Grainskan- Granular synth..

Tom7777 · 8 Apr 2006

Cool 🙂

Shifrin · 8 Apr 2006

Wow sam, awesome stuff 😀

Thanks for sharing!

Shif.

oddson · 8 Apr 2006

I haven't figured out how to use it much less how you built it.

One thing, the waveform you've included doesn't draw on startup. I had to click in the schematic setup to make it draw. (I think you need an 'AfterLoad' trigger in there somewhere).

It's very cool 🙂 ... at least in as much as I've figured out how to use it. 😕

AndydeMaro · 8 Apr 2006

Suppi Thanks for the Example

de Andy.

Shimmer · 9 Apr 2006

I had a look at this earlier, very cool.

I've learnt so much just by looking at yours' and Skore's stuff.

Impressive . . . intimidating, but impressive. 😉

sambean · 9 Apr 2006

Quick update peeps, thanks so far for trying.. Sorry 'bout being a bit vague on the control front, it's quite tricky to describe..

Another way to think about it is as a combined lo-qual sampler and pitchshifter. The scanner section is the sampler, with a few fancy options for playback, and the grains section is the pitch shifter.. How you get synthesis is through synching the pitch shifting 'window' to the frequncy of the note pressed.. So the artefacts from the p-s are used to create a pitched timbre..

Here's the latest version:

[url=http://magalov.myweb.hinet.net/grainskan/Grainskan0.9.osm]

OSM[/url]

Added: Mono/stereo files LFO goodness FX A little tidy up.. No presets yet..

The initial settings allow you to hear how it can play sounds close to the original sample, so from here start twiddling..

Also here's some audio files for trying out in the scanner, to give you an idea what it can be used for.. They're from freesounds.. http://magalov.myweb.hinet.net/grainskan/GSaudio.rar

Cheers

Sam

lalo · 9 Apr 2006

😍 the wave sample display is marellous 🙂

sambean · 9 Apr 2006

lalo wrote: 😍 the wave sample display is marellous 🙂

It's actually a modded version of Jorges wave display from here:

Drawing a wave

With the new components 🙂

lalo · 9 Apr 2006

sambean wrote: lalo wrote: 😍 the wave sample display is marellous 🙂

It's actually a modded version of Jorges wave display from here:

Drawing a wave

With the new components 🙂

jorge is marvellous 🙂

...sam and you all guys doin' great stuff with SM....go show 'em on KVR 😉

this grain-skan is pure playing' pleasure!

and is pretty light on CPU....

...SM time is arrived 😍

lalo · 9 Apr 2006

would be nice to have an horizontal line following the sample playing 😉

lalo

sambean · 9 Apr 2006

I had thought of that, but the tricky thing is extracting the play position from each of the poly notes.. If you use a poly to mono as soon as you press more than one note it loses the tracking as the play positions are added together, I could try and make a custom module that extracts one of the SSE channels, but I'm not sure what would happen if you play more than 4 notes.. I'll maybe give it another try..

Cheers

Sam

skOre · 9 Apr 2006

I didn't thought it was THAT great. Live manipulation of Chorus Amount = rockage btw!

lalo · 9 Apr 2006

sambean wrote: I had thought of that, but the tricky thing is extracting the play position from each of the poly notes.. If you use a poly to mono as soon as you press more than one note it loses the tracking as the play positions are added together, I could try and make a custom module that extracts one of the SSE channels, but I'm not sure what would happen if you play more than 4 notes.. I'll maybe give it another try..

Cheers

Sam

you're right 🙂 i didn't thought about this 🙂 ...it can only works if "voices" is set to 1 🙂

lalo

jorge · 9 Apr 2006

I think it's a nice effect to be modulating by hand the end position between around 1 step from start and 3 or 4 steps away. Could be nice to have a step LFO controlling it.

jmp909 · 9 Apr 2006

cool stuff...

would be good if the wavedraw showed the scan position as it plays... (maybe with option to turn off)

also if you want to add stuff to the granular functionality check out the one in fruityloops for some ideas, that's really good as well.

regards, j.

Shifrin · 9 Apr 2006

jmp909 wrote: would be good if the wavedraw showed the scan position as it plays... (maybe with option to turn off)

sambean already mentioned that 😉

If you play one note only then it is simple to add the 'scan position' marker to the wavedraw, but what do you do when you play several notes, each starting at a different time?! 😉

Shif.

oddson · 9 Apr 2006

Stefan wrote: ['AddTable'] and "grainskan", are seriously amazing. What you guys have started making with SM is awesome!

Grainskan is truely amazing... I still haven't worked out how it works but now I've wrapped my head around how to make it work.

At first I could only do stuff that sounded like Stockhausen on acid but I've also seen hints of results that are both musical and unusual.

I think this opens up so many possibilities it would take a long time to explore what they all are.

Thanks for building and for sharing this Sam... excellent work! 🙂

AngularMomentum · 10 Apr 2006

Great Stuff Sambean!! That's another one for my arsenal of music tools! This could be cool for a percussion module too!

If You are looking for free audio material, I have a whole collection online at my website, most of it is in rex format (can be converted), but got a decent bunch of waveloops too!

sambean · 10 Apr 2006

Thanks AM, I had a quick look at your site, you've got lots going on! 🙂 I'll have a listen to some of your sounds and try them out in the machine.. Have you tried [urlhttp://freesound.iua.upf.edu/]freesound[/url]? It's got loads of quirky ambient stuff that can be used for strange textures.

I'll need to add the option to synchronise the rate to the host, so you can use it to mangle loops etc..

Thanks a'body else for the support..

😀

AngularMomentum · 10 Apr 2006

I will check that out, I have been wearching for pad textures in my up coming upgrade of the CV-2SEQ! Many thanks for the link! 😀

global goon · 11 Apr 2006

this is well nuts!

infuzion · 11 Apr 2006

HTTP 403, file & imgs down. 😕

sambean · 12 Apr 2006

infuzion wrote: HTTP 403, file & imgs down. 😕

Probably a ropey server, seems to be working now..

sambean · 22 Apr 2006

Getting there peeps.. [url=http://magalov.myweb.hinet.net/grainskan/Grainskan0.9.9.1.dll]

dll[/url]

Added: Modulation section. Can mod most skanning parameters through here now, note: the skan position is now solely controlled here, so with no modulation you'll just get a static sound.. The retrig option resets the oscs on a note on, this is good for sounds with a sharp transient as it causes a sudden change in the skanning, switch it off for longer pads, loops etc..

Gate. Extra glitch options..

Exponential Amp envelope option..

A few things here and there

And a couple of presets (the sample being skanned is a straightforward bass drum for low filesize, try it out on various samples, vox, noize, plucks, loops etc..)

dll only just now, I'll make the osm available later, let me know how it runs in performance..

Thanks for the support so far!

Cheers

Sam

skOre · 22 Apr 2006

wont work in latest FL Studio... maybe you could provide an .exe release?

sambean · 22 Apr 2006

Here you go:

http://magalov.myweb.hinet.net/grainskan/GS0.9.9.1.exe

I've got the demo of fruity, I'll give it a shot..

Sam

skOre · 22 Apr 2006

One hell of a great synth 🙂 (Although the knobs are a little hard to read)

About that FruityLoops problem: the devs may better look into this!

Tom7777 · 22 Apr 2006

Nice work sambean 🙂

sambean · 25 Apr 2006

Hard to read knobs: is that the colour or the size? seems fine on my laptop but I know these things can vary with different screen types etc..

Sam

skOre · 25 Apr 2006

I was more talking about the horizontal instead of vertikal line to show the way one turned it. it a little less intuitive. Maybe draw a little line from the middle of that line to the outer circle?

sambean · 26 Apr 2006

Ahh, gotcha.. I kind on liked keeping it minimal like that, but your right about it being less intuitive.. I have an idea about how to adjust it..

Cheers

Sam

malc · 26 Apr 2006

Works in FL5 but not in 6 which is strange. Need to look further.

cbit · 2 May 2006

looks superb sambean!

i think i prefer the 1st skin more 😉 (the pseudo 3d of skin 1 provides some important cues about the relative importance of the different elements.. skin 2s flat style means that everything seems equally important, or worthy of as much attention)

Particularly the knobs look much less easy to use now. (rant: ive yet to see a knob design that improves on a single line or arrow pointing, from the center, to the current position)

i love granular stuff, i can't wait to get a chance to try this out!

sambean · 3 May 2006

Hola peeps,

A Few tweaks here and there, bit of a GUI update, added dots and a bit of a 3D feel.. I'm kind of quite reluctant to switch back to standard knobs (you don't know how fiddley it was getting the filled 'chord' shape on the knob 😉 ) But if enough peeps think it's counterproductive then I'll switch back..

A couple of new controls: Grain Displacement, the distance between where the two grains are scanning, and Grain Amp, the amplitude of one of the grains allowing you to get 'square' sounding notes by setting this to -1, both of these are of course modulatable..

dll

exe

The current preset is a 'sound evolution' just press and hold..

The osm will be back soon, once vst issues are sorted!

Cheers!

Sam

cbit · 4 May 2006

thanks for providing the dll. i was able to give it a try this morning.. this synth makes some very interesting and useful sounds for me. Thanks for your work!

infuzion · 5 May 2006

nifty!

skOre · 5 May 2006

yeah, the gui is a lot better to use now. Love it! (you may want to make the first preset a little less strange though 😉 )

sambean · 2 Jul 2006

Hej Peeps!

I'm getting closer to completion now.. Have jiggled everything about a bit, so I've lost track of the list of updates but here's a quick review..

-Modulation in tabs.. -No more FX, these will be in a seperate FX rack module -Sample file preset- thanks to rl et al who were working on this

TODO -Sort out parameter list- Not looking forward to that 😉 -Tidy up...

Any feedback again greatly appreciated, I'm planning to send this out in the next week or so..

If you're not sure what to tweak first I recommend the 'Rate' knob, to the left of the fine tune in the LFO..

osm and all!

Have Fun!

😀

Sam

rlahalla · 2 Jul 2006

Thanks! 😀

stefan · 2 Jul 2006

wtf, beautiful gui. I would've liked to be able to see modulations without going through tabs, but I know I'm almost alone in having this preference, so nevermind me 🙂

will have a go at playing some with it in a jiffy!

edit: I don't mean the actual modulation sources, but the modulation settings (like a mod matrix, even if the routings are static). A separate "modulation amounts" viewing tab would suite me just fine. Otoh, it's such a silly thing to ask for when the entire thing is so cool already and others most likely disagree with me 🙂

angstrom · 2 Jul 2006

it's great fun, but mr niggley bugger here...

when I hit the load button it changes to a font I bet you don't have

Bitstream Vera Serif. (which is number 5 in my font list) arial, arial black , bitstream sans, bitstream mono, bitstream serif.

an odd one. When it first loads it is a sans-serif font of some kind.

I thought this issue got fixed a while back by Malc?

Tom7777 · 2 Jul 2006

Great work Sambean 😀

I thought this issue got fixed a while back by Malc?

I don't think it did with some things, for load buttons i get the same thing, they are on a different font and i have to select arial for them to look right.

Shifrin · 2 Jul 2006

Thanks for sharing sambean 😀

Looks 😍

Shif.

sambean · 3 Jul 2006

Ta Peeps!

😀

Almost done..

@stefan I know about the mods and interactivity but the UI was just getting longer and longer.. I could have a separate page though with only the matrix good idea....

@angstrom You are correct, I'm lacking in bitstream vera serif, but I can fix it to plain old ariel though...

Time to order those presets.....

lalo · 3 Jul 2006

very great work sam!!!

AngularMomentum · 5 Jul 2006

Excellent stuff here! Many thanks for the OSM, it made me understand how to do the switchpanels and how to do the routing in a relatively easy way! 😍

sambean · 7 Jul 2006

Hey chaps..

Here's a link to what will probably be the final version, not much changed, just neated up inside.. I'ts dll only, the osm will be out soon..

http://magalov.myweb.hinet.net/grainskan/Grainskan.dll

There's no audio file with it, I was trying to save space, also there's no presets so you'll have to experiment.. When I release it'll probably have a set of samples and a set presets for each..

If you happen to chance upon a great set of presets for a licence free sample then I'll be happy to include them 😉 ..

Everything seems to be working fine, but any quirks let me know..

Thanks for the support on the way..

Sam

oddson · 7 Jul 2006

Thanks Sam... this is one of the best SM projects so far.

That said.. I still have problems figuring out what some of the controls do. 😕

Any chance of a 'manual' or a note on the controls? 😇

AngularMomentum · 7 Jul 2006

I have been getting excellent sound out of this. I got a lot of my own guitarsamples layin around, and they sound excellent in here. When you come up with a final version, I would like to give/make a few presets in there with some guitar stuff of mine. 😍

sambean · 8 Jul 2006

@oddson I'm going to work on an 'embedded manual' today, probably just a breakdown of each of the modules, explaining what they do and how they react to input

@AM All modifications from now on will probably just be cosmetic, I've sorted out the parameter ordering so if you come up with any presets they will work in any further versions.. If you use the preset saving on the manager module, not your hosts.. Theres also no way of chaning preset names now, so these need to be recorded seperately and can be manually input into the text file..

Cheers

Sam

AngularMomentum · 8 Jul 2006

I am more worried about having the guitarsamples in there, I guess first they need to be brought into the OSM before it works? Or does the Grainskan load wavefiles from disk after changing preset?

sambean · 8 Jul 2006

Hmmmm

The default GS has no sample loaded into it, after they are loaded the samples should be loaded correctly after preset changes and on song loading, unless the sample is moved of course.

The problem is the paths for the file are not relative, so will vary from machine to machine, this means that the first time a user uses a preset bank they will need to assign the path to the sample, for each preset. After that is done once they should load fine..

So the thing is the Guitar wav samples would probably need to be provided with the preset text file, thats why they need to be licence/hassle free and the provider doen't mind sharing..

If you/anybody can think of a better way round that would be great.

Cheers

Sam

AngularMomentum · 8 Jul 2006

Relative paths are indeed nessecary to bundle samples with the Grainskan.

So what you are saying is we need a system where the plugin detects it's place on the hdd, and looks for a set directory with samples lower in the hierarchy. This isn't yet doable in SM? I think this is a must, I can't imagine giving out a rompler or a drum .dll that is 4GB big...

sambean · 9 Jul 2006

I've worked it out now..

All samples should be kept in a folder called 'samples' and placed in the same directory as the dll.. The dll can be in any directory, but it probably makes sense to keep it in it's own...

Here's how I got round it for those who are interested:

Followingthis thread, I've stripped the file path to leave only the filename, this is what is stored in the preset, when it comes to load the file I just add the string '../samples/' to the filename, and it seems to load file..

This should make no difference to compatability of any presets made BTW..

Sam

sambean · 23 Jul 2006

Here's version 1.0!!! 😇 😍 😈 😕 😀

In the rar file there's the osm, the dll, the manual, a preset bank, a blank preset bank, and a sample wav... There's a quick start guide in the manual..

I've only really checked it in Live, If anyone gets a chance to test the dll and the preset bank in their host, that would be great!

I'll probably announce it over at kvr in a couple of days 😮

http://magalov.myweb.hinet.net/grainskan/Grainskan.rar

Thanks chaps!!

Sam

skOre · 23 Jul 2006

I'm feeling stupid... no tone in FL Studio and none either in SM itself! I did load the sample (and tried some of mine as well), tried the presets... even used readouts to see whether it produced any sound. But it was always flat zero 🙁

I really wanna try this out 🙂

sambean · 23 Jul 2006

hm..

Did it have the name of the sample and draw the sample wave? Were the preset names showing? The samples have to be loaded from a folder called 'samples' adjacent to the osm/dll..

Also you need at least one ADSR->amp to get sound, I will probably adjust this as it could be confusing..

Sam

skOre · 23 Jul 2006

Hmm, no, it never showed the wave being drawn...

edit: it even says "no sample" in the display...

skOre · 23 Jul 2006

Found the bug 😀

You had the string "./samples/" connected to the filename... thus it never found anything

Off to check this beast out 🙂

sambean · 23 Jul 2006

Probs a problem with the loader, dang...

If you get a chance, can you try loading something, then going into the schematic Scan Module->Sample File and copy the path output from the file preset?

Sam

skOre · 23 Jul 2006

As I said... it works - read my last post 🙂

sambean · 23 Jul 2006

Missed that!

You may have problems with the presets without the './samples/' though, for file finding to work on all hosts, the paths to the file need to be relative, so thats why it only looks for files in a folder called 'samples' next to the dll/osm, so a preset bank designed on one persons computer can be used on another..

I could have the option of turning off relative paths though...

Sam

oddson · 3 Aug 2006

Just did a quick read through the guide for Grainscan... very cool.

Excellent work all around but I think the guide is a fundamental part of the project as without it a person is just playing around without really understanding what they're doing.

jobro · 3 Aug 2006

Would be good if you could sync this to bpm if possible. Also, when the first note is activated the sound pitches up first.

sambean · 4 Aug 2006

Hi Jobro, thanks for testing, what host did you try it in?

It should sync, I'll have a look into it??

As for it pitching up is that all patches or just one patch, if it's just one it could be a modulation setting..

Thanks again!

😀

Sam

jobro · 4 Aug 2006

I tested it in FL Studio 6. And it is all patches afaik. I took the liberty of downloading the osm to take some wisdome from you. Mind if I tweak up the parameter ranges so it fits more what I need?

sambean · 4 Aug 2006

OK that helps, sounds like a portamento issue, does it start from a low tone and sweep up to the note frequency?

Do whatever you like with it! 😉

Sam

jobro · 4 Aug 2006

Yes it starts low and goes upward. I'll check the knob and lower it then, thanks for your help!

One thing you really need to do fast is to add switches above each knob in the modulation matrix since it is allmost impossible to turn them off oce you've moved the knobs.

And the latest version doesn't generate any sound at all, doesn't load any sample what so ever. In other words it doesn't deserve to be called 1.0 😀 Switching back to 0.99

sambean · 4 Aug 2006

Have you got version 1 from the SM website:

[old link]

That's now the official release..

Also, do you have a folder called 'samples' next to the dll with your samples in? This is necessry for presets to work on multiple machines..

Sam

jobro · 4 Aug 2006

Sorry if I acted retarded. I was cnackered from too many hours working on my new plugin: Hypershock.

sambean · 4 Aug 2006

No worries, It's good to get feedback about how it is to use, I don't want people to be confoozed from when the open the dll..

Sam

jobro · 4 Aug 2006

You should really join Global Hardstyle, I announce this beast in their forum.

http://www.globalhardstyle.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=13824

Seams they like it.

Stuff needed to be included in 1.0:

* Triangle waveform in every lfo. * An extra envelope * Longer envelope rates

sambean · 4 Aug 2006

Thanks for the plug!

I've just registered, waiting for confirmation...

Sam