(sonicArts) using the granulator in cecilia4

A quick run-down of the Granulator module in Cecilia4.

The Granulator module performs time expansion/compression and pitch shifting, but unlike the FilterWarper, the Granulator does not focus on a smooth and transparant output. The output features more amplitude fluctuation and some degree of irregularity in the procession of grains in time. You can also create more radical manipulations of sound using this processor.

The basic features are:

• Duration (set in the output section)
• Transpose
• Grain position (same as the Index in the FilterWarper)
• Grain Duration (length of the grain, which can change over time)
• Position Random (a random amount applied to the grain position obtained by the Grain Position function)
• Pitch Random (a random amount applied to the current transposition factor obtained by the transpose function)
• # of grains (the number of overlapping grains)

If you want to get really short, microsound type gestures, set a very short Grain Duration amount and reduce the # of Grains to 1. Experiment and listen as you set values. Grain values that are too short will give a buzzy sound that is independent of the soundfile. Figure out the shortest grain you can have and still hear it as coming from the soundfile.

Keep in mind that the more overlaps you have, the longer you will want your grain duration to be. Short grain durations combined with a high number of overlaps will create a filtered buzz due to the short delay times between sample onsets.

Explore the stochastic and waveform generators in the top right of the interface window. Some parameters will do better with very limited ranges of randomness (like transposition). Other parameters (like amplitude) require more drastic changes to be heard.

The Position Random parameter is most useful when applied to soundfiles with recognizable speech or ordered musical gestures. Smaller amounts of position randomness will create blurred attacks and releases. Larger amounts of randomness will entirely jumble the original order of the soundfile. With speech, large amounts of randomness creates jibberish. You can experiment with larger grain durations while applying random position amounts to get shuffled musical gestures.