Going with the Grain

Oct 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Dennis Miller

           
 

TEN GRANULAR-SYNTHESIS PROGRAMS TO SLICE AND DICE YOUR SOUNDS

Kenaxis controls randomness in a variety of ways. You can set a range within which grain duration, delay, pitch, and loudness will be chosen randomly, and you can quantize the pitch range to limit values to fixed increments (only multiples of 0.33 times the original, for instance). Or you can use the GranRnd window to control grain parameters with a high degree of specificity. Like the KlangRnd window, which controls the playback of sample files, GranRnd uses a drunken walk model to set the probability of events occurring. Both windows include a tempo control that you can use to determine how often different parameter values are updated. You can also create interesting rhythmic patterns by using the Amplitude Envelope window to impose “amplitude sequences” on grains at specific tempos.

Kenaxis includes a delay with delay times up to 75 seconds and a filter that you can apply to any of its sound sources. It has an extensive manual and is easily the most configurable of this group — there's even a dedicated window for setting up the response of a joystick or Wacom tablet. In addition to the stereo version, a second version, called Kenaxis VBAP, allows surround output and up to eight channels, and includes a mixer for panning each of the program's sound generators independently.

Jörg Stelkens's crusherX-Live 3.51 (Win, about $222)

What do you get when you combine four samplers and four multiwave oscillators with real-time audio, granular processing, unique effects, and a flexible routing system? That would equal only a portion of crusherX's sonic-mangling resources. The program offers a screenful of sliders and graphical controllers that would keep even the most hyperactive tweaker happy (see Fig. 8). Nearly every parameter has a randomize control, and every program parameter can be put under MIDI control.

Each of crusherX's sound sources can be routed directly (Dry) out to the mixer; to the Vapor modulators, which are the program's primary granulators; or to the Effects section. The Vapor modulators share several parameters that you control in various ways. You can use sliders to control things like a grain's base pitch or amount of modulation or assign those and other parameters to the unique Physical Model X/Y Display controller. This controller is a pseudo-3-D display on which you move a small blue light to change the values that the controller outputs. You can modify the shape of the display and the speed at which the light updates when you move it. You can also modify Vapor values by assigning a sine, square, or various other functions (random, for example). All in all, the modulation matrix is massive, to say the least.

CrusherX supports up to 199 simultaneous grain streams, and you can offset the streams to start in succession, from 0 to 1,000 ms apart. Moreover, each grain stream can be routed to up to ten different multichannel outputs of an ASIO audio interface. You can define the morph time for changes you make in the interface to take effect and also determine how much time it takes to change from the current to new parameter settings when you load a preset. You can also configure the interface to show only the parameters that you want to work with, or use the Newbie mode, which strips out a large portion of the program's features but still gives you plenty. Having a fast computer and a lot of time to experiment is the best preparation to master this very deep program.

Associate Editor Dennis Miller composes with music and images. Check out his work at www.dennismiller.neu.edu.

ONLINE LINKS

Curtis Roads (granular pioneer) home page
clang.mat.ucsb.edu/CLANG-TINT/home.html

Barry Truax (granular pioneer) Home page
sfu.ca/~truax/

Dennis Gabor (granular theoretician) and the Gaboret
sonicspace.org/ver4/GS.htm

Granular Synthesis Basics
music.calarts.edu/~eric/gs.html

Granular Synthesis links
www.stelkens.de/synthresearch/index.php?kat1=57&kat2=-1

Granular Synthesis Resource Site
granularsynthesis.com/

Introduction to Granular Synthesis
emusician.com/mag/emusic_world_grain_sound