alt Hacker NewsYou're not sequencing notes you're sequencing multiple parallel levels of musical information which are eventually rendered as notes.
One of those levels could be context-related microtiming - the context being position in the bar, or the actual shape of the phrase, the position in the phrase, and so on.
This isn't sequencing in the classical sense, it's generative composition.
It's not popular because it's much more abstract and harder to work with than "Play this pattern."
There's a lot of unexplored potential in deterministic systems that work with music at these more abstract levels.
"Parallel levels" is a nice way to put it. On a daw or drum machine, you have some sequence of notes or drum hits, that's one layer. And then you apply, say, 50% swing, that's another layer.
The "petri net" or "rhythm necklace" can compact this into a single layer of information. I think something similar can be achieved by using compound meter -- 12/8 instead of "4/4 with swung 1/8th notes" in standard notation, or using something other than the standard 16 steps on a drum machine.
My brain has always struggled with compound meter, somehow I just see a fraction should just be reduced. Much easier for me to imagine a grid that needs different levels of resolution in order to describe certain patterns.
Trying to learn independently, I've found much more difficulty in articulating why a given rhythm is so good, compared to the wealth of theory for understanding great melodies and harmonies.
So it's great to see others building tools and ideas around rhythm, it's a very deep and fun topic to explore.