When samples are chopped up, they are arranged into a grain table, similar to a wavetable. The stock granular synthesizer in FL Studio In this article, we’ll use the Granulizer that comes with FL Studio, though most granular synths should have the same controls to play with. Let’s look at a basic granular synthesizer to get a better grip on what this means and how it sounds. With granular synthesis, the distance between grains and their spacing in playback are important controls that determine timbre, and they are unique to granular synthesis. Some may offer more in terms of filters and effects, as well.
No two granular synthesizers will be alike, as there are numerous ways you can use grains to play back a sample. But you will find many “synth-like” controls on these instruments, and they respond to MIDI just like any other synth, so it’s not an inaccurate term either. So the term synthesis here is somewhat misleading as granular synthesizers really rely on samples. The resultant effect has been used for applications including pitch shifting, glitch effects, and drone ambiances. This process breaks the link between the pitch, speed, and duration of a sound. Granular Synthesis is the process of chopping up a sample into tiny pieces, called “grains,” and then playing these grains at different speeds and intervals in response to incoming MIDI notes. In this article, we’ll give you a crash course on granular synthesis and explore the fundamentals with FL Studio‘s Granulizer instrument. Perhaps you’ve even tinkered with a granular synthesizer to produce some interesting – if chaotic and random – sounds.īut there’s a lot going on under the hood that you may not have considered. If you’re into modular synthesis, you may have seen a Clouds module being used to make ambient soundscapes. If you produce music with a DAW, you may have noticed a built-in granular synthesizer. Mutable Instruments Clouds, a popular Eurorack module for granular synthesis.