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interpretation / Symbolic

Metric grid

The beat/subdivision scaffold a rhythm snaps onto: the ordered points of one bar, each marked downbeat, beat, or subdivision. A grid is built from a meter + a tempo — the meter sets how many beats and where the downbeat falls, the tempo sets how fast they go by. A rhythm is placed on a metric grid (quantized) when given a meter + tempo; groove then nudges the grid points off their exact positions.

How it works

This object can carry concrete values or a musical interpretation, depending on its notation.

A key or tonal context supplies meaning that the underlying pitch structure does not carry by itself.

Written forms

Ways to write this concept

Each notation describes the same underlying object. Load a playable example to hear one MIDI realization in the Code Sequencer.

spec

Grid spec: a time-signature @ subdivisions-per-beat

  • 4/4@4
  • 6/8@2
  • 3/4@3
Choose Load beside a convertible example to open its live player. Some catalog formats describe analysis or a display label and have no note realization yet.

Concept connections

Time signatureThe meter: how beats group into a bar, written as a ratio (4/4, 6/8, 7/8). The top number counts notated units per bar, the bottom names the unit (4 = quarter, 8 = eighth). Simple meters feel one beat per numerator unit; compound meters (6/8, 9/8, 12/8) group their eighths in threes into dotted-quarter beats. Off-axis: a meter is not a structural object but the interpretive frame that tells a rhythm where the bar lines and downbeats fall.TempoHow fast a beat is, in beats-per-minute. Tempo is what turns tempo-free musical durations (beats) into wall-clock time: a beat lasts 60000 / bpm milliseconds. Off-axis: like a meter, a tempo is not a structural object but the interpretive context that maps the beats of a rhythm / metric-grid onto absolute milliseconds (it reuses the beats↔ms convention of duration-utils).RhythmA sequence of durations and rests without pitches. It can time a melody without changing its note choices.
Sources and playback

Concept descriptions and examples were adapted from Codex Music Mono’s typed catalog and concept examples. The Code Sequencer plays MIDI through a connected instrument; Symbolic does not synthesize sound.