Use adjacent samples
From TidalCycles userbase
With the exception of the SuperDirt synths, most of the sound in TidalCycles comes from sample playback. Some folders of samples have only a few samples, some more. A lot of tonal variety can be achieved by finding / creating sample folders where there are similar samples adjacent to each other in the folder.
Take this example, which is fairly monotonous
d1 $ n "0*8" # s "jungbass" # cut "1"
We can spice it up, adding movement & variety simply by playing the adjacent samples in order. Take these examples - which have the exact same rhythm as above.
d1 $ n (run 8) # s "jungbass" # cut "1"
d1 $ n (slow 2 $ run 16 ) # s "jungbass" # cut "1"
In this example we increment the base sample '5' at different cycles, which will alternate between samples '5', '6', '7', & '8'.
d1 $ whenmod 2 1 (+ n "1")
$ whenmod 4 2 (+ n "1")
$ whenmod 8 4 (+ n "1")
$ sound "jungbass:5(<3 5>,8)"
# cut "1"