Manual
Strand
Type a rhythm. Hear it gate.
Strand is a rhythmic gate. You type a pattern in a small text language and Strand opens and closes the gate in that shape, locked to your tempo. It runs as a VST3 and Audio Unit on macOS and as a VST3 on Windows.
Quick start
- Put Strand on a track with something sustained: a pad, a vocal, a guitar chord, a synth line.
- Type into the pattern box, or pick a preset.
x ~ x [x x]is a good first one: hit, rest, hit, then two quick hits. - Turn Length down for a choppier feel, Attack and Release up for softer edges, Swing and Drift for groove.
- Press Mutate when you want a variation. Press Undo if you liked the last one better.
No input handy? Set Source to Pad, Keys, Bass or Drums and Strand plays a built-in signal through the gate.
The pattern language
Every pattern describes one cycle. By default a cycle is one bar; change it with Cycle. Steps are separated by spaces and share the cycle equally.
| Write | Meaning | Try |
|---|---|---|
x |
a hit (any word works) | x x x x |
~ |
a rest | x ~ x ~ |
_ |
hold the previous step longer | x _ x ~ |
[a b] |
split a step into parts | x [x x] x [x x x] |
[a, b] |
layer two sequences | [x ~ x, ~ x ~ x ~] |
<a b> |
alternate: one option per cycle | <x ~> x <x [x x]> |
a*n |
play it n times inside its step | x*2 ~ x*3 |
a/n |
play it once every n cycles | x [x x]/2 |
a!n |
repeat the step n times | x!3 ~ |
a? |
keep it half the time; a?0.8 for 80 % |
x x? x x?0.3 |
a(k,n) |
Euclidean: k hits over n steps | x(3,8) |
a(k,n,r) |
Euclidean, rotated by r | x(5,8,2) |
a@w |
give the step weight w | x@3 x |
Press ? in the plugin for this table. Hover a row for an example and click to load it.
Nothing in Strand is random in the usual sense. ? decisions and Drift are
computed from the cycle number, so bar 37 always plays the same way as it did
last time. That is why the display can show you what is coming.
The display
The lane shows one cycle. Each bar is the gate's actual envelope: the rise is your Attack, the flat part is the open gate, the fall is your Release. Length sets where the gate closes. Swing and Drift move bars; faint outlines show where they would have been.
When a pattern spans more than one cycle, a strip above the lane shows one row per cycle with the current one highlighted, and the counter reads, for example, "cycle 12 · 2/4". A silent cycle says so.
Controls
Attack, Release. Gate edge times.
Length. How much of each event stays open.
Swing. Delays every other step of the pattern's finest subdivision, up to half a step. Works on eighths, sixteenths or finer, whichever the pattern uses.
Drift. Small timing offsets per hit, up to 8 % of the event. Click the label to choose Hold (the same groove every cycle) or Vary (a different shuffle each cycle, still repeatable).
Mix. A floor under the gate. 0 is dry.
Cycle. How many beats one pattern spans: 1 beat to 4 bars.
Source. Input, or a built-in Pad, Keys, Bass, Drums or Noise. The tempo-locked sources follow the same clock as the gate.
Tempo. Host follows your DAW. Manual runs Strand's own clock at the BPM in the box; drag it to change. When no host tempo exists, Host falls back to the manual value.
Trigger. MIDI note restarts the cycle at each note-on, so the gate locks to what you play rather than to the bar. Route MIDI to Strand in your DAW.
Evolve. Mutates the pattern automatically every 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 cycles, exactly on the cycle boundary. The lane counter says when the next change lands. Undo backs out an evolution like any other change.
Bypass. Ramps the gate open with the release time, no clicks.
Mutate. One small change: a modifier nudged, a step subdivided, a hit flipped, a pair swapped. It never deletes, never goes silent, and always changes what you hear. Repeated presses wander without ballooning.
Presets. Fifty-odd factory patterns by feel: pulses, claves, break chops, grooves, evolving patterns, dynamics tools and a few oddities. "Save preset..." keeps your own; "Show presets folder" opens them in Finder or Explorer. A user preset is one small JSON file, safe to share.
Automation
Every knob and selector is a host parameter. The pattern text is saved with the project but is not automatable; use Evolve, presets or alternation for changes over time.
Support
Monoglyph Audio is a trading name of Monoglyph Ltd, company number 17364027, England and Wales. Support: support@monoglyphaudio.com.