Glossary

A reference of every term the docs throw at you, in roughly the order you meet them.

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Pitch

Interval

The relationship between two pitches. Written <quality><degree> — P5, M3, m7. Independent of which key you're in.

Scale

A named, ordered set of intervals starting from a root. scale Major = { R, M2, M3, P4, P5, M6, M7 }. Activates which intervals <n> references resolve to.

Scale degree

A reference into the active scale. <1> is the root, <3> is the third degree, <8> is the root one octave up. The expression carries no pitch information by itself; it resolves through the active scale.

Chord

A set of intervals played simultaneously. chord Maj7 = [ R, M3, P5, M7 ]. Like a scale, a chord is a *shape* — you root it on a degree to get a concrete chord.

Mode

A scale rotated to start on a different degree. Dorian is Major rotated to start on the second degree; Mixolydian is Major rotated to the fifth.

Tuning

A pitch system — how a step in the scale maps to a frequency. The default is 12-tone equal temperament (12-EDO). Override with set tuning = JustIntonation etc. See Microtones.

Cents

1/100th of a semitone. Used for microtonal offsets: M3 -13.7c, <3 +5c>, C4 +50c. Every interval also has a cents value (M3 = 400 cents in 12-EDO).

Microtone

Any pitch that doesn't fall on the 12-EDO grid. Reached via cents offsets or by activating a non-12-EDO tuning.

Rhythm

Block

| slot slot slot | — a unit of time whose contents share its slot equally. Default duration is one beat; override with :n.

Slot

One position inside a block. Can be a note, rest, chord, or nested tuplet.

Beat

The unit of time the block measures itself in. set tempo = 120 = 120 beats per minute.

Tuplet

{ ... }:n — squeezes its contents into *n* beats regardless of how many slots are inside. Triplets, septuplets and so on.

Groove

A per-slot timing offset applied on top of an otherwise perfectly equal block. groove Dilla = offsets { ... }, then set groove = Dilla or block |> groove Dilla.

Swing

A specific groove that pushes the offbeat eighth note. groove Swing67 = offsets { length: 2, steps: [0.0, 0.17] }.

Polyrhythm

Two lines playing simultaneously at independent periods. | a b c |:3 over | d e f g |:4 — three against four. Realigns every lcm(3, 4) = 12 slots.

Polymeter

Two lines with different *bar lengths* (rather than different subdivisions of the same time). Same over operator — relanote doesn't draw the syntactic distinction.

Composition

Pipe |>

"Then" — pass the value on the left into the function on the right: melody |> transpose P5 |> repeat 2.

Compose >>

Build a function out of other functions without applying it: let style = transpose P5 >> reverse. Apply later with |>.

Concat ++

Glue two blocks into one, in sequence. Each side keeps its own relative-rhythm density.

Layer

Run multiple lines concurrently inside one expression: layer [ melody, harmony ].

Part

A named voice — part "Lead" { ... } |> voice X. The mixer addresses tracks by part name.

Section

A named group of concurrent parts that share a context (key, scale, tempo, groove). The unit of "structural change" — switch scale on a section boundary, not mid-section.

Synthesis

Synth

A record describing how a note becomes sound: oscillator, envelope, filter, optional modulation, optional inline effects. Applied with block |> voice <SynthName>.

Oscillator

The sound source. Built-ins: Sine, Square, Saw, Triangle, Noise, plus three richer forms: FM(...), Wavetable(...), Granular(...).

FM

Frequency modulation — one oscillator (the modulator) modulates the other (the carrier). op2_ratio and op2_level are the dials that shape the result.

Wavetable

A sequence of single-cycle waves the oscillator scans through. wave_pos is the static position; modulate it to get movement.

Granular

Chops a source sample into 5–100 ms grains and rearranges them. Controls: grain_size, density, spray, pitch_jitter.

Envelope

A four-stage shape (Attack / Decay / Sustain / Release) governing how loudness — or any modulated parameter — evolves over a note's life.

Filter

A frequency-selective gain. LowPass(cutoff, q), HighPass, BandPass.

Modulation matrix

A list of source → destination routings inside a synth. Sources are LFOs, envelopes, keytrack, velocity. Destinations are any modulatable parameter (filter.cutoff, pitch, wave_pos, amp, …).

Mixing

Track

A named part viewed from the mix block. track "lead". Effects, sends and sidechain links target tracks by name.

Bus

A named, shared effect chain. bus Verb = effect PlateLarge. Tracks route signal into a bus via send.

Send

Route a fraction of a track's signal into a bus. track "lead" |> send Verb 0.35.

Sidechain

One track's amplitude envelope ducks another track's level. sidechain track "kick" -> track "bass" 0.6.

Master

The final effect chain applied to the summed mix. master = effect MasterChain.

Compressor / Saturator / Limiter

Standard mix processors. The stdlib ships presets (BusGlue, DrumBus, MasterChain, Drive, …) in effects_mix.rela.

Language

Pure function

A function whose output depends only on its inputs — no hidden state, no surprise side effects. relanote's standard library is entirely pure.

Immutable

Values don't change after they're constructed. Transformations return new values; the originals are untouched.

Hindley-Milner

The type inference algorithm relanote's checker uses. Catches type mismatches at compile time without requiring you to annotate every binding.

Let-in

let x = e1 in e2 — a local binding scoped to one expression. As opposed to a top-level let x = e1 which exports the name.

Lambda

An anonymous function — \x -> body. First-class value; you can pass it around like any other expression.

Pattern matching

match expr { pattern => body pattern => body } — destructure a value by shape. Cleaner than nested ifs when there's more than two cases.

Annotation

An explicit type at a binding site, e.g. let x : Interval = P5. Usually optional thanks to inference; useful for documenting intent or pinning ambiguous types.