[A version of this text appeared in Next Music magazine issue #4, Jan/Feb 2000]
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GRANULAR
AUDIO SOFTWARE In this age of ubiquitous advertisements for websites, it's strange to think that just a few years ago the Internet was dominated by academic institutions. One very active area of academic Internet discussion has been research into new synthesis techniques. Fortunately for us, these researchers and their projects haven't yet succumbed to the new net god Mammon, but a bit of digging around to find them is now often necessary. This research used to belong to a genre of academic music called computer music, but now that it seems that just about everyone is making music with computers, the distinction has become blurred. Today's desktop computer is more powerful than most academic electronic music labs were a decade ago. Many cutting-edge popular electronic music producers (Aphex Twin and Autechre, to name just two) are using some of the software mentioned in this article. New synthesis techniques usually trickle down into mainstream applications. So, If you're looking to keep ahead of the latest developments, or you're just after some warped new sounds, check out the web sites below. They contain lots of software that you can download now, free, thanks to researchers who are more interested in advancing electronic music than making a buck. A lot of the programs out there are a bit dated now, their functions absorbed into newer programs, so we've selected just a few of the best that are available from the net. Many of the programs mentioned here use a technique called granular synthesis, which came to prominence in computer music in the 1980's. Basically it's a method of creating sounds from up to thousands of short sonic grains, which combine to form larger sounds. The individual grains can be defined with various parameters, such as timing, pitch and envelope, and it's the way in which they are combined that determines the overall sound. Samples can be turned into granular sounds by chopping them up and then replaying the bits according to the granular paramaters. The results can vary from an ambient cloud of sound, to chaotic rhythms. An interesting effect is the blurring of distinctions between pitch, rhythm, timbre, etc. which has some interesting philosophical implications for music. While granular synthesis has been around for a while, it's only recently that desktop computers have become powerful enough to process complex granular sounds in real-time. The immediate feedback makes it much more attractive to experiment with, as well as meaning that it can be played live. Just as we've come to know and love subtractive, additive and FM synthesis, granular synthesis will eventually become just another familiar technique. WEBSITES: Argeiphontes
Lyre A protégé of Tom Erbe at CalArts, everything Akira Rabelais does has a highly developed aesthetic sensibility. As well as writing software, Akira is an accomplished composer and web designer. Argeiphontes Lyre is used by Terre Thaemlitz and Scanner, among others. Its features include: Dynamic FM Synthesis - a variation on the well known synthesis method. Evisceration Reanimation - a digital sound file blender that can chop up to 2000 Sound Designer II files and turn them into a new file. Time Domain Mutation - uses morphological functions to produce different types of timbral "cross-fades". Each mutation takes 2 soundfiles: a source and a target, and returns a third soundfile, called the mutant. Morphological Disintegration - a strange filter based on Akira's interpretation of the concept of morphological mutation. Verwechslung Kaffeetasse - uses Ring Modulation and Fibonacci ratios to distort the persistent patterns of multiplied files. Argeiphontes Lyre also has several file utilities to turn your computer into a work of art. 'Rename' is great fun - it automatically renames all files in selected folders. There are over twelve thousand names in twenty categories, including: Airports, Constellations, Diseases, Finnegan's Wake, Herbs, Logodaedalian, and Revelations (Latin). Audiomulch Who'd have thought that one of the most exciting and enjoyable pieces of music software available for PC comes from Adelaide, Australia? Ross Bencina has been programming innovative music software for Mac and PC for several years, and Audiomulch is his latest project. It has become so hip that there was even a workshop on it at the recent Electrofringe Festival in Newcastle. Audiomulch deliberately bridges the gap between popular and experimental music software. It's the missing link between Rebirth and MAX. Its aim is to work as a live instrument, as well as a sound design tool. The program uses modular elements, or 'contraptions' to create instruments. The complexity of instruments is limited only by processing power. There are many contraptions, but here are a few: Signal Generators, including a drum machine, bassline synthesizer, additive synthesizer, stored sample granulator, loop player, Shepard / Risset tone generator. Effects, such as flanger, phaser, delay line granulator, ring / amplitude modulation, stereo delays, dynamic stereo spatialiser, waveshaper / distortion , digital grunge inducer, pulsar comb filter. Granular synthesis is implemented brilliantly in several forms, with adjustable modulation of numerous parameters. Much more, such as Filters, support for VST plugins, and comprehensive MIDI implementation is included. If you make music on a PC, you should definitely get this software. The registration is only fifty bucks, so support local talent! Chaosynth
Nyrsound is a new English software company, with the motto 'music should be about art, not fashion'. Chaosynth is their first release. It's a software synthesizer that uses granular synthesis and cellular automata to create new sounds. You can save sounds as discrete files, or play them live via MIDI, although there seemed to be quite a bit of latency with more complex sounds. Cellular Automata is an interesting technique - based on artificial life research. It consists of a group of cells that evolve over time following a pre-defined rule. At each time segment, every cell changes its state depending on the conditions of its neighbours. What this
means is that sounds 'evolve' over time in a complex way. This program
is useful for creating new digital textures, but I found that its digital
artifacts are a bit samey. The theory is a bit better than the practice
at this stage, but it's still early days - it's a program worth keeping
an eye on. Csound When people talk about computer music, they usually mean Csound or MAX (see below). Csound is a computer language for creating music. Instruments consist of an orchestra (the sound) and a score (how the sound is played) which is actually a rather traditional paradigm, but the result is limited only by your imagination and coding skill. Because not everyone is a coder, there are several 'front-ends' or graphical user interfaces available, includimg Visorc (http://cornelius.dhs.org/visorc/) and WCShell for PC (http://www.axnet.it/contempo/italiano/contemporanea/news/virtuale.html) and Cecilia (http://www.musique.umontreal.ca/Org/CompoElectro/CEC/) for Mac, Irix and Linux. Csound is very well established and has a busy and helpful email list (see below).
Grainwave is a real-time softsynth that can be controlled by MIDI. It has an open modular architecture, using units called 'operators' which can either generate or transform signals. Any operator can be used as the input to any other operator. Grainwave doesn't have it's own sequencer, but can be sequenced by other MIDI applications. It includes a mathematical file editor for complex sound modulation, and so appeals to the many math-heads who are into computer music. Granulab GranuLab, or 'Granny' is a real-time granular synthesis program for Windows 95. It can manipulate existing sound files, or generate sine waves to be manipulated. Features MIDI control, real-time modulation of time-stretching and pitch shifting. and randomisation of most parameters. There is also a window where up to four patches can be selected and gestural morphing between patches can be done in real-time via your mouse. This program does just one thing - granular synthesis - but it does it very well. There is a new version called GranuLab 8 (which can process up to eight different sound files simultaneously) which is currently only available to registered users, but will eventually become freeware. Max/MSP Max is one of the most established computer music programs. Named after computer music pioneer Max Mathews, it's an extremely flexible and powerful modular environment for manipulating MIDI data. Users can write their own modules, or use some of the many modules created by other users - see, for example Nato.0+55 (http://eusocial.com) an audiovisual sampler that can generate 3d graphics using internet data. MAX was originally freeware but is now released commercially by Cycling 74. Many resources for the program, such as objects and externals, are available free on the net. A free Linux and SGI version, called jMAX is available from IRCAM under GNU general public licence. Unfortunately the commercial release of MAX uses an annoying floppy disk copy protection scheme. MSP takes MAX's concept and applies it to audio rather than MIDI data. MAX and MSP can run together or separately. Like MAX, MSP has also become a commercial product, although a limited version is available from Cycling '74 for free download. PD/GEM PD stands for Pure Data, and also for Public Domain. It was created by Miller Puckette, after whom MSP is named. While MSP is a commercial program, Miller is dedicated to pushing the conceptually similar PD in experimental directions, unhindered by any commercial concerns. The learning curve for this program is steep, and as yet it doesn't have anywhere near the amount of support as MAX/MSP, but at least it's free! Reading Miller Puckette's academic articles about the program, there's clearly plenty of unusual things it can do. PD also has a sibling - a visual generator called GEM, allowing complex interactions between sound and image, but you'll need to be a bit of a propellorhead to get the most out of it. Phonogramme The PC version is called Phonogramme Svelte. Basically it takes a bitmapped image and turns it into a soundfile. Applying this to a 'normal' picture usually results in harsh noise, but painting pictures with sparse patterns can create interesting new sounds. The Mac version has many more options, including MIDI, for controlling the output of the program. Be warned that the website, program and documentation are all in French. Another interesting image synthesis program is Coagula (http://hem.passagen.se/rasmuse/Coagula.htm) by Rasmus Ekman, who also made Granulab. Soundhack
It's getting a bit long in the tooth now, but throughout the 90's Soundhack has been regarded as one of the coolest pieces of audio software around. It was created by CalArts computer music guru Tom Erbe. Although it's shareware, all you have to do to register is send Tom some of your music. Much of Soundhack's processing power is based on a fast fourier transform technique, called phase vocoding, which can result in unusual types of time stretching and pitch shifting. The program can perform many other esoteric transformations, such as spectral mutation and soundfile convolution, as well as binaural filtering, for 3D sound from stereo speakers. It also reads and writes just about any file format, making it a very handy utility. Thonk
0+2 This little app uses Granular Synthesis to process sound files. They boast that you have 'no control whatsoever' over the process, and that you 'don't have to think at all'. Typically the program takes a small sound file and turns it into a long, complex, evolving sound. Because the results are different every time, Thonk can be used as a simple source for new sounds, or perhaps for overcoming writer's block. The lovely graphic interface was designed by the notorious antiorp, programmer of Nato.0+55+3d. EMAIL DISCUSSION LISTS Algo-comp - http://onelist.com/subscribe/algo-comp Csound - http://media.dr.rhbnc.ac.uk/csound/list/ Freesound - [email protected] MAX - http://www.music.mcgill.ca/max/ Music DSP - http://shoko.calarts.edu/musicdsp/ OTHER RESOURCES Computer music software - Mac http://shoko.calarts.edu/~tre/CompMusMac/ Computer music software - PC http://shoko.calarts.edu/~bcassidy/CompMusPC/ Computer
music software - Linux These are excellent platform-specific resources, containing links to many sound synthesis/manipulation programs. The lists are somewhat overdue for an overhaul (a few of the programs are no longer supported) but are worth checking out anyway for an overview of recent computer music software history. There are plenty of new experimental sound programs coming out all the time (as well as others that we didn't have room to mention here) so perhaps we'll have a sequel to this article somewhere down the line. |