1. A method for controlling a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) apparatus, comprising: controlling the NMR apparatus to apply radio frequency (RE) energy to a volume in an object, where the RF energy is applied in two or more coordinated series of variable sequence blocks, where a variable sequence block includes one or more excitation phases, one or more readout phases, and one or more waiting phases, where at least one sequence block in a series of variable sequence blocks differs from at least one other variable sequence block in the series in at least N sequence block parameters, N being an, integer greater than one, where a first member of the coordinated series is configured to cause a first nuclei type in the volume to produce a first NMR signal, and where a second member of the coordinated series is configured to cause a second different nuclei type in the volume to produce a second NMR signal; controlling the NMR apparatus to acquire a signal evolution from the volume, where the signal evolution is a function of NMR excitation produced by applying the RF energy in the coordinated series of variable sequence blocks; and controlling the NMR apparatus to characterize the volume as a function of comparing the signal evolution to one or more of, a reference signal evolution, and a combination of reference signal evolutions.