germ reframes the app as an open-source modular environment for generative microsound, audio-to-control, and sound matter experimentation.
Germinator remains the legacy/internal engine name. The public product name and UI
language are germ.
The old plant metaphor remains useful for compatibility terms like germinator_mode,
but the product model now centers on sound as living matter:
- grains as cells
- samples as cultures
- LoRAs as strains
- modules as organelles
- routing as metabolism
- modulation as signal exchange
- lineage as genetic memory
- CV/MIDI/OSC as external nervous systems
| Scale | Unit | Current surfaces |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | grain / cell / quanta | Grain Culture, Cell Splitter, Quanta, Microscope |
| Meso | colony / tissue / swarm | Particle Engine, Swarm, Colony, Spectral Tissue |
| Macro | organism / culture / graph | Canvas, Controllers, Genetic Matrix, Candidate Ecology |
The Micro palette and Micro panel add these canvas modules through the existing FX node system:
- Grain Culture
- Particle Engine
- Cell Splitter
- Swarm
- Colony
- Membrane
- Metabolism
- Spectral Tissue
- Quanta
- Microscope
- Incubator
- Matter Analysis
- Cosmoaudition Matter Modulator
These modules are intentionally additive. They reuse the existing canvas graph, semantic FX metadata, realtime audition chain, modulation targets, and lineage surfaces. They do not replace current generation, editing, library, control, or metadata flows.
Matter Analysis is deliberately adjacent to Microscope rather than a replacement for it. Microscope remains a compositional Micro module. Matter Analysis writes a reusable research artifact with explicit epistemic states:
measuredfor bounded PCM-derived descriptorsinferredfor reversible morphology labels derived from measurementsunavailablewhen the source or method cannot support a value
It does not create heard claims; those remain in Oída's listening boundary.
The dashboard has a dedicated Cosmoaudition category. Its modules are additive to the existing Sources, Genetic, Time, Effects, Modulators, and Microsound categories:
| Module | Role |
|---|---|
| Observatory Source | Reads one bounded local snapshot. |
| Cosmic Field | Selects cosmos observations. |
| Earth Field | Selects atmospheric and geological observations. |
| Biosphere Field | Selects biosphere observations. |
| Human–Machine Field | Selects human and machine observations. |
| Relational Index | Composes available normalized relations. |
| Event Pulsar | Projects attributed event observations into trigger values. |
| Mapping Loom | Executes an authored mapping and explicit missing-data policy. |
| Semantic Field | Relates a normalized value to attributed descriptive context. |
| Uncertainty Field | Makes confidence, staleness, and source error available as control. |
| Observation Archive | Replays a bounded local observation with provenance. |
| Matter Modulator | Applies observatory-routed control to granular and spectral matter parameters. |
GERM connects only to the separate Cosmoaudition System on an explicit HTTP loopback URL. It accepts no redirects, proxies only allowlisted routes, ignores environment proxies, and caps the response body. Provider credentials and astronomical, geological, weather, biosphere, human, or machine APIs remain on the Cosmoaudition side of the boundary.
An observation is not active control until it has been fetched and marked available. Unavailable observations are skipped in generation, realtime, and clocked routes. Mapping receipts retain signal, source, confidence, epistemic status, temporal character, mapping status, and the statement that the relation is authored rather than a source-identity claim.
Two backend contracts now make the conceptual layer reusable outside the dashboard:
- Strain registry:
GET /strains,POST /strains,DELETE /strains/{id}, andPOST /strains/loadpersist LoRA-style strain cards inoutput/strains/. - Micro/Matter profiles:
POST /micro/matter-profileanalyzes a saved WAV and writes amicro_matter_profileartifact underoutput/micro/with grain density, cell count, transient cells, quanta rate, spectral tissue, and module suggestions. - Matter Analysis:
POST /matter/analyze(alsoPOST /micro/matter-analysis) writes amatter_analysisartifact underoutput/micro/and an optional MASA analysis sidecar underoutput/masa/. - Cosmoaudition bridge:
/cosmoaudition/*exposes bounded status, source, snapshot, mapping, and local archive contracts without copying provider acquisition into GERM. - MASA sidecars: every successful committed generation can write a MASA 0.1
interoperability record under
output/masa/. Sidecar failure is annotated but cannot invalidate audio, metadata, Sonic Lineage, Oída, or Akousmata.
The control genetic graph reads these artifacts and links sounds to strain, micro-module, and micro-profile nodes. That keeps the new layer integrated with lineage instead of leaving it as disconnected UI state.
- Existing launch scripts, environment variables, localStorage keys, and
germinator_modemetadata remain stable for existing users and clients. - New metadata uses
app: "germ"pluslegacy_app: "Germinator". - OSC defaults now use
/germ/..., but old/germinator/...addresses are still valid user-provided addresses. - Physical CV output remains disabled unless a future calibrated bridge explicitly opts in.
The current Micro modules are graph modules with semantic and lightweight realtime audition behavior. A future native DSP phase can replace or extend them with:
- true grain-window scheduling
- corpus indexing and per-grain metadata
- transient/cell extraction caches
- spectral freeze/smear buffers
- spatial grain distribution
- hardware-synced CV/MIDI/OSC performance control