Creating Sounds Using Short Grains

Very short grains produce sounds with an individual pitch. For that reason, you can also use samples without a distinct pitch, such as drum loops and sound effects, to extract pitched sounds from them.

Procedure

  1. Select the “Pure Sine” sample from the “Padshop/02 Waveforms” folder.

    This loads a perfect sine wave.

  2. Play a note.

    You hear a single stream of grains.

  3. Set Duration to 1.

    The grain duration determines the pitch of the sound. With a Duration setting of 1 and Duration Key Follow at +100 %, the sound plays back at the pitch that you play on the keyboard. If you set Duration to 2, the pitch drops by one octave, because the grain duration is twice as long. The longer the grain duration, the more the pitch of the sound is determined by the pitch of the original sample.

  4. Adjust the Shape parameter while you play, to hear the amplitude modulation.

    The shape of the grains determines the amplitude of the portion of the sample that is played back within the grain. This is similar to amplitude modulation, where one signal (the modulator) determines the amplitude of another signal (the carrier). In this case, the sample is the carrier and the grain is the modulator. Amplitude modulation adds sidebands to each sinusoidal component of the carrier signal. Therefore, the more complex the sample is, the more sidebands you hear.

  5. Play a note and increase the Formant parameter.

    A formant is a group of frequencies in the spectrum that is emphasized. When you increase the parameter, you hear that a formant in the spectrum moves up. The pitch of the sound does not change, because the grain duration is not modified. If you take a look at the waveform display, you see that the higher the Formant setting, the longer the portion of the sample that is played back within the grain.

  6. Play a note, and decrease the Length parameter.

    The Length parameter has an effect similar to the Formant parameter. By decreasing the length, the grain is shortened, but the period at which the grains repeat stays the same. Therefore, only the spectrum of the sound changes, but not its pitch.

  7. Open the modulation matrix, select Grain Formant or Grain Length as modulation destinations, and set the modulation source to Filter Envelope or LFO 1/2, for example.

    This adds more liveliness to the sound.

  8. Adjust the modulation depth, and listen to the result.
  9. Try out your settings with a more complex sample.
  10. Click the waveform to change the position of the grain playback. The spectrum changes accordingly.
  11. Adjust the filter, envelope, and effect settings to your liking, and save your sound as a preset.
    Tip

    The “Formantor” preset from the factory library is a good example for a pad sound created using short grains.