The Granulator Instrument
Granulator is a Max4Live synthesizer based on the principle of quasi-synchronous granular synthesis. It creates a constant stream of short crossfading sections of the source sample, and the pitch, position and volume of each grain can be modulated in many ways to create a great variety of interesting sounds. Granulator also offers two multimode filters in series to further shape the resulting timbre. Granulator is the latest incarnation of a series of granular based synthesizers I wrote for my own usage since the invention of MaxMSP in 1997. [0] Listen to a more complex sound example of Granulator with a singing bowl as sound source embeded in a bit of long reverb.
Download. Use. Modify. And don't sell.A lot of work went into this instrument and its ancestors for several years, work which is visible on the surface but also inside the M4L patch. This instrument is not only not copy protected, I actually like to encourage you to open the patch and figure out what it does from the inside. Playing around with that MAX patch, modify it, explore it. Granulator is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 3.0 licence:
In case you really enjoy the instrument, and you are going to use it for your own artistic works, I would love to get something back from you. Send me your music, send me a book you like, or what ever you think could be inspiring. You'll find my address in the HELP menu of the Granulator.
Feature Overview - Display
Samples can be dragged into the Granulator's waveform display. Mono samples are shown in dark violet, stereo samples are color-coded blue/red for the left/right channel. Grain position can be changed by clicking in the waveform. It is possible to zoom in / out / show all / by using the zoom buttons. It is also possible to zoom in vertically dragging the little number box left of the 'zoom in' button. Granulator displays the total length of a sample in the upper left corner, followed by its current (static) position. While notes are playing, the actual position of each voice is displayed as vertical line(s). The display also shows if hold pedal is active (MIDI CC # 64), the last incoming MIDI note number, and on the right lower corner, the number of currently active voices.
Granulator features a classic ADSR envelope for volume. Attack, decay and release rates can be very slow - up to three minutes. Tuning of each grain is controlled via global tuning parameters including variable key scaling plus a random tuning derivation for each individual grain. Pitch can further be modified by a frequency modulation (FM) oscillator. This allows for subtle to dramatic alteration of the resulting timbres.
Sound examples: [1] Original sample. [2] Static grain with slow envelope, adding random detune, adding left-right spreading of grain size, adding FM modulation.
The length and repetition rate of the grains is defined by their grain frequency ('Grain'). Higher settings produce more and shorter grains per second. Unlike in a sampler, by default the grain is not moving and playing back the same single position within a soundfile. Things start getting interesting, as soon as there is some random variation of this position for each grain ('Spray'), or if the position is modulated via an LFO.
Sound examples: [3] Changing Spray, Grain, and Position while chord is playing.[4] Applying LFO to grain position and playing with LFO parameters.
It is possible to scan thru the file while it is playing. This can be used to create rough timestretch and compression effects, vocoder-like sound or complex movements in combination with additional position modulation via LFO and Spray. Scan speed can be a function of velocity. Sound example: [5] playing several notes with sampler-like one shot playback, rough timestretching, speed controlled via velocity, slight spray and stereo spread.
Granulator offers two multimode filters in series. Each filter can be a lowpass, highpass, bandpass, notch - and a parametric EQ (PEQ). The last one is very interesting when its frequency is controlled via keyboard scaling. Both filters share a common filter envelope of ADSR type, and also with very slow maximum rate for slow changes.
Sound Example: [6] chords played on keyboard, first filter is a lowpass, second one is a PEQ, boosting a resonance in the soundfile, both scaled in order to differently follow note key, both controlled also via the filter envelope Note that all examples here are created with the synthesizer itself - no reverb, no post production, same source file.
The shape of the window or envelope around each individual grain has an important influence on the overall sound. Typically one wants to have an equal power crossfade for smoothest granulation. However, sometimes other window shapes can be of interest. Granulator offers four shapes including a 'broken' shape that consists of a noise waveform and creates - noisy results. Surprise! It is also possible to modulate the volume of each grain with a random signal. For arbitrary reasons, i called this 'Fluxus'. Two kinds of modulation are possible: random muting of grains and random level change.
Sound examples: [7] changing window shape: smooth, fall, rise, noise with longer grains [8] applying Fluxus with shorter grains [9] excessive noise with FM, Spray, LFO driven position modulation and Noiz window shape.
When the additional GranulatorInput device is present in an audio track, one can capture audio from that track as a source for Granulator. A maximum chunk of 16 seconds can constantly be recorded and assigned to Granulator after hitting the Grab button. The audio is only stored in ram. To save it with a live set, it needs to be written to HD using the Write button. The offset parameter defines to which (relative) position of the recording the playback pointer is set when we hit the grab button. A setting of 200ms means, that the grain position is set to a point in time which is 200ms before the recording ends. The length of the recording buffer is defined in the GranulatorInput device. It can be 2,4,8, or 16 seconds. Sound example: [10] Capturing mic input and using it immediately.
Download the Granulator installer here from Ableton: www.ableton.com/granulator
Granulator needs Ableton Live Version 8.2 or higher and the MaxForLive extension for it.
I will most likely not be able to provide help with programming issues. If you intend to modify the instrument, you have to figure out yourself what goes on. However, comments and bug reports are always welcome. Please use max4live_at_monolake.de for this purpose.
Enjoy! Robert Henke