Need a good, free granular synthesis VST

[jonnytekno]

Hi

I really love the work of Tim Hecker and want to use his sound as inspiration. I know he uses granular synthesis a lot, and I also know he uses Reaktor and Audiomulch. However, I want to play around with granular synthesis a bit before I decide to buy either of these. Does anyone know a good free VST that does this?

This is a good example of his work:

http://www.last.fm/music/Tim+Hecker/_/T ... ?autostart

Cheers in advance

[Kodama]

My .02 - I dunno exactly what effect ur going for, but simpler + clip envelopes manipulating small loops, or sampler configured the right way are my favorite granular synthesis instruments.

[zenke]

audiomulch can be used free for a month or so. why not give that a go . its not a vst though. but i fantastic
z

[thoffir]

that album of th jumped into my top 15:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Radio-Amor- ... 12610.html

[boraxx]

so, just how do you guys achieve granular synthesis with sampler / simpler? by modulating loop points?

[ethios4]

Warping is also a method of granular re-synthesis.

[tylenol]

Probably the most important thing for achieving a tim hecker type effect imo would be skills with a sampler, combined with a great collection of samples (Ableton's Sampler would be a good one for this, cf. Henke's demo video for some granular-type stuff). Also, the built-in grain delay (combined with sampler, or even just an audio track) is a fantastic device, if you like weirdness (ranging from subtle to not) and sample manipulation. I cannot over-emphasize how much you can do with this thing and racks.

It sounds like you're using a pc, but if not, there's some good granular processing in the soundmagic spectral pack. Also, there is still the venerable (but now UB) soundhack for spectral and some granular stuff, and the recent soundhack delay package has some granular stuff. There are a few more granular effects that are popular but that I haven't gotten so much out of myself (KTGranulator). I am fairly certain that there are no free granular synths for the mac, though there may be a few for the pc (try the kvr db).

In general, by the way, the words "granular" or "granular synthesis" don't really have a very precise meaning. They just refer to manipulating grains of sound in some way. I think every granular synth (and there aren't really that many of these) probably has a completely different take on this. There is also a granular "sound" that can be accomplished in many ways, many of them probably not even involving granular techniques per se -- e.g. modulating loop start as you suggest. I have been sometimes able to use FM synthesis to get granular-ish sounds (especially with looping envelopes in operator). I'd personally concentrate more on getting the feel of tim hecker using whatever tools you have on hand, rather than trying to duplicate the techniques.

[Kodama]

I know I've described how to do this in Simpler some where before, but here is a description posted by Angstrom on how to reverse a sample in simpler. Just adjust the clip envelope for different stretching techniques.

Ok, there is a way to do this only using simpler.

1: copy currently playing long clip to new clip and select with loop markers a part I want to reverse

2: Drag that clip to a Simpler 'sample goes here' slot

3: set the simpler to 'loop' and 'snap', set the sample start to 50%

4: make a midi patern on the simpler track with a c3 note 4 bars long (or however long you want it to be)

5: open the envelope window for the sampler midi clip and make a line for sample start that goes from -50% to 50% over the 4 bar period of your simpler clip c3 note, or from 50% to -50% if you want it backwards

6: preview it in headphones and adjust the relevant settings to make it sound more in time

7: if you like it to sound weirder - piss about with the simpler settings .. lots of options.


you can now drop any clip you like into the simpler sample slot and it will reverse at a length of 4 bars. You can make copies of the midi clip to do 1 bar, 2 bar ... whatever.

thats it - a bit long winded but quite quick if you have a simpler set up with a pattern already. It actually sounds as good as the normal 'tones' time stretch algo of Live clips. Basically because it uses a very similar technique - x-fading loops, or 'granular' timestretching.

[SimonPHC]

In general, by the way, the words "granular" or "granular synthesis" don't really have a very precise meaning.

Uhm, in fact it is defined. It is a certain school of synthesis that says that any sound can be described (and therefore synthesized) as a series of sound grains. It was originally Iannis Xenakis who though about using this way of looking at sound to make music. He talked about music not as being discrete notes in a certain Key, but as clouds of sound moving and evolving.

What you are referring to is that there is no clear canon in Granular Synthesis, as there is not yet (or never will be) a go-to machine that make Granular Synthesis a clear hero with the masses (like e.g. the DX-7 did for FM Synthesis or Moog etc for Subtractive Synthesis). Instead there are loads of applications, like Live and Traktor, that are built upon the Granular paradigm. "Elastic Audio" is in fact a form of Granular Synthesis and so is the Grain Delay and so is turning your Sampler into a 'grain' player, using various options.