Granular Synthesis

You can use granular synthesis to extract interesting spectra from all kinds of samples, to create sound effects by completely scrambling a sample, or to perform low-fidelity time stretching, for example.

In granular synthesis, it is not an entire sample that is played back, but only short portions of the sample, the so-called grains. These grains can be played back in any order. Each time a grain ends, a new one starts. To avoid discontinuities in the playback and to minimize artifacts, envelopes are applied to the grains. Very short grains produce sounds with an individual pitch. This means that you can also extract pitched spectra from samples without a distinct pitch, such as drum loops or sound effects. Sounds with longer grains usually play back with the pitch of the original sample.

If you repeatedly play back the same portion of a sample, the sound may become too static. To compensate for this and bring more liveliness into the sound, you can use the Random, Spread, and Offset parameters. By adding more grain streams, you can increase the grain and sound density to produce a richer sound.