Granulator



What is Granulator ?

Granulator is a real-time, MIDI controllable, granular synthesizer.
Granular synthesizers generate thousands of very short sonic grains to create audio textures.


What are the parameters of Granulator ?

Events section:

  • density: number of grains by time frame
  • duration: duration of the grain

    • For high density and duration values, over one hundred grains can be playing at the same time. Playing over 100 voices simultaneously requires a lot of CPU resources. The CPU load is displayed as a percentage in the title bar of Granulator's window. This value is refreshed every second.

    Oscillator section:
  • pitch: pitch of the grain
  • offset: the starting point of the grain in the waveform
  • waveform: to select a new waveform, double-click on the graphic.


    • Filter section:
  • cutoff: cutoff frequency of the filter
  • resonance: resonance of the filter

    • This is a low pass filter with a 24dB/octave slope.

    Envelope section:
  • attack: the attack time of the envelope
  • release: the release time of the envelope

    • To speed up the calculations, the envelope is trapezoidal. Although it would be nice to have other envelope shapes, this is usually sufficient for granular synthesis. If the attack and release parameters are both set to 0 the envelope has the shape of a pulse. If the attack and release parameters are both set to 127, the envelope has a triangular shape.

    Amplifier section:
  • amplitude: amplitude of the grains
  • pan: position of the grains in the stereo field.


    • Delay section:
  • length: the duration of the delay
  • feedback: the feedback of the delay


    • Moreover, each parameter can also be modulated by a random generator.


    How to use Granulator ?

    Live usage: you can use Granulator in real-time, with the mouse or from a MIDI controller.
    A MIDI control change number can be assigned to every knob.

    Studio usage: you can record Granulator's audio output into a .WAV file with the Record button.
    Then, you can process the .WAV file in any sound editor such as Sound Forge / Wavelab etc..., or import it as an audio track in a sequencer.
    Note that some sound cards such as the SoundBlaster Live also allow you to record the output of the card while its playing.
    You can also use utilies such as AudioMagic.

    Example:   Base sample: voice.wav       Result: granular ghosts.wav


    Download

    The current version number is 1.1. Click here to download Granulator. You just need to unzip the file and the program is ready. Make sure you read the documentation (the Granulator_doc.txt file).