Can someone explain the usage of Granular Synthesis?

[bmar22]

Hey everyone,

So I've been researching granular synthesis. I understand what it "is" but I'm curious how it's actually used in context of a dubstep song. I think I may be confusing myself but are dubstep producers using granular synths to make their huge basses or are they using Reese's and growls and putting granular synth stuff in it as a texture?

I'm basically asking for an example of how it's used in context.

Thanks a bunch

[mthrfnk]

I granulise reeses and other bass sounds a lot. Sounds fucking cool if you get it right.

I posted here earlier with some examples: http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 5&start=60

Obviously you can use it to make other sounds such as FX and pads, but I just granulize stuff to stretch and twist sounds.

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

basically it gets cut into many small samples. so for an example if you pitch down you can now speed the whole sample up while still pitching down or you can stretch the time while pitching up .
sound gets like gum in a way but not towards zero interwalls like real gum but yeah close

[smile]

So I've been researching granular synthesis. I understand what it "is" but I'm curious how it's actually used in context of a dubstep song. I think I may be confusing myself but are dubstep producers using granular synths to make their huge basses or are they using Reese's and growls and putting granular synth stuff in it as a texture?

This is a really silly question if you do understand granular synthesis. But anyway, surely some producers use it for all sorts of sounds including basses, growls and foley. The key to huge basses/growls isn't granular synthesis though AFAIK; it's more like another tool that can be used to further shape your sounds.

Growl not using granular synthesis (no foley):
Soundcloud

Another growl (quite similar in effect chain) using granular synthesis (no foley):
Soundcloud

Reese sound not using any effects at all
Soundcloud
I think the granulised growl came out better, but both are useable. The reese works too, and it's 100% massive. So yea, my conclusion to this whole granular deal is that it's really useful but not necessarily that key component people seem to think it is.

[Jas0n]

If it's any help at all, I've always thought of granny synths as being more useful for creating samples than for laying out a bassline such as you might envision it. To qualify - I'm not much of a producer.

[bmar22]

thanks for the help guys. so it seems like granular synthesis is just an added effect. Not needed 100% but good for really adding movement to basses or textures. Am I on the right track?

[mthrfnk]

Made this earlier using FL granulizer, it's so fun:
Soundcloud

[smile]

thanks for the help guys. so it seems like granular synthesis is just an added effect. Not needed 100% but good for really adding movement to basses or textures. Am I on the right track?

Well I know from my own experience it can be seen as such. However, there surely is more to granulation I've yet to figure out (only tried it a few times). The "pros" might be using it completely different and I could just be misleading you. Don't take anyones word for anything there's lots of shitty advices getting passed around here experiment yourself and see what you come up with.

[Efrafa11]

thanks for the help guys. so it seems like granular synthesis is just an added effect. Not needed 100% but good for really adding movement to basses or textures. Am I on the right track?

No,
It is literally just another way to synthesize a sound using small samples/tiny grains of sound.

[sketchyderek]

It just has a unique sound. Kind of hard to put into words because you get a different sound based on the settings.

It's great for growl kinds of sounds.