ðə pɹˈɑːsɛs ɪz dʒˈɛnɚɹəli ɪnˈɪʃəlˌaɪzd wɪð ɐ jˈuːnɪfˌɔːɹm pɹˌɑːbəbˈɪlᵻɾi dˌɪstɹɪbjˈuːʃən ˌoʊvɚ ðə ɹˈoʊɾeɪmɚz—ðæt ˈɪz, ɪf ðɛɹˌɑːɹ ɹˈoʊɾeɪmɚz æt ðə pəzˈɪʃən ɪnðə pɹˈoʊtiːn, ðˈɛn ðə pɹˌɑːbəbˈɪlᵻɾi ʌv ˌɛni ˌɪndᵻvˈɪdʒuːəl ɹˈoʊɾeɪmɚɹ ɪz .
The process is generally initialized with a uniform probability distribution over the rotamers—that is, if there are  rotamers at the  position in the protein, then the probability of any individual rotamer  is .