Granular synthesis examples

20 voice stereo sine wave granular texture with initial control variables:

centre frequency = 200 Hz; frequency range = 20 Hz; average grain duration = 20 ms; duration range = 5 ms; delay = 0 ms
A. Change centre frequency (100, 50, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 Hz)

B. Change frequency range (10, 0, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 Hz)
C. Change duration (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 75, 100, 250, 500, 1000 ms)
D. Change delay (0, 5, 10, 20, 50, 75, 100, 250, 500 ms)

Stereo sine wave granular texture as before, with wide frequency range (1200 Hz)

A. Change duration gradually to 500 ms, then 750, 1000 ms, then return to 20 ms
B. Increase delay gradually to 250 ms keeping grains in synch, then increase delay range to 50 ms to allow grains to become unsynchronized

C. Reduce delay and delay range back to 0 (original texture)

Synchronized sine wave grains going to unsynchronized grains

Sine wave granular texture reduced to a single voice; initial values are:

centre frequency = 500 Hz; frequency range = 25 Hz; grain duration = 20 ms; duration range = 10 ms; delay = 0 ms
A. Reduce number of voices to 1 (left channel only)
B. Reduce random variation to 0 by changing frequency and duration ranges to 0 (note: AM signal with 50 Hz modulator)

C. Lengthen delay to 200 ms to separate grains

D. Change duration from 20 to 15, 8, 4, 2, ms and back to 20 ms

E. Change envelope shape from 1/4 attack to 1/2 attack, then 1/16 attack and back

F. Change frequency range gradually to 1000 Hz

G. Reduce delay from 200 to 30 ms (i.e. 30 + 20 = 50 ms grain repetition rate)

H. Increase number of voices to 20

I. Increase number of voices with waveform 2 (with harmonics) to 6; then increase number of voices with waveform 3 to 6

J. Change envelope shape to long attack, then short attack and back

Various presets with individual envelopes, manually activated

Ramps applied to variables of texture as in first example

A. ramp on frequency and frequency range
B. ramp on duration and duration range

C. ramp on delay

8 voice texture with FM grains, sine wave carrier and modulator

A. C:M ratio = 1:1 and ramp on modulation index
B. C:M ratio = 1:5 and ramp on index and index range

Object sets used in Riverrun. Most objects are grouped in sets of four, each of which is the starting point of a separate pair of tracks on 8-channel tape, to which ramps are applied.

Score playback used in Riverrun where a ramp was applied to the modulation index (not heard here). The score cycles through a set of amplitude modulated textures where the sidebands form harmonic "chords" with respect to the carrier frequency.

Granular textures with FM grains controlled by a tendency mask as used in The Wings of Nike, The 40 second tendency masks are heard twice, first with the 1:1 ratio, then with 2:1.

Tendency masks used to control frequency range (light shading), grain duration (medium), and modulation index (dark), plus delay between grains (solid lines)

Granular textures using a single male phoneme of about 170 ms duration as the source material (the vowel in the word "touch"); initial grain duration is 50 ms with a 10 ms duration range and no delay.

A. Ramp on offset causing the grains to move from the unvoiced aspirations at the beginning of the samples through the pitched vowel and then past it.
B. Ramp on duration, moving from 50 to 15 ms, the increasing to 70 ms.

C. Ramp on duration range, starting from 0 (synchronized grains), then moving gradually to 150 ms duration range.

D. Ramp on delay, starting at 0 ms, then moving gradually to 400 ms delay between grains.

E. Global speed change followed by some voices being transposed upwards an octave at the same time, then downwards again.

F. Constant speed with some voices being transposed downwards an octave, then back upwards again.

Synchronized phoneme grains going to unsynchronized grains