Granular Synthesis is one of the most powerful forms of synthesis out there. Flume's latest mixtape: Hi This is Flume, has massively increased the popularity of Granular Synthesis, where it had little attention before.
In this article, I will discuss what Granular Synthesis is and how to make it to sound like the electronic music wizard, Flume.
Something that took 10 steps in FL takes 2 steps in Ableton. It's so much more simple and intuitive. Just wanted to say thanks to Ableton for creating such an amazing DAW! Quick edit: I appreciate Ableton for simplicity, and I appreciate FL Studio for it's super-user appeal and granular level artistry. After more than a decade of obsession over granular synthesis, Robert Henke aka Monolake releases his signature Granulator for Max for Live. Get the instrument for free here: http://www.ableton.com. Robert Henke has released Granulator II, a free Max for Live synthesizer based on the principle of quasi-synchronous granular synthesis.
Granular Synthesis is the process of breaking down an audio sample down into tiny ~1-100 millisecond pieces, these are what are called 'grains'.
Think of it like video - a series of images, that when played at a certain speed and in the right order, create seamless motion. The grains in an audio sample function in the same way.
What Granulator Synthesis allows you to do is gain control over the audio grains and manipulate them in such a way as to create unique and a legitimately unlimited number of arrangements of the grains.
There are heaps of options for granulator synthesis plugins, my favourite is Quanta by Audio Damage. For those with Ableton's Max For Live, there is also Granulator 2. Other plugins you can use are Padshop & Portal by Output. I haven't used either of those but I have heard good things.
For this post, I'm going to use Quanta, as that is the best plugin from my experience and the one I used to make all the Granulator Synthesis samples you'll find on this website.
It's a fairly straightforward layout. You drag and drop any audio sample (even full length songs) into the top section and from there the main area of focus is the Grains section.
- The grains knob controls how many grains you will be sampling.
- Length controls how long those grains are.
- Tune obviously controls the tune of the grains. I normally leave this as is.
- Position knob controls the playback position of the sample you have imported.
- The big shape knob controls the volume shape of each grain
- And the random knobs alongside each of these control the amount of randomization applied to each.
The randomisation knobs are very useful as they allow you to add diversity to parameters, making them change and not sound like a repetition.
You can also modulate the position to create evolving, more interesting sounds.
I always have the width and level of the grains set all the way to 100% and the level of the oscillator all the way down.
I also normally use anything above 15 grains and more than 100 for the length. Obviously this depends on the sound but it's a good starting point.
I recommend putting slight randomisation on thee grains and length to mix things up a bit, and definitely randomise the position. Randomising the position will give you the most interesting sounds.
That's pretty much it for the basics, you can mess around with those parameters and chuck in different samples for days and still not run out of unique, cool-sounding ideas. To further tweak the sounds you can move into the FEG, FLFO and Matrix tabs.
In the FEG section, you can adjust your ADSR shape and control how the sample loops (if at all).
Inside the Matrix tab, you can assign envelopes and LFOs to modulate parameters and you can further tweak this in the FLFO tab.
If you're interested in Granular Synthesis, I've created a series of sample packs in the style of Flume & Quiet Bison using the techniques above. You can get 500+ samples, which is over 2gb of samples for £3.99 (Save £19.98)
Device Overview
| Name/Version: | Granulator II 2.0 |
| Author: | monolake |
| Description: | Granulator II is a Max4Live synthesizer based on the principle of quasi-synchronous granular synthesis. It creates a constant stream of short crossfading sections of the source sample, and the pitch, position and volume of each grain can be modulated in many ways to create a great variety of interesting sounds. Granulator II also offers two multimode filters in series to further shape the resulting timbre. Granulator II is the latest incarnation of a series of granular based synthesizers I wrote for my own usage since the additon of real time audio processing to Max in 1997. |
Device Details
| Tags | synth, sampler |
| Live Version Used: | 9.0.1 |
| Max Version Used: | 6.1 |
| Date Added: | Mar 11 2013 13:15:06 |
| Date Last Updated: | Not updated yet |
| Device Type: | midi_device |
| Download URL (report link) | http://www.roberthenke.com/technology/granulator.html |
| License (more info): | AttributionNonCommercial |
Comments
| Always completely in awe of anything by you, Herr Henke/Monolake. No idea yet how Granulator 1 works despite some hours tinkering with the circuits. Looking forward to this new one once I can get my head around the new Live/Max updates. |
Posted on March 11 2013 by whiteboxsynthmakers (report) |
| I'm sure that it's a wonderful synth but.. do I already have to upgrade to live 9 for getting new devices?? please give us some breath!! |
| I feel like something is wrong. I always have to use extreme limiter settings, or else granulator will always explode the output. If my limiter isn't on, the signal reads (positive) 'inf' in the mixer and clips to hell. I always get harsh clipped sounds and never any smooth subtle grain clouds. Or anything remotely quiet and gentle for that matter. Am I just using it wrong? Every single preset did this. I turn the output volume all the way down, and my limiter has the lowest possible ceiling. I understand how granular synthesis works in theory. When I'm just looking at the device visually, no audio, I feel pretty comfortable with the controls. I feel like I should be getting nice gentle grain sweeps through my audio file. But instead, I always get these harsh clipped square wave digital sounds. Is something messed up? Was there a max update that broke this device? Or am I just overestimating my understanding of what's going on? I'll say it again, every single preset included in the pack needed a limiter, or else my output becomes positive infinity. |
| DISREGARD MY PREVIOUS COMMENT. RESTART YOUR COMPUTER IF YOU EXPERIENCED WHAT I DESCRIBED ABOVE. okay, dunno what happened. I got so frustrated that I stubbornly opened up the device after a shut down, expecting it to work. Well it did. No more horrible cacophony and no need for a limiter. It behaves exactly as I would expect it to. Another strange difference is that the 'mini-waveform' displayed above the LFO is now working correctly. Before, it seems like it only displayed the first half of the waveform. Eg, if I selected a 'Tri' LFO, it displayed in the viewer like a rising ramp. Now it shows the full waveform. There's likely some initialization/installation bug. If I remember correctly, I think I got an error or warning (in a Max console that popped up) when I first opened the device. TLDR: If experiencing issues upon first loading Granulator II, RESTART. Dunno which did the trick, but try closing and opening Ableton, and if no dice, then your computer. Can't wait to get started, seems like the most featured granular M4L I've come across so far! And IT'S FREE! (I'll make a small donation if I find myself using it often). Thank you Robert for this amazing device! |
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