Architecture
Time as concept, not number.
Every other architectural decision in Sirius Looper depends on internalizing one fact: there is no true time on any computer, only the best disciplined approximation. The system reasons about time symbolically — and renders to numerical samples only at the boundary where audio meets the interface.
The Logical Master Clock
Inside the engine, time is a concept — a structure of positions and relationships, nested hierarchies, intentional offsets. It only becomes a number at the membrane where the system meets the audio interface. White Paper · Part II
The Logical Master Clock is the single, continuous reference for the system — but it is not a sample counter and it is not an audio clock. Audio clocks drift, round, and accumulate error; the LMC does not, because it does not commit to a number until it has to.
The Membrane
The membrane is the boundary between conceptual time inside the engine and numerical time at the audio interface. Inside, time is exact symbolic structure. Outside, it is sample frames. The membrane is where one becomes the other. White Paper · Part III
Hosting third-party plugins downstream of the membrane is a deliberate trade: plugins are numerical, so their timing guarantees evaporate. But they see audio that has already been disciplined, so they cannot reach back and corrupt the upstream model.
Constituents — one tree, every level
Tape, Loop, Phrase, Section, Song, Set. Every node in the arrangement is a Constituent. Same operations apply at every level; arrangement is recursive because the data model is. White Paper · Part IV
The Constituent tree is what makes phrases composable. A Section is a sequence of Phrases. A Song is a sequence of Sections. A Set is a sequence of Songs. The same edit, the same transform, the same undo — at any depth.
Trust the performer absolutely
The looper's job is not to constrain, not to guide, not to second-guess, not to protect them from their own choices. The user is a musician. They know what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. White Paper · §1.5
That trust is enforced architecturally. Mark Out always succeeds. The tape was always running. The undo stack is lossless. There is no "you can't do that" — only "here is what you just did."
The short version isn't the whole story.
The white paper goes deep on conceptual time, drift, ensemble synchronization, and the trade-offs that don't appear above. It's a design thesis, not a sales pitch.
Read the white paper →