Granular Synthesis

[Karl Helmer Torvmark]

On Thu, 24 Jul 1997 03sjbrown at bsuvc.bsu.edu wrote:

> 
> 
> I'm familiar with FM, wavetable, and waveguide synthesis but what
> is GRANULAR SYNTHESIS?
> 
> - Shawn
> 

As far as I could understand it from the article in last month's Keyboard,
it is a synthesis method that deals with "grains", something akin to
"sound molecules". These grains are short sound events (some
milliseconds), with parameters like envelope, pitch and waveform. By using
"clouds" of these particles and spreading them out in time, you can create
sounds.

You can also chop up samples and apply this method. Sounds interesting to
me.

The Keyboard article mentioned some Mac software that demonstrates this
synthesis method. I haven't got a Mac, so I haven't tried it out.

-------
Karl H.