Granular synthesis

Granular synthesis

Granular synthesis is a basic sound synthesis method that operates on the microsound time scale. It is often based on the same principles as sampling but often includes analog technology. The samples are not used directly however, they are split in small pieces of around 1 to 50 ms in length, or the synthesized sounds are very short. These small pieces are called grains. Multiple grains may be layered on top of each other all playing at different speed, phase and volume.

The result is no single tone, but a soundscape, often a cloud, that is subject to manipulation in a way unlike any natural sound and also unlike the sounds produced by most other synthesis techniques. By varying the waveform, envelope, duration, spatial position, and density of the grains many different sounds can be produced.

The result is usable as music, sound effects or as raw material for further processing by other synthesis or DSP effects. The range of effects that can be produced include amplitude modulation, time stretching, stereo or multichannel scattering, random reordering, disintegration and morphing.

Dennis Gabor researched how human beings communicate and hear. The result of his investigations was the theory of granular synthesis, although Greek composer Iannis Xenakis claimed that he was actually the first inventor of this synthesis technique (Xenakis, Formalized Music, preface xiii).

Curtis Roads is often credited as the first person to implement a digital granular synthesis engine. Canadian composer Barry Truax was one of first to implement real-time versions of this synthesis technique.

Books

* cite book
last = Roads
first = Curtis
year = 2001
title = Microsound
publisher = MIT Press
location = Cambridge
id = ISBN 0-262-18215-7
* cite book
last = Miranda
first = E. R.
year = 2002
title = Computer Sound Design: Synthesis Techniques and Programming
publisher = Focal Press
location = Oxford
id = ISBN 0-240-51693-1

* [http://www.artesonoro.net/tesisgran/indicegran.html "Les techniques granulares dans la synthèse sonore] by Manuel Rocha Iturbide. Doctoral Thesis. University of Paris VIII, Paris France, 1999.

Examples

Credits and info about the software used.

Articles

* [http://music.calarts.edu/~eric/gs.html Granular Synthesis] by Eric Kuehnl
* [http://artesonoro.net/articulos/The%20development%20of%20GiST.pdf "The development of GiST, a Granular. Synthesis Toolkit Based on an Extension of the FOF Generator"] by Gerhard Eckel and Manuel Rocha Iturbide
* [http://www.artesonoro.net/tesisgran/portadagran.html Searching for a global synthesis technique through a quantum conception of sound.] by Manuel Rocha Iturbide.

Further reading

* Digital signal processing
* Micromontage audio montage on the time scale of microsounds

Software

* [http://www.lownorth.nl/software/products/RTGS-x.html RTGS-X] Real-Time Granular Synthesizer X (for Mac OS X).
* [http://www.audioease.com/download/thOnk_0+2.sit.hqx thOnk_0+2] Granular synthesis without having to think at all. Free. Non-realtime. Mac OS 9.
* [http://www.essl.at/works/replay.html REplay PLAYer] generative granular synthesis software for Mac
* [http://hem.passagen.se/rasmuse/Granny.htm Granulab] real-time granular synthesizer for Win32
* Chaosynth [http://x2.i-dat.org/~csem/UNESCO/9/ (link)] cellular automata granular synthesizer by Eduardo Reck Miranda.
* [http://www.mcrow.net/Vocal%20Modeler.htm Vocal Modeler] Special vocal effect for Reaktor that uses granular synthesis.
* [http://www.crusher-x.de crusherX-Live!] granular synthesis system for Windows
* [http://people.bath.ac.uk/masjpf/CDP/cgromody.htm CDP] granular synthesizer from the Composer's Desktop Project
* [http://mffmtimescale.sourceforge.net/ WSOLA] time scale modification of audio using granular synthesis
* [http://www.mcrow.net/White%20FX.htm White FX] White FX is a granular effect for Reaktor
* [http://www.audiomulch.com Audiomulch] Audiomulch is a real-time audio processing tool which has some "contraptions" which offer granular synthesis.
* [http://atomiccloud.gersic.com Atomic Cloud] Atomic Cloud is an easy to use real-time grain cloud generator for Windows
* [http://www.csounds.com/cecilia/ Cecilia] / [ftp://ftp.musique.umontreal.ca/FTP_Musique/] Cecilia provides one of the best frontends available for employing granular synthesis and brassage techniques. It uses the CSound language (PC/Mac/Linux).
* Reason, from Propellerhead Software released a virtual device called the Malström. The device, dubbed a 'Graintable' synthesizer, combines granular and wavetable synthesis technologies.

Programming Languages

* Csound comprehensive music software including granular synthesis ( [http://www.csounds.com/manual/html/SiggenGranular.html overview] over granular synthesis opcodes)
* SuperCollider programming language for real time audio synthesis
* Reaktor visual programming environment for sampling, granular sampling, sequencing and modular synthesis
* Max/Msp graphical authoring software for real-time audio and video
* Puredata (Pd) graphical programming language for real-time audio and video
* ChucK audio programming language for real-time audio synthesis
* Real-time Cmix programming language for real-time audio synthesis, including several algorithms for granular synthesis.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Granular computing — is an emerging computing paradigm of information processing. It concerns the processing of complex information entities called information granules, which arise in the process of data abstraction and derivation of knowledge from information.… …   Wikipedia

  • Síntesis granular — La Síntesis de sonido basada en granos o Síntesis granular es una técnica de producción de sonidos que se basa en una concepción del sonido en términos de partículas o cuantos, pequeñas explosiones de energía encapsuladas en una envolvente y… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Speech synthesis — Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous people using speech synthesis to communicate Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented… …   Wikipedia

  • Distortion synthesis — is a group of sound synthesis techniques which modify existing sounds to produce more complex sounds (or timbres), usually by using non linear circuits or mathematics.[1] While some synthesis methods achieve sonic complexity by using many… …   Wikipedia

  • Digital waveguide synthesis — is the synthesis of audio using a digital waveguide. Digital waveguides are efficient computational models for physical media through which acoustic waves propagate. For this reason, digital waveguides constitute a major part of most modern… …   Wikipedia

  • Texture synthesis — is the process of algorithmically constructing a large digital image from a small digital sample image by taking advantage of its structural content. It is object of research to computer graphics and is used in many fields, amongst others digital …   Wikipedia

  • Sound synthesis — Basics of sound When any mechanical collision occurs, such as a fork being dropped, sound is produced. The energy from the collision is transferred through the air and other mediums, and if heard, into your ears. On a small scale, the collision… …   Wikipedia

  • Concatenative synthesis — is a technique for synthesising sounds by concatenating short samples of recorded sound (called units). The duration of the units is not strictly defined and may vary according to the implementation, roughly in the range of 10 milliseconds up to… …   Wikipedia

  • Eduardo Reck Miranda — Infobox Musical artist Name = Eduardo Reck Miranda Background = non performing personnel Birth name = Born = 1963 Porto Alegre, Brazil Died = Occupation = Composer URL = [http://neuromusic.soc.plymouth.ac.uk/ neuromusic.soc.plymouth.ac.uk] Genre …   Wikipedia

  • Synthesizer — For other uses, see Synthesizer (disambiguation). Synth redirects here. For other uses, see Synth (disambiguation). See also: Software synthesizer Early Minimoog by R.A. Moog Inc. (ca. 1970) A synthesizer (often abbreviated synth ) is an… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”