Man With Feathers

Can anyone recommend a good phase vocoder (or granular patch) for scrubbing through audio?

I've been using the max phase vocoder sampler in the examples folder but it needs to read (i.e. play) each sample as far as I can tell, which is causing problems for me.

I've also tried sakonda's wonderful granular patch, which sounds great but the windowing means the scrubbing isn't always "accurate" and you can end up with lots of artefacts.

scrubbing-phase-vocoder

It's for an audio editor i'm building, so it needs to be able to update quickly (as the audio is edited) and allow for really accurate playback of any point in a sample. Different length samples provide different problems for different methods!

the phase vocoder example is pretty darn good at artefact-free scrubbing; I have to admit I'm not 100% clear what you mean by "it needs to read (i.e. play) each sample as far as I can tell, which is causing problems for me". Have you tried Jean Francois Charles' spectral processing tools, or Timo Rozendal's grainstretch~ external? Or my own pitch/time stretcher? I think you will have to hack most of these if you want on-the-fly editing of the source audio, in any case.

https://cycling74.com/tools/grainstretch/

https://cycling74.com/project/granary-a-hybrid-granulation-engine/

Hi
the phase vocoder example is pretty darn good at artefact-free scrubbing; I have to admit I'm not 100% clear what you mean by "it needs to read (i.e. play) each sample as far as I can tell, which is causing problems for me". Have you tried Jean Francois Charles' spectral processing tools, or Timo Rozendal's grainstretch~ external? Or my own pitch/time stretcher? I think you will have to hack most of these if you want on-the-fly editing of the source audio, in any case.

https://cycling74.com/share.html
https://cycling74.com/tools/grainstretch/
https://cycling74.com/project/granary-a-hybrid-granulation-engine/

I will check these out. I basically need something with a 'freeze' mode, so i can scrub through a sample. Some granular options will end up playing artefacts during silent parts of the buffer because - i presume - they are windowing around the point.

When I say "it needs to read (i.e. play) each sample as far as I can tell, which is causing problems for me"" - i mean, unless I'm really using it incorrectly, the patch has to play a sample to itself in real time before you can scrub through it. I'm making an audio editor in Max (i know this sounds convoluted, but its to support a haptic device for visually impaired musicians) and so every time you make an edit, to "scrub" through the edited bit of the waveform it needs to re-read the whole thing.

Thanks for your pointers - I will check them out. Basically I need something with a freeze mode, either granular of phase vocoder based, that lets me scrub through a buffer with aforementioned problems!

I will check these out. I basically need something with a  'freeze' mode, so i can scrub through a sample. Some granular options will end up playing artefacts during silent parts of the buffer because - i presume - they are windowing around the point. 

When I say "it needs to read (i.e. play) each sample as far as I can tell, which is causing problems for me"" - i mean, unless I'm really using it incorrectly, the patch has to play a sample to itself in real time before you can scrub through it. I'm making an audio editor in Max (i know this sounds convoluted, but its to support a haptic device for visually impaired musicians) and so every time you make an edit, to "scrub" through the edited bit of the waveform it needs to re-read the whole thing. 

Thanks for your pointers  - I will check them out. Basically I need something with a freeze mode, either granular of phase vocoder based, that lets me scrub through a buffer with aforementioned problems!

I've just found supervp from IRCAM to be perfect for the job, however it seems to be OS X only and I need cross platform solution - any suggestions?

I've just found supervp from IRCAM to be perfect for the job, however it seems to be OS X only and I need  cross platform solution - any suggestions?

Ah, I have been using the max phase vocoder wrong, it does the job in real time - thanks for your help brendan!

glad you got sorted; what was the problem exactly (in case others find this thread/question)? Did you try Timo's external? It's really very very good ;)

Hey
glad you got sorted; what was the problem exactly (in case others find this thread/question)? Did you try Timo's external? It's really very very good ;)


(ps, I'd still like to hear more about your work with musicians with disabilities; I have considerable experience in this area, and we need to stick together!!, PM me if you like - myFullNameNoSpaces [at] gmx [dot] com)

Scrubbing / phase vocoder