check out my ~Granular Synth-Looper~ (then advise plz)
>> https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByPM2Ng_Ez3FfjRqXzFTSThnYWgtT3NxY19ZX19FcW9fWXRPNzZfaTNJdkltU3VELU9jMlE&usp=sharing <
Well, I've been hacking away at Robert Henke's awesome Granulator II for a few months now, in order to create a new M4L instrument that rests at the crossroads of live-looping and granular synthesis (check out this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmxx4ueRBI&feature=youtu.be)
It functions as a powerful live-looper (quantize record, reverse, independent time-stretching and pitch-shifting, time-freezing, dynamically adjust loop start/end points)
But it really shines when one begins to apply granular techniques to the loops. One can play the loops polyphonically, change the grainsize (which can be quantized to the transport for rhythmic pulsing), change the amplitude window of the grain, apply randomization to the grain playback, etc.
I call this M4L instrument TimeMachine (edit: link on next post), and it receives audio input from a corresponding M4L "TimeMachine Input" object (attached). I've been using four instances at a time (see screenshot). An external patch allows a trackpad to intuitively adjust the loop start/end points (attached).
I'd really like for y'all to play with it, and give me some feedback on how to make it better. So please, check it out and pass along your thoughts! Thanks!
Updated link, to a much cleaner and annotated Time Machine Granulator: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByPM2Ng_Ez3FTTE2a3BKaEV4bU0/view?usp=sharing
Hi Jaren
I enjoyed your performance video. I don't feel suitably qualified to 'advise', as such. Are you familiar with Andre La Fosse? Kind of a hero of mine for many years, he uses a Gibson delay unit (Echoplex) to achieve very similar time-stretching/looping/grainy effects, it's more loop-/metre-based glitchiness, but he plays the damn thing like it's an instrument itself.
(Any excuse to post that video :))
Brendan
Thanks for sharing the video Brendan--yes this is consummate musicianship + electronic fluency, this is some next level stuff. Very lyrical playing, awesome rhythms. Amazed at how much function he's getting out of an ol' Behringer foot controller--very elegant set-up. That's something I could apply to my own project, is simplifying the control. Still haven't figured out an elegant way to control four of my granular loopers. Using a Keith McMillen Softstep with an APC-40 and a midi keyboard (too much gear).
Thanks for sharing the device and the video, I enjoyed that performance.
I had a play with the device for about a half an hour, and was able to get some nice stuff, but was left a little frustrated by some features. What does crop to beat do? What does Auto-Loop do? How does the QUANTIZE button work (i.e. what's it quantized to)? Adding comments to all your UI elements is tedious, but it's pretty important for a user.
It'd be nice to hear how you were using it. What parameters were you controlling in the performance? How were you controlling recording and playback? What feature have you gotten the most mileage out of? I'm working on a M4L looping thing of my own so this is pertinent info for me.
Nice work :)
Hey Evan--thanks for checking it out. You're absolutely right, I need documentation for this asap. I posted it a little prematurely. I'm going to write up documentation this afternoon, and give notes on the performance. Thanks for the heads up!
Alright I have an updated version of the software, with annotations, and much clearer and more organized programming (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByPM2Ng_Ez3FTTE2a3BKaEV4bU0/view?usp=sharing)
Here are notes on the performance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmxx4ueRBI&feature=youtu.be), which explain a lot about the software:
:07 looped, I'll use this loop for the rest of the performance
:32 loop same melody an octave lower, you see it appear on 2nd LED row
:37 reversed 2nd loop
1:00 the reversed 2nd loop is now pitched down in multiple voices
1:12 the 1st loop is frozen. I think the FREEZE parameter is one of the most compelling, because once you have a spot in a loop that you like to hear frozen, you can then play it polyphonically like a sampler
1:25 the introduction of a 3rd loop, timestretched to be much slower. You can see it move across the 3rd LED column.
1:25-1:48 the grain size of the 3rd loop is being constantly changed, so it pulses at different rates. All these rates are related to the metronome, and thus the other loops. Another compelling feature.
1:55 Freezing the 3rd loop and playing it polyphonically in the higher registers
2:24-2:28 A key moment, I play a tonal arpeggio on the piano and record in the 3rd loop bank, but don't play it back yet.
2:37 You can see on the LED strip that I've moved my playback pointer to the center of the 3rd loop bank, right in the middle of the arpeggio loop. For the rest of the song (and to great effect) I'm going to gradually use the Spray parameter to make it so that arpeggio is played as a beautiful grain cloud.
2:57 The epic moment where I play the grain cloud polyphonically (just by playing some low notes on the MIDI keyboard, thus adding a big swell to the sound
3:12 With the Spray parameter at 0%, a frozen grain of audio sounds harsh, like this
3:24 The first loop is sped up, and is racing across my LED-display like a shooting star, while the 2nd loop is running in reverse.
Are all the playback devices grabbing audio from one recording device? Or do you need separate instances of each?
How are you controlling the repitching and timestretching?
"All these rates are related to the metronome" - by metronome do you mean Live's clock, or some other timing feature?
How are you controlling recording and playback? Are you just MIDI mapping controls to the device?
Each playback device (Time Machine) shares a buffer~ with a recording input device (Time Machine Input), and so they work in unique pairs. I work with four Time Machine/Input pairs, they are all identical except for buffer~ names.
In my video, repitching is controlled with a MIDI keyboard, timestretching and grainsize is controlled with a footpedal (Softstep). That's why I have the timestretching/grainsize presets (.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8) as buttons--so I can MIDI Map each one.
Metronome is Live's clock.
I'm using MIDI mapping extensively to control the granulators. I have a Live Set saved in which all my MIDI mappings are saved, so I just open up that set, plug in my MIDI keyboard and SoftStep footpedla, and I'm ready to go.
Ah-ha, all making much more sense now, I might have another mess with this later today.
Also, there aren't too many people named Jaren who use a Softstep, could you be the same Jaren that posted on the KMI forums recently (I am TheOtherSupport over there, so I think it's pretty funny if we have ran into each other over there as well).
Yes!! I literally *just* replied to your message on that forum (thanks again for that advice haha).
Do you work for KM out of Berkeley? I'm over at Cal.
If you mess with this M4L instrument a bit more, I'd be interested to hear your take on how to best incorporate the SoftStep as a controller, my setup is a bit cumbersome now.
Whenever I make patches that are meant to be controlled by specific Hardware, I usually leverage a Control Script and do all of my control setup within the device using the API and don't do MIDI mapping at all. This of course has a few disadvantages, but I like being in total control of how I'm going to interact with the device.
I'd like to know a bit more on the specifics of how you are using the Softstep, or any particular things about how you are controlling it you'd like to change before I give any concrete advice.
Feel free to pm me over at the KMI forums (I don't think we have pms here?).
Hey Evan--I'm going to rethink how I'm controlling the patch with the SoftStep, as I just did a pretty big rework of it, by fully incorporating the karma~ external as the audio record engine. Now I can do some pretty nifty new stuff (overdubbing features galore) that will probably change how I interact with the patch. The patches often crash when they're opened for editing, something I'd like some help fixing. Also there's some latency between the objects (the record quantize feature needs perkin' up) but on the whole it's a pretty badass combo:
Hey Igneous, i need to talk to you about this device please get back to me.