Playback engine 1 of 15

Motion

Motion moves a read head through the Position/Field window. Continuous, Packets, and Motor articulate that trajectory; five segment sounds turn it into a bounded event instrument.

Controls edit the focused instrument. Instrument mode sets its lane and voice budget: eight voices in Single, four per part in either dual mode, or two per part in Quad. Quad omits stack controls because each part has one lane.

Good for: smooth source traversal, moving loops, evolving seeded paths, packet and motor rhythms, freeze/iterate gestures, layered pulses, and accelerating bounce events.

Pages and navigation

On Engine, set Algorithm to Motion. Press Up for the shared Pads & Scale and Amp Envelope pages, then Stack Path, Motion Path, and Motion Sound. Choosing Packets, Motor, or a segment sound adds only the pages that sound needs. Knobs 1–4 are the top row and knobs 5–8 are the bottom row. Choose DRAW to add the editable Path Editor.

Motion Path parameter page with seven controls — Motion Path controls trajectory, rate basis, Moving Loop step, and the seeded evolving paths.

Motion Sound selection page — Motion Sound is a selector. Its additional pages appear only when required.

Motion Packets parameter page — Packets exposes its independent packet clock and duty.

Motion Motor parameter page — Motor adds a separate outer clock, symmetry, and envelope shape.

Segment sounds share event timing and repetition controls.

Motion Event Shape parameter page — Event Shape sets overlap, the Move-safe layer limit, variation, and envelope.

The controls common to every playback engine are documented in the shared Engine page table. The sections below cover Motion-specific controls.

Motion Path — every parameter

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	MODE	8 choices	Selects Forward, Reverse, Hover, Round Trip, Moving Loop, Mirror, Zigzag, or Drunk. See the mode table below.
2	TRVL	0.00–1.00	Sets the excursion of Zigzag and Drunk targets. 0 stays centered; 1 uses the full available range. Live moves glide to the new path.
3	JITR	0.00–1.00	Varies evolving target timing and distance. It also varies packet and event clocks while retaining a repeatable seeded character.
4	BAS	Normal / Hertz	Normal derives trajectory rate from source playback speed. Hertz makes Path Rate cycles per second.
5	PATH	0.01–80	Trajectory multiplier in Normal mode or cycles per second in Hertz mode. Pad pitch still multiplies the per-voice rate.
6	STEP	0.00–1.00	Distance the Moving Loop window advances after each cycle, as a fraction of the full source.
7	SEED	1–9999	Selects the repeatable evolving Zigzag/Drunk path and their timing variations. An active reader briefly fades before adopting a new Seed so the path cannot jump audibly.
8	Reserved	—	Inactive and available for a future Motion Path control.

Mode choices

Mode	Trajectory
Forward	Moves from the left Field boundary to the right, crossfading the wrap according to Join.
Reverse	Moves from right to left with the same wrap treatment.
Hover	An eased out-and-back path with long, smooth turns at both Field edges.
Round Trip	A nearly constant-speed forward/backward traversal with short eased reversals.
Moving Loop	Runs a forward loop, then advances the whole Field window after each completed cycle.
Mirror	Uses the Round Trip trajectory and reverses signal polarity on the return half, with Join smoothing around polarity boundaries.
Zigzag	Moves through three stable time sections—forward, backward, forward—whose targets evolve from Seed, Travel, and Jitter, then continues with a new cycle. Stable section boundaries keep live Travel and Jitter edits continuous.
Drunk	Interpolates through an evolving seeded chain of random targets. The end of one cycle becomes the start of the next.

Motion Sound

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	SND	8 choices	Continuous leaves the trajectory open. Packets applies Hann-shaped pulses. Motor nests that packet clock in an outer envelope and reverses non-one-way paths on its falling side. Bounce, Freeze, Iterate, Pulser, and Doublets launch segment readers.
2–8	Reserved	—	The selected sound's controls appear on following contextual pages.

Packets and Motor

Packets page

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	RATE	0.25–20 Hz	Independent inner packet clock. Jitter varies its timing after each completed packet.
2	DUTY	2–98%	Portion of each packet cycle occupied by the Hann-shaped pulse.
3–8	Reserved	—	Inactive positions available for future Packets controls.

Motor page

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	RATE	0.25–20 Hz	Independent inner packet clock. Jitter varies its timing after each completed packet.
2	DUTY	2–98%	Portion of each packet cycle occupied by the Hann-shaped pulse.
3	MRAT	0.05–20 Hz	Independent outer Motor envelope clock.
4	MSYM	5–95%	Moves the outer envelope peak between its rise and fall.
5	MSHP	Linear / Rounded / Pulse / Exponential / Plateau	Shapes the outer Motor envelope. Live changes morph between contours over 10 ms.
6–8	Reserved	—	Inactive positions available for future Motor controls.

Segment sounds

Sound	Event behavior
Bounce	Repeats around Position while segment width and level fall across the repeat cycle.
Freeze	Relaunches the Field around Position without advancing the event center.
Iterate	Moves the event center by Event Step after each launch.
Pulser	Chooses a random center in Field and derives a short segment from Duty and Event Rate.
Doublets	Repeats a center for the selected repeat count before advancing it by Event Step.

Event Clock page

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	TRIG	Clock / Packet / Turn	Starts events from the event clock, packet-clock wrap, or a trajectory turn/wrap.
2	ERAT	0.25–80 Hz	Base event rate when Trigger is Clock.
3	REPT	1–16	Length of each model's repeat cycle.
4	ESTP	0.00–1.00	Source-distance step for Iterate and Doublets.
5–8	Reserved	—	Inactive positions available for future Event Clock controls.

Event Shape page

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	OVLP	Cut / Layer	Cut replaces the prior segment; Layer permits overlap.
2	LAYR	1–4	Maximum simultaneous segment readers per playback voice. Lower values reduce CPU use.
3	PITC	0–12 st	Random pitch scatter inside ± the selected range.
4	LEVL	0.00–1.00	Random attenuation, or repeat decay for Bounce.
5	CURV	−1.00–1.00	Accelerates or decelerates Clock intervals across the repeat cycle.
6	MSYM	5–95%	Moves the peak of every segment envelope between its rise and fall.
7	MSHP	Linear / Rounded / Pulse / Exponential / Plateau	Sets the contour of every segment envelope. Live changes morph sounding segments between contours over 10 ms.
8	DUTY	2–98%	Minimum Bounce width and Pulser duration proportion.

Hardware starting point: use Layer with two event layers. Raise LAYR only while the System Report's Deadline Misses count remains at zero.