Granular synthesis approaches

This patch combines three Granola voices, a Faust granulator and a very short sound-file loop. The voices converge on a Lowpass, an Airwindows Highpass and a final Gain routed through the interval to audio:/out/main.

Prepare the sounds

The download is a score document, not a sample archive. Relink these saved project-relative files, or substitute your own sounds:

• Data/Techno-1/fx_09.wav: the first, continuously running Granola voice.
• Grand Pianos 06 80 BPM.wav: both the second Granola voice and the sound file feeding Faust.
• Data/Techno-1/sim_bass_23_01.wav: the MIDI-triggered Granola voice.
• Data/Techno-1/rhythm77_bd.wav: the short-loop sound file.

Use a build with Granola, Faust and the Airwindows effects available. Select an audio output and start at a low listening level.

Follow the graph

1. Start playback. Change Position, Duration and Density on the first Granola to hear different regions and grain overlaps.
2. Follow the sample-and-hold LFO into the piano Granola’s Position. Its output passes through kPlate240 before joining the lowpass.
3. Inspect the third Granola: Continuous is disabled. The Jungl Pattern sequencer triggers its MIDI input while a Drift LFO moves Position.
4. Follow the piano sound file into the Faust Granulator. Compare its Grain Size, Speed and Probability controls with Granola’s controls.
5. Inspect rhythm77_bd: its 0.04-second loop and 0.01-second offset provide a simple repeating slice. A Gain of about 0.042 attenuates it before mixing.

The final Gain controls the combined result; individual branches can be muted to compare approaches without the other layers masking them.

Download this example

Try this on web

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