Nota Pendulum
Nota Pendulum turns a held chord into motion. Balls swing back and forth across the chord like pendulums; whenever a ball crosses from one chord note to the next, that note plays. Several balls at different speeds weave an arpeggio that keeps changing — from one held chord.
Signal flow: held chord → balls (position → chord degree → a note on each crossing) → warm keys voice → out.
The centre draws one lane per ball: across is pitch, and you see the wall it came from, the wall it heads for and the time left. Under the lanes, a bar strip shows the notes as they fall.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sync / Free | Swing in bars (with a division) or in seconds (Time) |
| Rate | Speed — bipolar: negative runs the swing backwards |
| Motion | The swing curve: Linear, Pendulum, Ease or Bounce |
| Balls | How many balls swing |
| Sort | Up or Down — the order of the chord across the field |
| Quant | Snap the notes to a grid |
| Hold | Latch the chord after you let go |
| First note | Restart the pattern on each new chord |
| Reset | Put the balls back to the start |
The rail lists each ball with its division, rate, phase and the note it plays.
What the balls play with: a soft additive “electric keys” voice with a detuned chorus partner.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Wave · Tone · Bright · FM | The character of the keys voice |
| Length | Note length |
| Attack · Decay · Release | The voice envelope |
| Spread — rate · detune · pan · humanize | Let the balls drift apart in speed, tune, stereo position and timing |
| Scale | Snap the generated notes to a scale |
| Volume | Output level |
Presets
Section titled “Presets”28 factory presets: slow and dreamy (Slow Bloom, Reverse Drift, Hold Pad, Slow Swing, Lullaby), cascades (Warm Cascade, Down Runs, Minor Cascade, Linear Ladder), modal colours (Dorian Drift, Mixolydian Sun, Pentatonic Rain), sparkle (Fast Sparkle, Glass Bounce, Music Box, Bell Garden, FM Glints, Free Chimes, Wide Shimmer) and machines (Saw Arp, Square Steps, Two Clocks, Six Pendulums, Rubber Bounce, Eighth Machine).
- Hold a chord, then change Balls and Spread while it plays — the pattern grows without you touching the keys.
- Pendulum needs the transport for Sync and Quant: press play.