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Granular Synthesis: an overview. Overview. Sounds are made up of a large number of particles! Examples of granular sounds. Leaves. Babbling Brook. Traffic. History. “ All sound is an integration of grains, of elementary sonic particles, of sonic quanta. ” – Xenakis 1971
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Overview • Sounds are made up of a large number of particles! • Examples of granular sounds Leaves Babbling Brook Traffic
History • “All sound is an integration of grains, of elementary sonic particles, of sonic quanta.”– Xenakis 1971 • First suggested as a computer music technique by Iannis Xenakis and Curtis Roads
Granular Synthesis particulars • Production of high density of small acoustic events called “GRAINS” • Allows time stretching or compression • Time and/or frequency-based processing • Numerous components in granular synthesis • Grain size, type, source, envelope • Grain density • Temporal arrangement of grains
Grain sources • Granular synthesis can be generated from any sound source • True granular synthesis uses synthetic sound sources • Wave table (I.e. sine wave) • FM Synthesis • Can also granulate a sampled sound (sometimes called soundfile granulation)
“The Grain” • A “grain” is a slice of sound • Typically less than 50 ms in duration • Usually 10-30ms • Grains < 50ms = continuous texture • Grains > 50ms = discrete events
Grain Envelope • Each grain must have an envelope (ADSR) • Impacts how we perceive the resulting timbre • This is a “Hanning”envelope
Grain Density • How many grain events take place per second • Can range from several hundred to several thousand! • Grains can overlap or be separated by silence
Types of Granular Synthesis • There are three methods of performing granular synthesis: • Pitch-synchronous • Asynchronous • Quasi-synchronous
Pitch-synchronous • Infrequently performed • Uses pitch detection and spectral analysis as a means to determine grains
Asynchronous • “Clouds of grains” or “Sonic Spray Gun” • Random distribution of grains over some period of time • Algorithms determined grain placement • Results in organic and complex timbres
Temporal manipulations • By manipulating the overlap between grains, we can expand or compress time
Temporal manipulations • We can create accelerandi or ritardandi (speed up or slow down)