Editing Granular synthesis

{{Short description|Sound synthesis method involving samples shorter than 0.1 seconds}}
'''Granular synthesis''' is a [[sound synthesis]] method that operates on the microsound [[Time scale (music)|time scale]].

{{Listen
|filename=Horacio_Vaggione_-_Agon_(Excerpt).ogg
|title=Excerpt from Agon – Horacio Vaggione
|description=A piece of music composed with fast and slow granular synthesis.
}}

It is based on the same principle as [[sampling (music)|sampling]]. However, the samples are split into small pieces of around 1 to 100 [[Millisecond|ms]] in duration. These small pieces are called '''grains'''. Multiple grains may be layered on top of each other, and may play at different speeds, [[phase (waves)|phases]], volume, and frequency, among other parameters.

At low speeds of playback, the result is a kind of [[soundscape]], often described as a [[cloud (music)|cloud]], that is manipulated in a manner unlike that of natural sound sampling or other synthesis techniques. At high speeds, the result is heard as a note or notes of a novel [[timbre]]. By varying the [[waveform]], envelope, duration, spatial position, and density of the grains, many different sounds can be produced.

{{Listen
|filename=Granulizer.ogg
|title=Fast granular synthesis demonstration
|description=An example of granular synthesis. Note how the tiny snippets of sound (the grains) are initially distinct, but then blend together, generating a completely new [[timbre]].
}}

Both have been used for musical purposes: as sound effects, raw material for further processing by other synthesis or [[digital signal processing]] effects, or as complete musical works in their own right. Conventional effects that can be achieved include [[amplitude modulation]] and time stretching. More experimentally, stereo or multichannel scattering, random reordering, disintegration and morphing are possible.

== History ==
In 1947, Dennis Gabor introduced the idea that sounds can be represented by a series of elementary "grains," each grain being a short pulse containing both temporal and frequency information. Greek composer Iannis Xenakis is known as the inventor of the granular synthesis technique, having expanded upon Gabor's theoretical foundation.<ref>Xenakis, Iannis (1971) ''Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition''. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.</ref>{{page missing|date=October 2018}}

{{Quote|The composer Iannis Xenakis (1960) was the first to explicate a compositional theory for grains of sound. He began by adopting the following [[lemma (logic)|lemma]]: "All sound, even continuous musical variation, is conceived as an assemblage of a large number of elementary sounds adequately disposed in time. In the attack, body, and decline of a complex sound, thousands of pure sounds appear in a more or less short interval of time <math>\Delta t</math>." Xenakis created granular sounds using analog tone generators and tape splicing. These appear in the composition ''Analogique A-B'' for string orchestra and tape (1959).<ref name="Roads169"/>}}

[[Curtis Roads]] was the first to implement granular synthesis on a computer in 1974. <ref>{{Cite book|last=Roads|first=Curtis|title=Microsound|publisher=MIT Press|year=2001|isbn=0-262-18158-4|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|language=English}}</ref>

Twelve years later, in 1986, the Canadian composer [[Barry Truax]] implemented real-time versions of this synthesis technique using the DMX-1000 Signal Processing Computer.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=3679938|doi=10.2307/3679938|title=Real-Time Granular Synthesis with a Digital Signal Processor|journal=Computer Music Journal|volume=12|issue=2|pages=14–26|year=1988|last1=Truax|first1=Barry}}</ref> "Granular synthesis was implemented in different ways by Truax."<ref name="Roads169" />

== Microsound == 

This includes all [[sound]]s on the [[time scale (music)|time scale]] shorter than [[musical note]]s, the [[sound object]] time scale, and longer than the [[sample (signal)|sample]] time scale.  Specifically, this is shorter than one tenth of a [[second]] and longer than 10 [[millisecond]]s, which includes part of the audio [[frequency]] range (20{{nbsp}}Hz to 20{{nbsp}}kHz) as well as part of the [[infrasonic]] frequency range (below 20{{nbsp}}Hz, [[rhythm]]).<ref name="Roads">[[Curtis Roads|Roads, Curtis]] (2001). ''Microsound'', p.{{nbsp}}vii and 20-28. Cambridge: [[MIT Press]]. {{ISBN|0-262-18215-7}}.</ref>

These sounds include transient audio phenomena and are known in [[acoustics]] and [[signal processing]] by various names including sound particles, [[quantum acoustics]], [[sonal atom]], grain, glisson, grainlet, trainlet, [[microarc]], [[wavelet]], [[chirplet]], ''fof'', [[time-frequency atom]], pulsar, impulse, [[toneburst]], tone pip, [[acoustic pixel]], and others. In the frequency domain they may be named kernel, logon, and frame, among others.<ref name="Roads"/>

Physicist [[Dennis Gabor]] was an important pioneer in microsound.<ref name="Roads"/> [[Micromontage]] is musical montage with microsound.

'''Microtime''' is the level of "sonic" or aural "[[syntax]]" or the "time-varying distribution of...[[timbre|spectral]] energy".<ref>[[Horacio Vaggione]], "Articulating Microtime", ''Computer Music Journal'', Vol.{{nbsp}}20, No.{{nbsp}}2. (Summer,{{nbsp}}1996), pp.{{nbsp}}33–38.{{Page needed|date=June 2015}}<!--specific page needed--this quotation cannot possibly be spread over all six pages of the article.--></ref>

== Related software ==
* [[Csound]] – comprehensive music software including granular synthesis ([http://www.csounds.com/manual/html/SiggenGranular.html overview] of granular synthesis opcodes)
* [[Max/MSP]] – graphical authoring software for real-time audio and video
* [[Pure Data]] (Pd) – graphical programming language for real-time audio and video
* [[SuperCollider]] – programming language for real time audio synthesis
* [[ChucK]] - strongly-timed computer music programming language
* [[EmissionControl2]] - granular sound synthesizer<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.curtisroads.net/software/ | title=Software }}</ref>

== Related hardware ==

* Mutable Instruments Clouds – a digital, open source [[eurorack]] synthesizer module which has four factory set modes, the first and default being a granular processor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Understanding Clouds and Its Derivatives |url=https://afterlateraudio.com/blogs/news/understanding-clouds-and-its-derivatives |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=After Later Audio |date=21 August 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
* Make Noise Morphagene – a eurorack synthesizer module built around microsound, or granular synthesis, in addition to [[Musique concrète|Musique Concrète]]-inspired sound on sound audio manipulation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Morphagene |url=https://signalflux.org/guides/morphagene |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=Signal Flux |date=6 July 2019 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Make Noise Co. {{!}} Morphagene |url=https://www.makenoisemusic.com/modules/morphagene |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=www.makenoisemusic.com}}</ref>
* Tasty Chips GR-1 - polyphonic granular synthesizer capable of 128 grains per voice, which can add up to a total of 1000+ grains simultaneously.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tasty Chips GR-1 |url=https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tasty-chips-gr-1 |website=Sound on Sound}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Digital signal processing]]
* [[Micromontage]] audio montage on the time scale of microsounds
* [[Texture synthesis]], analogous process for images

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="Roads169">{{cite book
 | last = Roads
 | first = Curtis
 | year = 1996
 | title = The Computer Music Tutorial
 | publisher = The MIT Press
 | location = Cambridge
 | isbn = 0-262-18158-4|page=169
}}
</ref>
}}

==Bibliography==
=== Articles ===
* [https://www.erickuehnl.com/granular-synthesis/ "Granular Synthesis"] by Eric Kuehnl
* [http://artesonoro.net/articulos/The%20development%20of%20GiST.pdf "The development of GiST, a Granular. Synthesis Toolkit Based on an Extension of the FOF Generator"] by Gerhard Eckel and [[Manuel Rocha Iturbide]]
* [http://www.artesonoro.net/tesisgran/portadagran.html Searching for a global synthesis technique through a quantum conception of sound] by Manuel Rocha Iturbide
* [http://granularsynthesis.com/books.php Further articles on Granular Synthesis]
* Bencina, R. (2006) "Implementing Real-Time Granular Synthesis", in Greenbaum & Barzel (eds.), Audio Anecdotes III, {{ISBN|1-56881-215-9}}, A.K. Peters, Natick. [http://www.rossbencina.com/static/code/granular-synthesis/BencinaAudioAnecdotes310801.pdf online pdf]

=== Books ===
* {{cite book
 | last = Miranda
 | first = E. R.
 | year = 2002
 | title = Computer Sound Design: Synthesis Techniques and Programming
 | publisher = Focal Press
 | location = Oxford
 | isbn = 0-240-51693-1
}}
*{{cite book
 | last = Roads
 | first = Curtis
 | year = 2001
 | title = Microsound
 | publisher = MIT Press
 | location = Cambridge
 | isbn = 0-262-18215-7
}}
* {{cite book
 | last = Wilson
 | first = Scott
 | year = 2011
 | title = The SuperCollider Book
 | publisher = The MIT Press
 | location = Cambridge
 | isbn =  978-0-262-23269-2
}}
* {{cite web
 |url=http://www.artesonoro.net/tesisgran/indicegran.html
 |title=Doctoral Thesis: Les techniques granulaires dans la synthèse sonore
 |last=Iturbide
 |first=Manuel Rocha
 |date=1999
 |website= ArteSonoro.net
 |publisher=University of Paris VIII
 |access-date= }}

==Discography==
*Curtis Roads (2004). CD with ''Microsounds''. MIT Press. {{ISBN|0-262-18215-7}}. Contains excerpts of ''nscor'' and ''Field'' (1981). {{Discogs release|name=Microsounds|id=1586934}}.
**''nscor'' (1980), {{Discogs master|name=New Computer Music (1987) Wergo 2010–50|830696}}
*Iannis Xenakis. Analogique A-B (1959), on {{Discogs release|name=Alpha & Omega|id=5250163}} and {{Discogs release|name=Music For Strings |id=1170567}}
*Truax, Barry (1987). Digital Soundscapes {{Discogs release|name=Digital Soundscapes|id=267776}}

== External links ==
* [http://granularsynthesis.com Granular Synthesis] Resource Web Site

{{Sound synthesis types}}

[[Category:Sound synthesis types]]