What is the problem?
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May we please have a larger grain size? Maybe up to 4 seconds, at the cost of audio quality and Grain Density. A lower-fidelity sound depending on the length would be totally acceptable. Imagine longer pieces of a sample becoming a musical passage, obtaining a lower-fidelity sound and creating even more soundscapes. This could easily expand into more abilities to create ambient textures without overusing the reverb effect. What we’d call “an oldie, but a goodie”. Imagine it as a tape recorder instead of a microsound cloud/burst. Still granular, just bigger granules. Lower fidelity to reduce processor stress. Less Grain Density because 3 to 7 grains would be plenty. More than 3 would get into a really fun ‘smear’ of sound, because it’s now a loop, and not just a grain.
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May we have the capability to modulate via LFO:
a. Burst Freq
b. Size Spread
c. Time Spread -
Even shorter grains in the Cloud model. Burst sounds like it can get really super small/spikey, where the Cloud model gets a bit less. Noticeable to me, but I’ve been fascinated with granular synthesis since the end of the 90’s.
What should this feature achieve?
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Being a fan of granular synthesis and using it for textures, etc., I wish we had a larger grain size to create slower-moving granular textures, not dissimilar to the original granular idea of tape-splicing multiples of the same sound and altering when they play; having a larger ‘window’.
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This would make for even more variations in the granular field for even more interesting sounds. More modulation options for greater effect.
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Burst seems to have really tiny grains, sound much shorter than the Cloud’s grains. Could just be me, but it really sounds different to my ears.
Are there any workarounds?
No workarounds that I could find.
Any links to related discussions?
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Any references to other products?
Well, this is where the nitty gritty comes in. If y’all are looking at granular synthesis and wanting to get even greater results, there’s a lot of ways to do this and several examples.
The open-source model everybody seems to be using is really not my favorite, but “Clouds” by Mutable Instruments. It’s a standard. I’d say GRAINS is pretty close, with a few small differences, and that may be in grain-size of the ‘Cloud’ model.
I’d really like to expand upon that granular model by the suggestions above -
Grain Length - longer grains which reduce the Density count as well as a lowered audio quality as length changes. You’ll get a really neat tape effect along the lines of the original granular creators (Dennis Gabor, Iannix Xenakis, Curtis Roads, etc.). The term ‘small’ here means a short passage as well as tiny grains.
There’s even a software that definitely gets into this territory - “Small Winters” by Puremagnetik: Small Winters | Granular Splice Multitrack | Puremagnetik
I don’t like this as a software inside my computer, but if I was on stage and performing a slow ambient piece with lowered fidelity, this would be awesome! I feel their loop length of 20 seconds is too long, 4 - 8 seconds would be far more useful.
Granular really isn’t just clouds and bursts - it can be broad for more open usage. It’s a sample manipulation method that is meant for sound-manipulation, not just the latest guitar pedal effect. Doesn’t need reverb to be ambient, doesn’t need to be hazy. Cutting out the rest of the options really limits the unique usage of the synthesis method.
Thinking art-gallery, not dream-pop soup or jangly guitar/synth performance. How does sound ‘move’? Even the term “ambient” these days has really been diminished. It’s all reverb and delay and freeze, but is really far greater than that.
Looking at the Polyend Synth as a performance tool, with just the GRAINS engine being used, set up in 3 sections, one could create a large-grained section for say, longer melodic passages or nature/field recordings in large swathes (with less density), a medium-grained section for ‘movement’, and a short-grained section for clicks 'n cuts or microsounds. 1 second as a longer grain is fine for typical movement sounds, but is really limiting to the synthesis method. The same goes for 2% in the Clouds model. I switched to Bursts for a more clicks 'n cuts/microsound attempt at sound, but it’s really a bit too percussive and ‘in your face’ to get me to real microsound - the additional modulation methods mentioned above would be able to help one do just that.
Microsound and short loops are a format that granular synthesis is based on. The standard in clicks 'n cuts music - label Mille Plateaux (which I am a part of and was able to work directly with Achim Szepanski on album distribution) - granular is all over their music, especially the early stuff.
compartments | neuro… no neuro | Force Inc. / Mille Plateaux.
A few more labels that really push this territory, that I’m either on or influenced by - Audiobulb, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 12K, LINEimprint, Raster-Noton. These labels, granular synthesis and composition are all I spend much of my time thinking about.
Granular synthesis can be both long-grained and short-grained. Would love to see/hear some expansion of this particular engine’s capabilities!
