179,854Messages
9,130Senders
30Years
342mboxes

← archive index

[idm] an explanation of granular synthesis

1 message · 1 participant · spans 1 day · search this subject
2000-09-12 17:24Kent williams [idm] an explanation of granular synthesis
expand allcollapse allclick any summary to toggle that message
2000-09-12 17:24Kent williams[I put up a Vaz Modular example of using Granular Synthesis on the Amen Break at http://av
From:
Kent williams
To:
intelligent dance music
Date:
Tue, 12 Sep 2000 12:24:59 -0500 (CDT)
Subject:
[idm] an explanation of granular synthesis
permalink · <Pine.HPP.3.96.1000912114456.6183A-100000@arthur.avalon.net>
[I put up a Vaz Modular example of using Granular Synthesis on the Amen Break at http://avalon.net/~lucas/granamen.mp3 if you want to hear an isolated example of what it sounds like] Here is what granular synthesis is: A sound is split up into a list of short segments, called grains. Granular synthesis is the process of using this list of grains in various ways to make new sounds. Simple examples: 1. You can slow down a sound by repeating grains. Depending on how slowly you do this, and how the grains are split up, this can produce fairly natural sounding time stretching. 2. You can speed up a sound by sweeping through the grain list faster than the natural rate for the sound. Go fast enough and you skip grain's altogether. This is in fact the basis for a lot of time stretching algorithms. When you hear a loop radically slowed down on a record, that's a form of granular synthesis. In particular, Sonic Foundry Acid uses granular synthesis for it's real time time-stretching, and if you abuse it you'll get some very autechre-ish sounds. Other things you can do: 1. You can pitch the sound up or down by changing the playback rate of the individual grains. 2. You can change the envelope (i.e. the amplitude curve) of the grains, which amounts to adding amplitude modulation. 3. You can change the grain rate -- i.e. lower or raise the length of each grain. 4. You can step through the grains either direction. kent williams -- kent@avalon.net http://www.mp3.com/chaircrusher -- tunes http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=chaircrusher -- mix --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org