dynamics Group (~30 Hz)

CCControllerRange
CC11Expression70–115 (default)
CC2Breath60–115 (default)
Plus Channel Aftertouch, which follows the Dynamics envelope.

Timbre Group (~20 Hz)

CCControllerRange
CC74Brightness (filter cutoff)Configurable
CC71ResonanceConfigurable

Vibrato Group

CCControllerDescription
Pitch BendVibrato oscillationCentered at 8192
CC76Vibrato RateConfigurable
CC77Vibrato DepthConfigurable

Articulation Group (note-on only)

CCControllerDescription
CC73Attack TimeSet once per note
CC72Release TimeSet once per note

Effects Group (~15 Hz)

CCControllerRange
CC1ModulationConfigurable
CC21FlutterConfigurable
All CC streams use breakpoint envelope shapes modulated by phrase position. The envelopes incorporate organic variation — slow wander, overlapping LFOs at incommensurate rates — for musically natural CC curves rather than mechanical automation.

Micro-Timing

ParameterIDOptionsDefaultDescription
FeelmicroTimingStyleStrict / NOMN / User Groove / Genre GrooveStrictTiming humanization
  • Strict — Events fire exactly at their computed PPQ positions.
  • NOMN — Subtle micro-timing variation modulated by phrase position and event density. Contextual humanization rather than random jitter.
  • User Groove — Per-grid-position timing deviations captured from your MIDI performance via MIR Capture. Each note is offset by the deviation learned at its sub-beat position, plus stochastic jitter scaled by the position’s variance. Swing ratio from the capture is applied.
  • Genre Groove — Per-genre micro-timing profiles extracted from drum-corpus analysis. Selects a groove template by genre index rather than from a captured performance.

Phrase Structure

Articulation and expression operate within a phrase structure system. The default phrase pattern is 4-6-8-5-7 notes (selectable via phraseLengthPreset; alternates include 4-4-4-4, 8-8-8-8, 16-16-16-16, 2-3-5-8, Fibonacci 5-5-8-8-13, Corpus, and Custom). At each phrase boundary:
  • A breath is optionally inserted (default 0.15 seconds of silence)
  • Articulation resets (for Mixed mode)
  • CC envelopes reset their phrase-position modulation

Additional Phrasing Parameters

ParameterIDRangeDefaultDescription
ArticulationarticulationStyleSustained / Legato / Staccato / Accent / MixedSustainedArticulation style
Phrase LengthphraseLengthPreset14 presets + Custom4-6-8-5-7Phrase length sequence
Note Length MindurationMin0.01–32.00.4Min note duration as fraction of inter-onset interval
Note Length MaxdurationMax0.01–32.00.9Max note duration as fraction of inter-onset interval