The beat between the beats.

|φᵢ − φⱼ| < ε → a hit · lcm(Tᵢ) = the loop

Stack a few simple grids, set them drifting, and a polyrhythm you never programmed walks out of the overlap. Play the drift, not the notes.

Open the grids →

Free in browser · no account

Rhythm as interference.

grids drift → interference → onsets

Moiré is a moiré pattern you can hear. Stack two or more simple grids — evenly-spaced pulse trains of different lengths — superimpose them, and a third, slower pattern emerges where they line up. That emergent pattern is the groove.

You don't place the hits. You place the grids, then set them drifting. The beat you hear is wherever the grids momentarily agree — and the tighter they agree, the louder it sounds.

Two clocks running at 3 and 4 agree once every 12. Run them out of phase and the agreement walks. That walk — the slow, self-generating polyrhythm no one programmed — is the instrument.

How it works

Three moves. One drift.

Stack the grids

Tᵢ ∈ {3, 4, 5, 7, …}

Drop two to six evenly-spaced pulse trains, each its own length. No steps to draw — a grid is just a number.

Set them drifting

dφ/dt → the performance

Nudge one grid's period or offset by a hair and the whole pattern breathes. You're detuning one clock against the others — the drift is the playing.

Listen where they agree

1 − |Δφ|/ε → velocity

Wherever the grids momentarily line up, a hit fires — and the tighter the agreement, the louder it lands. The groove walks out of the overlap.

What you can do

Four grids, four moves.

Every feature is a move on the same field. Stack, drift, and align — the math stays visible the whole way.

Stack the grids

Tᵢ ∈ {3, 4, 5, 7, …}

Two to six evenly-spaced pulse trains, each its own length. You don't draw steps — you choose a handful of integers, and the rest is interference.

Play the drift

dφ/dt → the performance

Nudge one grid's period or offset and the whole pattern breathes. You're detuning one clock against the others — the drift rate is the performance surface.

Alignment is the accent

1 − |Δφ|/ε → velocity

The tighter two grids agree, the louder the hit. A near-perfect overlap rings out; a glancing one whispers. Accent comes from the math, not a velocity lane.

The loop is the math

lcm(Tᵢ) = bars · seed = link

A whole groove is a handful of integers, so the loop length is just lcm(Tᵢ) — and the entire pattern serializes to a few bytes. Share what you found as a link.

Try it first, own it later

One instrument, three doors.

Free Web

The full grid field in your browser. Stack, drift, and share by link. No install, no account.

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Desktop

$19.99

Native app. Offline. Save and load files, audio + MIDI export, VST3 hosting, lifetime updates.

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Ephemera Bundle

Included

Moiré ships free with Ephemera Premium and lives as a module inside Dimensional too.

See Ephemera →

One-time purchase · no subscriptions, ever · free forever in the browser

FAQ

Questions, answered.

A moiré is the slow pattern you get when two regular grids overlap at slightly different spacing. Do that with rhythmic grids — pulse trains of different lengths — and a third, slower pattern emerges where they line up. That emergent pattern is the groove. You hear the interference, not the grids.

Set them drifting.

stack · drift · align

Free in your browser, no account. Drop two grids, push one out of step, and listen to the groove walk. Then share the pattern you found.

Open the grids →