constraint

constraint imposes structured limits on behavior, either per voice, across groups, or globally. where pressure expresses desire to act, constraint expresses permission to act. this separation allows sophisticated behaviors like:

• staggered polyphony
• voice alternation
• temporal sparsity
• foreground/background layering constraints are precomputed and act as time-varying gates or weights, shaping the final activation score.

• 0 max voice count

  • description: caps how many voices may be active at once
  • analogy: instrumental limitation, texture sparsity

  • notes:

    • a: polyphony limit (1–max)
    • b: distribution type (0 = evenly fill, 1 = front-load)

• 1 min silence spacing

  • description: enforces silence before reuse of a voice
  • analogy: breath spacing, cooldown

  • notes:

    • a: spacing duration (relative to segment)
    • b: penalty shape (0 = hard cutoff, 1 = smooth decay)

• 2 mutual exclusion

  • description: prevents overlapping triggers in a group
  • analogy: solo phrases, rhythmic dialogue

  • notes:

    • a: exclusion group index (e.g. voices 0,1,2)
    • b: suppression strength (0 = off, 1 = strict solo)

• 3 quota per segment

  • description: limits the number of triggers in a defined region
  • analogy: per-bar fill limit, motif density

  • notes:

    • a: quota value (0 = silent, 1 = full)
    • b: reset pattern (0 = each bar, 1 = whole segment)

• 4 shared energy budget

  • description: global resource that all voices draw from

  • analogy: expressive ceiling, structural pacing

  • notes:

    • a: total budget amount

    • b: distribution bias (0 = equal, 1 = voice-weighted)

• max voice count

  • a: number of voices allowed concurrently
  • b: temporal distribution pattern (uniform vs early loading)

• min silence spacing

  • a: required silence time
  • b: slope of reactivation (sharp vs gradual)

• mutual exclusion

  • a: voice group index
  • b: exclusivity strength

• quota per segment

  • a: total allowed events
  • b: reset scope (bar vs region)

• shared energy budget

  • a: total global activation capacity

  • b: allocation strategy

each form represents a musically functional limitation:

• polyphony cap: expressive restriction and clarity
• spacing: avoids mechanical repetition
• exclusion: enables turn-taking or focus
• quota: shapes phrase size and density
• budget: controls overall structural energy together, these allow voices to coordinate implicitly, through shared limitations, not messaging.

• feedback-based adaptive muting (requires runtime state)
• dynamic resource reallocation (handled via modulation)
• probabilistic constraint breaks (violates determinism)
• content-aware suppression (not supported in this layer)

constraint enables a new layer of compositional intelligence: voices are not just activated by desire, but filtered by availability, scarcity, and mutual respect. this domain balances activity across time, space, and identity - guiding not what each voice wants, but what the music allows. when used in tandem with pressure and role, constraint gives rise to fully deterministic, expressively limited behavior - a core ingredient in realistic ensemble emergence.