Granular Synthesis | Explanation & Tutorial

I try to figure out all the things that granular synths can do with the help of the granular synth daddy himself, Barry Truax.
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0:00 Intro
2:05 Time Stretching
5:09 Barry Truax's Granular Synth
7:49 What Is Granular Synthesis Actually
12:25 Outro
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SOURCES:
Roads, Curtis. Microsound, MIT PRESS. 2001
Time Stretching Audio www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/6/2/57...
Interview with Barry Truax, July 2021
GSX. www.sfu.ca/~truax/pod.html

[@SoundsGoodChannel]

Everything you need to know to make great songs on your computer is waiting for you at Sarah School! Take sliding scale one-on-one music lessons with me :) sarah-feldman.com/sarahschool

[@Neumah]

Someone was called Fartgoon in the end credits. As the adult that I am I just had to point that out. Fartgoon was their name.

[@NovemberXXVII]

If Barry Truax is the big daddy of granular synthesis, would that make him the...Gran Dad?

[@fuglbird]

European groups were experimenting with cutting and re-pasting audio signals using the Tempophon and the Mellotron long time before 1986 (since 1960). It's funny that Barry Truax is accredited the honour exactly the year that production of the Mellotron ceased. I even did it on my Commodore Amiga in 1985! But we didn't call it granular synthesis then. The Greek composer Iannis Xenakis even published his Analogique B before that in 1959. I guess Barry Truax was the first English speaking classical composer using the technique? Typical.

[@Francisco12G]

@@fuglbird Pierre Schaeffer and Trevor Wishart also come to mind

[@TurdInternational]

@@fuglbird Maybe you need to improve your english comprehension skills. Truax is credited with the first _real-time_ granular synthesis implementation. Cutting and pasting tape together isn't exactly real time. Neither is it all that relevant to how a modern granular soft-synth works, whereas Truax's features most of the base components.

[@sensorycircuits1338]

@@fuglbird It seems safe to assume that there has probably been a branch of mathematics focused on the combinatorics of discrete units, or ranges of units for quite some time now.

[@aichuktripura3368]

❤❤o7😊​@@Francisco12G

[@jesusquintero7010]

This video is so educational, nuanced and informative. Thanks, Sarah. I would go to university if this was the class.

[@SoundsGoodChannel]

Thanks Jesus!! Hope you're doing well :)

[@Antweezy]

I've never seen such a funny and informative video about granular synthesis. good work!

[@LuisPerez-eo9mt]

Thank you !!! Love your energy✨

[@cousinclub01]

A whole new way to think about sound- how awesome. Thank you for the videos!

[@volfboy.listen]

this was a wonderful introduction to granular synthesis!

[@hoperanker8395]

This is amazing. Good info, and adore the sense of humor!

[@davidminnix]

The recipe blog thing got me. Lol. I am dying. Great video!

[@donaldstewart6538]

It's important to note that Xenakis is widely regarded as the "inventor" of granular synthesis and that granular synthesis programs such as "Papova" were written dating from the 1970's. Nice interview with Barry Truax.

[@calebcrittenden]

I think Curtis Rhodes should be the true inventor

[@DEADLINETV]

Very well made, informative and fun video! Thanks!

[@nymsuque_musique]

Very useful. Thank you so much!

[@blossommerz]

Just signed up for the Curiosity Stream bundle. Thanks for the discount code!

[@PeachBeach]

So so so so helpful - thank you!!!

[@robingawn1012]

amazing example with the gravel road. Subbed!

[@HAZARDOUS88]

Great video, thanks!!

[@thelaboratoryofspacerecord5239]

Delightful, thank you.

[@DavidArangoValencia]

Really awesome explanation and video, i can't live without granulation:)

[@drey4529]

i already thought of granulation as a sort of texture, but the comparison to walking on gravel or waves crashing helps me understand it much more intuitively. i think it’s a great way to describe it

[@akshaydalal3176]

Awesome Video!

[@pymgore]

awesome video!

[@DeepGreen]

Fantastic! Thanks for the tip about Spear. My new favourite toy.

[@airpopcrack]

this video is insane good... thank u v much!

[@yzhk3036]

Great vid! Granular synthesis is v cool

[@AnyOldMusic]

Chunkular synthesis.

[@sarahsmith8924]

Uh oh this is gonna be lit

[@bumbervevo2813]

this was a great watch! the way the video was constructed was really educational without being super overwhelming, especially for someone who knows nothing about granular synthesis (like me!)

[@divorcecourtt]

this is so great.

[@dimabocionov7428]

Huge thank u!

[@PirateHeartMusic]

sarah lo mejor ❤

[@brannannew]

What is that piece of software that you're using to recreate the GSX sounds after 6:10, and where can I find it? Thank you! :)

[@TheOfficalAndI]

The Soundmagic Spectral sound demo sounds are pretty amazing :O Too bad there isn't a windows version out there :c

[@modeswitching]

This video inspired me to check out the grain synthesis engine in Pigments, and it’s pretty cool! A fun way to introduce some probabilistic elements into sound design.

[@fixed1t]

Hi great video, what is the apparent Mac os9 Riverrun App at 6:13? is it a version of MacPod or something? I've tried search for it but can't find that image anywhere or the old mac app. Thx Malcolm aka @fixed1t

[@6ch6ris6]

are there any examples of granular synthesis being used for music in games to make the music more responsive to gameplay?

[@dude837]

This video slaps

[@sensorycircuits1338]

Today's compute power makes additive and granular synthesis some of the most promising methods today. .

[@Beatsbasteln]

I would like to suggest to differentiate between granular plugins and spectral plugins. spectral plugins also break sound down into chunks, but instead of rearranging those chunks they are only there to linearly crossfade each other while applying fourier transformations and the actual fun happens in this frequency domain. that's why they often sounds fancier than normal granular synthesis. spectral effects are sort of an extension to the whole concept, but far enough from it to be its own thing

[@musiquesynthetique816]

Wonderful video Sarah, thank you! Do you know if the Riverrun application at 6.15 is publicly available?

[@fixed1t]

Hi I see you asked the same question 4 weeks ago, I haven't been able to find it hopefully Sarah will reply

[@edbrito-swdev]

This is a really cool video on granular synthesis. Too bad you've stopped doing videos like this 😢

[@hinduspl]

4:20 can you explain how you made that effect like digital distortion inside spear? Or perhaps there is some alternative for windows users? I'm looking for effect like that for long time. All the best for you

[@lastdays9163]

Gurl yes. This!

[@jantuitman]

Wow, I always think that I should buy expensive new gear to do hardware granular synthesis but your video makes me realize I already own 2 sample playing devices that can loop really short sound fragments and that nothing is in the way to try and experiment and see if I can use that to make a new timbre.

[@modeswitching]

It’s true, even the stock sampler in Ableton can do granular-esque in Slice mode

[@MeAndSomeRandoms]

The part "The same could be said about WAVES crashing against the shore ..." into "...made up of points rather than WAVES..." amuses me :) So the sound of waves is not made up of waves, but of points :D Nice video/explanation btw!

[@malice__doll]

11:04

[@xCodyF]

Honestly cracked up watching this. Hilarious and informative!! So valid!

[@deadlinkofficialartst5592]

well i use a lot of Subtractive synthesis for my dubstep growl bass

[@HowievYT]

Big Bird for the win!

[@ShankhoneilChoudhury]

What's the software name you are using for pulsing and averaging?

[@f.botello]

i’ve always thought of granular as horizontal (time based) and spectral as vertical (frequency based) wonder if that makes sense

[@SoundsGoodChannel]

yep more or less! of course time and frequency are really both time (one is faster time and one is slower time), but it's a useful way of thinking about it in lots of contexts i think.

[@f.botello]

@@SoundsGoodChannel time and time again lol

[@docsunset]

As Kevin Austin said: 'As Le Caine said, “It’s all amplitude."'

[@SnottyCock]

The little thumbs up icon that says I like this video is so inadequate.

[@errortonin]

since its a synth its good to talk about the basic fundementals of all the other types of synthesis, to compare them, that way you can kinda see how its just using organic clips as an oscillator, instead of electrical sparks cliped with filters, the smaller the sound is, the closer it is to standard osculator just from the way it sounds and how expressive it is, Granular synthesis is my favorite form of synthesis, i like taking samples i get from field recordings of birds and cicadas frogs and bugs, to get textures, you can take a small samples of a jazz guitar or instrument or voice, reverse the tone, and then put it into the synth, there are so many possibilities, my only reason for writers block is too many possibilities, as far as i know all grain synths are digilital so they make the Best digital vst synths since its not analog emulation, your vst would work just the same except different as a hardware grainsynth since they are both digital, but sometimes digital delays (Vesta Kaza) DIG-411 are digital but there is something inside of them that make them really strong sounding, duel CEM3360 Dual Analog VCAs i think is what makes them so strong, but i have no idea what they are. i think its a chip, but then if the deley is digital, than is the thing that makes it self oscillate analog or is the volume or preamp analog? if a deley can self osculate than does that also make deley effects technically a form of synthesis? also alot of people don't talk about Distortion synthesis that is modeled based on geometric equations to physically model it, and the modeling can be randomized, sometimes reverbe is physically modeled but also this modeling is randomized, so you can save settings when you find one you like. there are not enough pragmatic videos about each and every kind of synthesis, and not enough Music intellectuals like you. ill study as hard as i can the basics of things like compressors or limitors, and this helps me use them better but i always forget whats really going on and just go by feeling to make something that sounds good. one of my problems with life is that i'm ocd about masterchains, do you have to have a limiter at end of master chain? some people put over sampling on all individual tracks, that way you don't Have to upsample, and you don't have to export above 48-24 i can't bring myself to go lower than 96-24 but when i first started i would always export at 192-24, and i can hear a difference between 24 and 36, either in abelton or izotope and this is both with 96 and 192 that i hear a difference, when you make your own music its difficult to be not an ant fucker. to me jazz is self expression, so experimental music is acheiving the same goals of jazz, but it expresses the internal subconscious music, that preceeds normal conversation and communication, the definition of virtuoso is communication, so jazz artists communicate and express them selves, and blues is a type of jazz, so alot of the time its expression of a conversation someone had on the streets, but not everything in life can be expressed with just words, or some sounds, thoughts or textures are deeper than words. i also like newwave that is obscure. and vintage analog drum machines are underrated because most metrognomes don't even swing. Grain synths are inspiration, comic books and magazines are created with tiny dots, so you can use microscope to take pictures and rearrange this into modern art. i'm photographer and always see direct parallels between the arts, such as composition, asymmetry, complexity, simplicity, leading lines (melodies) i just got Curtis Roads Computer Music Tutorial, and plan on getting his other books. I'm literally almostabout to get Microsound as soon as i can afford it, or all 3 of his books. there are not enough books about how to create your own vsts. the information required is spread out everywhere. i got a certificate in 4 coding langauges last year, and am still at loss, or havn't made any true progress, i am starting to doubt that it is possible to create vsts by yourself and herd its 3 times more difficult than to learn russian. but even if i fail i will know more about vsts and the way they work. or appreciate them. some coders wont even release their source code because they are afraid of their ideas being stolen. but there is already a crisis in the education of it. even jazz education is in danger. this past decade Django Rienhardt and gypsy jazz have become more popular because the internet helps but so much is in shambles, and so many people are into it without understanding the culture, or being aware of oppresion, whats worse is that alot of the gypsy culture is conservative, i am not sure if they mean musical conservative or politics, but i said before that all grainsynths are digital, thats only the basis, i think you can still have analog filters and so on.

[@daveshindig149]

From one white dude to another, thanks for the explanation.

[@fuglbird]

Dennis Gabor described the quantum principle of sound in 1947. The Tempophon was released in Germany 1960 playing small snippets of audio allowing pitch changing and time stretching. Not 1986 but 1960! The English speaking communities never realised that and "reinvented" the principle in 1986.

[@wiegraf9009]

You found the best white dude to explain granular synthesis 👍

[@BurkhardusX]

This guy really knows his shit!

[@rillloudmother]

wait what? you're not a boomer. you might be a millennial, but you're def not gen X...

[@audemar1643]

bro you are hilarious 😭

[@stpedro-ht9ng]

Under 5k subs but getting sponsorships? is that really all it takes?

[@modeswitching]

Hey, when your content is quality…

[@jessihawkins9116]

u trans bruh? 🤨

[@ArturoHernandez-wz5md]

you have 5 comments on this channel asking the same shit chill out ☠️☠️