Aged Grain
Variable granular synthesis with up to 8 audio samples.
A project by Daniel Brenner, Tobias Frey, Lennart Kamlott and Yannic Bechtold, 3rd semester, 2021
Supervising lecturers: Prof. Dr Kyrill Fischer and Prof. Thorsten Greiner
Alter Grain offers a completely new approach to granular synthesis, whether you’re performing live or in the studio.
Conventional granular synthesizers often feature a multitude of complex parameters, but these almost always relate to one and the same sample. So why not tackle the problem at its root?
Alter Grain enables granular synthesis using up to 8 samples, which you can sweep in real time using our custom-built fader potentiometer. This allows for direct, radical changes in timbre, similar to blending waveforms in wavetable synthesis.
Granular synthesis cuts individual segments (grains) from an audio sample and then reassembles them to form a complete sound. In this process, the starting point of the sample (Grain Start), the length of the segments (Grain Size) and the density of the segments (Grains/s) are key factors in determining the sound.
The Alter Grain prototype runs on Max/MSP and must therefore be connected to a computer via USB. The aim of further development is to enable standalone operation.
Each sample can be individually enabled or disabled for synthesis using toggle switches. We have built a fader potentiometer to sweep through the samples. The fader controls the sweep or the mix between the samples, whilst the potentiometer on the fader controls the grain start, allowing you to react immediately to the next sample.
The standard parameters of granular synthesis (Grain Size, Grains/s, Randomise Start, Master Volume & Pitch) have their own knobs, and you can choose from 6 grain-volume envelope presets.
The Doomsday switch cycles through the samples one by one for each grain. The resulting sounds resemble sequencer-style rhythms.
