granulation tips needed
Arguably, the key parameters of conventional acoustic intrument sound are pitch, timbre, duration and density. What are the applicable key parameters of granular synthesis? Grain pitch/duration/density? Envelope/Overlap? Cheese/petrol/regret? Anyone?
Perhaps a little quality time with Curtis Roads’ "Computer Music Tutorial" or "Microsound" or even this
http://emusician.com/software/going-with-grain/
would be helpful.
The Curtis Roads is my bible (I studied digital audio synthesis with Eric Lyons and Maarten Walstijn at SARC)…. I was hoping to generate some debate; if you had to pick the three most vital control parameters of granular synthesis – in your opinion – what would they be? This straw poll will be part of my research.
Thanks
Brendan
ps..here’s my first monophonic grain engine
There wouldn’t be three things. Rather maybe a dial or two that would sweep territories common to a number of grouped parameters. The best granular interface? One dial that sounded interesting at every point. Your mileage may vary.
it’s difficult to say, because they all depend on each other to an extent. for me the most interesting parameters would be pitch envelope, amp envelope, density. When each grain is doing a little pitch bend, that’s when you start to get really liquid-like sounds.
aaah….pitchbend, nice one oli, thanks; i also take your point on interdependency, but such cross-coupling is also inherent in acoustic instruments, no?
If you call a burbling creek an instrument, eventually, but its more like lots of almost decoupled instruments…
Granular synthesis is really synthesizing sounds based on a perceptual model of hearing. Kind of the opposite to the concept of physical modeling of real instruments…