# What are the part and the whole in an Event?

**URL:** <https://uzu.lurk.org/t/what-are-the-part-and-the-whole-in-an-event/4414>\
**Category:** TidalCycles\
**Tags:** innards\
**Created:** [23 November 2022 01:55 UTC](https://uzu.lurk.org/t/what-are-the-part-and-the-whole-in-an-event/4414 "2022-11-23T01:55:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![archaic.tech](https://uzu.lurk.org/user_avatar/uzu.lurk.org/archaic.tech/32/2965_2.png) [@archaic.tech](https://uzu.lurk.org/u/archaic.tech)\
**Post date:** [25 November 2022 21:55 UTC](https://uzu.lurk.org/t/what-are-the-part-and-the-whole-in-an-event/4414/7 "2022-11-25T21:55:17Z")

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> [@Jeff\_Brown](#):
>
> Ah, so the logic of comparing parts and wholes happens entirely in Haskell. That makes sense, thanks. It still leaves unanswered, though, my question about onsets for synth `Event`s. Are they the same -- will an `Event` whose `part` starts later than the `whole` fail to trigger a synth, or will it only fail to trigger a sample?

Yes—apologies if I was confusing on that point! In terms of synths vs. samples, Tidal doesn't know the difference and sends any event it encounters as a "play" event to SuperDirt as long as the event has a current onset (in terms of part and whole) and has the `s` parameter set.

The only counterexample I know of is the [effect bus](https://club.tidalcycles.org/t/testing-tidal-1-7/2792/3) feature, which works by sending certain effect parameters as Supercollider messages regardless of the relationship between the part and the whole. As a result, these messages are sent every time Tidal samples the pattern (~20hz).

I think the answer to your general question is that Tidal has a lot to say about how complex patterns can be built and (by design) not much to say about what those patterns mean in terms of sounds or lights or whatever.

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