Grains: Scan, Cloud and Hit
The three granular engines: scan through a sample, scatter it into a cloud, or fire it as percussive hits.
A grain is a very short slice of a sample. The granular engines play many grains at once to turn a sample into a texture. Scan Grains moves the start point through the sample at a speed you set. Cloud Grains lets you set where in the sample the grains start. Hit Grains has a sharp envelope for percussion. The model plays its loop in all three.
- What granular playback is
- What Scan, Density and Chaos do in Scan Grains
- How Cloud Grains and Hit Grains differ
- Which knob means what in each engine
The steps5 steps
- This is Scan Grains. Hold a note and turn Wave, which is Scan. It sets how fast the grains travel through the sample, so the texture drifts.
Stuck?
Hold a key and turn Wave slowly.
- Turn Timbre, which is Density. Density is how often grains are generated: turn it up for more of them.
Stuck?
Hold a key and move Timbre.
- Turn Shape, which is Chaos. Turned up, density, size and pitch are randomized.
Stuck?
Hold a key and move Shape.
- Now Cloud Grains. The knobs are Starts, Density and Chaos. Turn Wave (Starts) to move the cloud around the sample while you play.
Stuck?
Hold a key and turn Wave.
- Finally Hit Grains. Play notes and turn Shape, which here sets the grain size and envelope. The sharp envelope makes it percussive.
Stuck?
Play a few keys, moving Shape between them.
Scan moves through the sample, Cloud lets you choose where the cloud sits, Hit makes it percussive. Density is how often grains fire, and Chaos is how much they vary (in Hit Grains, Shape sets the grain size and envelope). Each engine reads the three knobs a little differently.
On the real MicroFreak
In Scan Grains the Wave knob (Scan) sets how fast the sample is scanned, Timbre is Density (how often grains are generated) and Shape is Chaos, which randomizes density, size, pitch and more. Cloud Grains has Starts (the grain start position), Density and Chaos. Hit Grains has Start, Density and Shape, which sets grain size and envelope. Scan grains have a smooth volume envelope; Hit grains are sharp. Which sample plays is chosen with Shift + Type.
Where the model differs
All three engines play the model's built-in loop.
Questions1
Why does the same knob do different things?
The three knobs always sit in the same place, but each engine gives them a different job. The knob names change with the engine.