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, and both installs include a standalone app for trying patterns with nothing else open.

Installing

macOS. Open the .pkg and follow the installer; it asks for your password because it installs for every user. It puts Strand.vst3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3, Strand.component in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components, and the standalone Strand.app in /Applications. Rescan plugins in your DAW if it was open. The package is signed and notarised, so there is nothing to allow in System Settings.

Windows. Run Strand-Windows-Setup.exe. It installs the VST3 into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, where every host looks, and the standalone app under Program Files\Monoglyph Audio with a Start menu entry; untick the app if you only want the plugin. Uninstall from Settings > Apps. The installer and everything in it are signed. A .zip with the same files is on the download page for anyone who prefers to place them by hand.

Updating. Install the new version over the old one; the installer replaces the files. Your presets and licence are kept, because they live in your user folder, not next to the plugin.

Quick start

1. Put Strand on a track with something sustained: a pad, a vocal, a guitar chord, a synth line.
2. 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. The pattern applies as you type; a line that does not parse leaves the last good one playing.
3. Turn Length down for a choppier feel, Attack and Release up for softer edges, Swing and Drift for groove.
4. Press Mutate when you want a variation. Press Undo if you liked the last one better.

No input handy? Set Source to Pad or Noise 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

Words that change a pattern

Since 1.0.3 a pattern can be wrapped in a word that does something to it. They nest, and they go anywhere a step can: x ~ rev(x x ~ x) reverses only the second half of the bar.

Write	Meaning	Try
[a | b]	choose one each cycle, the same way every time	x [x x | ~ x] x [x | x*3]
rev(a)	the same bar, backwards	rev(x ~ x x ~ ~ x ~)
off(n, a)	a copy, n of a cycle later, on top	off(0.125, x ~ ~ ~ x ~ ~ ~)
every(n, f, a)	change it every nth cycle (f is rev or palindrome)	every(4, rev, x ~ x x ~ ~ x ~)
iter(n, a)	start one nth later each cycle	iter(4, x ~ x x)
ply(n, a)	every hit becomes n	ply(2, x ~ x ~)
chunk(n, f, a)	change a different nth of the bar each cycle	chunk(4, rev, x ~ x x ~ ~ x ~)
palindrome(a)	forwards, then backwards	palindrome(x x ~ x ~ ~ ~ ~)
swing(n, a)	swing this part only, 0 to 1, whatever the Swing knob says	x ~ swing(0.6, x*4) x
accel(n, a)	speed up across it; below 1 slows down	accel(2, x*8)

The same language has words for notes (transpose, invert, ramp, cc, channel). A gate has no notes, so Strand refuses them and says why, rather than letting them do nothing.

Press ? in the plugin for both tables. Hover a row for an example and click to load it.

This is the mini-notation of TidalCycles and Strudel, open-source projects by Alex McLean, Felix Roos and contributors. Monoglyph Audio is not affiliated with or endorsed by them; Strand reads the same notation with a parser of its own, so what you know there works here and the reverse.

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: Attack 0.1 to 200 ms, Release 1 to 1000 ms.

Length. How much of each event stays open, 5 to 100 %.

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, 100 % is fully gated.

Stereo. Shifts the right channel's gate by up to one grid step, left of centre for the left channel. A little gives width; a full step gives ping-pong chops.

Filter. A low-pass that closes with the gate. At 0 it is out of the circuit; at 100 % each closing sweeps from 20 kHz down to 200 Hz, for darker cuts.

Cycle. How many beats one pattern spans: 1 beat to 4 bars.

Source. Input, or a built-in Pad (a held chord, so the gate's shape is obvious) or pink Noise (every frequency, so the filter shows too).

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.

MIDI out. Sends the gate as notes: C3 on channel 1, on while the gate is open, off when it closes. Route Strand's MIDI output to another instrument to have it play the same rhythm.

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. Right-click the button, or click its arrow, to choose what kind of change.

Undo. The arrow next to Mutate backs out the last mutation, evolution or preset, one step at a time.

Presets. Fifty-five 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.

Licence and trial

The first run starts a fourteen-day trial with everything on. When it ends, audio passes through untouched and the display stops until a key is entered; your patterns and presets are kept.

A licence key arrives by email after purchase. Open the licence panel from the status pill at the top of the plugin, paste the key and press Activate. One key covers two machines. To move it, press Deactivate on the machine you are leaving, or manage your devices at account.monoglyphaudio.com. Activation needs the internet once; after that Strand checks in briefly once a day and otherwise works offline.

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: hello@monoglyphaudio.com.