granular toolkit v1.49
March 19th, 2007By far the most popular download on this website. This set of externals and abstractions developed using several granular synthesis concepts. Effects available in this download include pitch shifting, spatializing, “clouds”, chord production and looping.
A paper about this software that was presented at the SEAMUS 2002 National Conference at the University of Iowa. Later, an article version was published in Journal SEAMUS. It is available in this separate post and a recommended read for those using the GTK.
The Mac version is Universal Binary. Mac and Windows versions should work for Max/MSP 4.6 and 5.
Special thanks to Tim Place of Electrotap for the windows port of the externals.
- Download Mac version 1.49 – 408 kb
- Download Win version 1.49 – 500 kb
Nathan,
Couldn’t find an email address, so figrued I’d try to reach you here.
I really like the GTK. It’s high level enough to allow me to implement many of the techniques I read about in Curtis Roads’ book without delving into something like FTM/Gabor.
One thing I’m having trouble with is there doesn’t seem to be an object or abstraction that lets me specify both frequency and grain size to create overlapping grains. I realize I can do this with the grain %, but wanted my level of control to be a bit more “granular.”
Thanks,
Zach
Zach:
Thanks for the message. Glad to hear you like the toolkit.
Frequency and length are independent controls in the [gran.cloud.*] abstractions. If you wanted to produce your own patch for this, you could easily unlock the patch and look at the way it is constructed.
You could also take advantage of the “pulse overflow” outlet on the [grain.pulse~] external. It will pass on the control signal if the external is busy producing a grain. With it you can easily produce something like this:
----------begin_max5_patcher----------
827.3ocyXtrbaBCEFds8SgJqZml5htvstq656PmLcvfvgNfvEDStMIO6EjfX
RCNHrkUYirsPf90mN5+bLOtdk01h6nUVfuA9IX0pGWuZknq1NV086UV4g2Ek
EVIFlUTQdNkwstRdMN8Ntn+hjjJJG7w7pO0eszX4U196u.856LofwqRef1dI
HZicW2r57TVFkKlDXWm6C4Q2jx18qRZDWJRhsey8.7BZa8gssH6M1fqO7bJp
48OH6ASJKLWLoVeuLMLqWN6KoUMKmPdZAavzfC7DSiXxr6Z.W2dOOsdcayUJ
xqjrhFMMFR70DRvNCPhi8DHA00qrK986oxmRqPCa1VAVaCY6rd4tmO5H5BcG
KTKoj9mZJK5dvG+wCiFs4nIzBkqErXY3Gboh1fxcMr8ELZyUSHIX.Q9+GrAs
0E4Xzaa3zah09vWamC6MigTxbPJZJj56HP5TVZv2GouGJ0GU3kgormGiI34v
D7TLABwsePbO03rpzcr1fHEBzznAUbcoHP8nYCQ5x5mDLve5LxFpUqFnlVcn
f.y50bBTHmVUEti9lPfR59rvH5X3wVS1FDBQbFww6.ef9y233bx066KOlBOa
+24Cx.8xQDBeA43IPD5CwgQiYx9RgiptBgPwJjfDqMhSe6w7IzWhhOOl98zz
FGDIVVXWwFGFsw4zxb1kjvLoN20l5by95rJ5yfphZVL31TVbwsi.pYUFqy6X
jhjFoH4oUmoRmhmNc5gucNUu4KqdyI3RU91bnsqlnMLPlH1yYgQaBRlN0cIP
ahtnM1QxW7xh1ARg35sDfMVSvtqp7tbjFj05CaaqSRnkO2wJvtv5lw+VhoqJ
z6KtnCYHuEYUrSvJQz0XkxpWHA8k+QXhQYjXXVYor+88fJDZa+uFbMvnLpeF
6eQdfCZMlVwSYB6fACpIUN.9xXtIMNlxF9exxSi2Wjx3cZ3HFEZURtKOIQVd
RBaVI4pfjZewSCFzEWSDUzD1rZBq3VmAkDTQa.zxRRtKOIQVdRBaVIYqxQNi
FdGnfhPFUQdJnHei5dqphLGiTwlzynJhr3TjqhJxbwQNKNE85ByNdhDytqAU
HaqYOqAUHy1opnle7z5+Bn8nSmB
-----------end_max5_patcher-----------
Hope that gives you some direction. Take care.
–Nathan
Nathan Wolek’s download page added to microsound.info
Categorized under: Max Msp. Tagged with: Clouds, Granular, Granular Toolkit, GTK, Looping, Max
hello.
i just posted an article about granular effect on cycling74.
some guys suggested me this website where a great object is shared.
so, what i want to do with granular effect is to attempt to create the particular synth by aoki takamasa.
im just wondering how aoki takamasa can create his synth and manage sounds controlling, see the movie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9QcyiwdXQw
what i have to have several questions,
1, what kind of synth is he using? such as am synth, fm synth, granular synth so on?
2, how can synth pulse sounds (you can listen to them at the beginning of the youtube) be managed? it’s like pulse sound generated by step-sequencer or by LFO or any other ways?
3, please tell me all of the info about his sound technically if you are a max genius.
I read the article about him on some magazine that his performance actually played by max/msp.
he created his own synth, sampler, effect by max for performance act.
i have been trying to create also mine for 2 months.
i actually face with an issue of polyfm how to create.
it would be great helpful if you give me an example patch about like-aoki’s patch and any good polyphony synth.
thanks for taking your time.
Manabu:
Thanks for commenting. Sorry for the delay in replying.
I do not claim to know the specifics of Takamasa‘s setup, but it some things sure sound granular. But if I were to attempt to build something that would make similar throbbing sounds, I would start with the [grain.pulse~] object that is part of this GTK package. You can easily chain multiple instances together to make it polyphonic.
To drive it with specific cyclical rhythms, I would use another patch that is available as part of the MPG carepackage called [riddumbank]. I’ll be presenting on this package again at the upcoming SEAMUS conference, so I will actually be cleaning up this download in the next few weeks. The abstraction patch outputs pulse control signals based on the patterns you input to the step sequencer-like interface. It has a few other nice feature as well, if I do say so myself.
The last bit would be making modulators to slowly alter the various granular control parameters (particularly the sample offset) in interesting ways. For this, I would point you to Gregory Taylor’s LFO tutorials on the Cycling74 web site.
So, it’s not a patch but more of a roadmap. These three things working together should get you in the ballpark. Whatever tweaks you make along the way will be what distinguishes your sound from Takamasa. I hope that helps!
–Nathan
Hello Nathan:
thank you very much for your advance pinpoint advices that i really appreciate again.
i will try to make myself due to your following helps.
i really wanna be tough about max/msp programming from you one day if i have a chance.
could please i ask you again if i face a issue of any music concern.
if so, that would be so much help.
manabu shimada from london
Hi Nathan – I’ve heard this toolkit allows live granular processing, is this true?
I’ve been looking and looking for a granular effect for live performance similar to Reaktors Grain Delay..
Does the toolkit provide externals to do this and if so, do you know of any completed example patches out there that use them to look at further?
Thanks.
Hi Nathan – just wondering if there are any example patches you could point me in the direction of that use the toolkit? Particularly for live processing…
I’ve just downloaded the kit but am having trouble getting started..
Thanks
Paul:
Start with any of the help files for the items starting with “gran” instead of “grain”. These are the high-level effects that I have pre-built. The ones for live processing end in “live”. So the one you’ll find most interesting is likely [gran.cloud.live~].
If you want to read more about the toolkit, I have a paper that I wrote available here. It gives you more than enough to get started.
When you start to wish the “gran” abstractions did something the new and more interesting, the “grain” objects are there for you to design your own effects. I hope that helps.
–Nathan
Thanks Nathan – that paper is really great!
– Paul
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Hi Nathan
Thanx for sharing this patch. For some reason i can’t run it in my Max 7.0.0 (64bit) version, it could be either because of my 64bit or 7.0.0 version or i’m doing sth wrong when copying package in my ‘externals’ folder. Anyway please let me know if this package is compatible with higher versions of max.
cheers
Hooshi:
Sorry I missed this earlier! The old objects here will not work with 64-bit versions of Max. The new LowkeyNW package is the preferred way to use my granular externals in Max 6.1 and higher. Is there something specific you needed from this download?
-Nathan