Max For Live Granular Fx
Max For Live Granular Synthesis
Max For Live Granulator 2

Wow level squash date. Max for Live: The Monolake Granulator Aptly called a sound artist, Robert Henke spans the divide between musician and technician. A preeminent figure in modern electronic music, Robert and his collaborative music project Monolake have had an immeasurable influence on the sound of Berlin techno. What kind of plug-in is it? Granular Mirror Mazeruns in Ableton Live 8/9 with Max 5/6. Is it Mac/Windows compatible? Yes, it is compatible with both Mac and Windows (provided you have Ableton Live 9 and Max for Live installed on your computer). Iota Iota from Dillon Baston ($49: www.ableton.com/en/packs/iota/) is a Max For Live instrument that takes a graphical approach to creating, triggering and automating multiple grains from a single audio clip.

A Max/MSPexternal object for multi-channel, multi-voice, multi-transposition granular synthesis

Michael Edwards
www.michael-edwards.org

Granular Lab MAX For LiVE P2P Nov 05 2017 1.5 MB Granular Lab is “the ultimate granular manipulation suite” for Max for Live It contains three audio devices and more than 100 presets/audioracks! REQUIRES Live 9 Suite or Standard with Max For Live 7 (Compatible Mac/Win). The devices are: – Grain Cooler: generates.
Iota is a Max for Live sample based granular looper. It features a spectrogram of a samp.

object arguments
left inlet
other inlets
change log
downloads

overview

This Max/MSP object performs time granulation of sampled sound inreal-time.

Input in the form of a fixed, pre-recorded sample buffer or an incoming signalof user-specified length is used to randomly select segments of sound (grains)whose durations (grain length) may be modified on-the-fly. The grains are(amplitude-) enveloped and reconfigured each time a precursor comes to an end.

The granulation is performed in a user-specified number of streams (also knownas (aka) voices or layers): the more streams, the denser and thicker but alsothe smoother the effect. An increase in streams also implies an increase inprocessing time and is the main factor affecting real-time performance.

The streams may be subject to transposition whereby either a singletransposition offset is given and/or a list of semitone valuessent to the object forms the set from which a randomly-chosen value is selectedfor each grain of sound output by the object.

Finally, each grain is routed to a randomly-chosen outlet (the number of whichis also user specified) allowing mapping onto an arbitrary number ofoutput channels.

N.B. Most data passed to the object only has an effect when the DSP is on. If you're getting strange behaviour/crashes, make sure the DSP is on before you start interacting with the object.

mdeGranular~ object usage

object arguments

The object takes the following arguments:

Max For Live Granular Fx

The number of simultaneous streams (aka voices, layers) of grains ; this is limited only by your computer's CPU power.
The number of output channels; this will determine the number of signal outlets the object has, i.e. there will be one for each channel you request.

object inlets

left inlet

As with most Max/MSP objects, various data can be sent to the left-mostinlet:

A bang toggles play/stop (aka on/off) state.
An 'on' message turns the granulator on.
An 'off' message turns it off: both on and off (as well as bangs) work gracefully, i.e. with a fade up/down to avoid a click. The length of the fade is the same as the grains' ramp length.
A list sets the transpositions in semitones (default none, limited to 256) that each grain will then choose randomly from. Given enough voices, sending the list 0,3,7, for example, will result in an audible minor triad (assuming that the input is pitched material). Note that transpositions may be negative and floating point (i.e. microtonal).
An OctaveSize and/or OctaveDivisions message will change the temperament of the transpositions (once new ones are received). Temperament will remain equal but you can move away from the default temperament of 12 semitones in an octave of twice the frequency. E.g. OctaveSize 3 OctaveDivisions 13 would create a tempered Bohlen-Pierce scale.
A 'set x' message sets the buffer (aka sample table, e.g. 'set granbuf') to be granulated, or the length of the buffer for live granulation (e.g. 'set ms1000'): If a number preceded by 'ms' is given, this will be the buffer length (in milliseconds) used to store incoming signal samples (e.g. ms5000 for 5 seconds), otherwise the name given is assumed to be that of an already existing sample buffer object. Changing the buffer on the fly will probably result in a click in the output so it's best to switch off the granulator first, change the buffer, then switch it back on. N.B. for live buffers, this message only sets the length of the allocated buffer that will be used: to actually allocate memory for a live buffer use the MaxLiveBufferMS message (see below). The minimum size for a live buffer is 6ms. The default is a 1000ms live buffer.
NB In September 2013 this object was updated to the Max API 6.1.3. This meant fairly hefty changes to make the object work in the now 64 bit float (double) MSP environment. Most changes reflect the new buffer accessing framework in MSP. An MSP buffer~ is still 32 bit (for backward compatibility) so if granulating a static buffer~, its samples are first copied over and promoted to 64 bit by mdeGranular~. This will mean that if you change the contents of the buffer~ there will be no difference to the granulator's output until you reuse the set message again. See also the note about MaxLiveBufferMS below.
A 'setms x' message essentially does the same as a 'set ms..' message but allows you to avoid the 'ms' prefix onto buffer sizes; so 'set ms2000' 'setms 2000'
A 'BufferGrainRamp x y z' message is useful for setting the buffer (live or static), grain length, and ramp length simultaneously. When you set these independently, checks are made to ensure you do nothing that would cause a crash (e.g. try to put impose a ramp that's too long for the grain length, or a grain length that's too long for the buffer size). Because of this it's sometimes difficult to know which you should set first: the required order depends on the current and desired states. So using this method you can do all three at once and have no execution order problems.
A 'MaxLiveBufferMS x' message sets the maximum length of the live buffer (x, milliseconds). This should generally be set to the maximum you will need for your whole performance (to avoid allocating memory on the fly). In particular, because switching off the granulator is not immediate (there is a ramp down to avoid clicks), you should definitely wait after doing so (one second should be enough) and before sending this message otherwise memory that has been de-allocated might be read thus causing a crash. Default = 10 seconds.
NB Since the update to Max API 6.1.3 and the 64-bit MSP environment, the internal buffer is now used for copying static MSP buffer~ samples over from 32-bit to 64-bit, hence the MaxLiveBufferMS size must also accommodate the largest MSP buffer~ you'll want to granulate in a performance.
Signal sent to the left inlet will be used for live granulation or ignored if the granulator is currently using another buffer (as determined by the 'set' message, see above).
A 'livestop' message stops recording the incoming signal so that granulation proceeds with what is already in the buffer (a granular form of sample and hold).
A 'livestart' message starts recording incoming signal again.
A 'print' message prints the state of the granulator to the Max window (for debugging purposes).
A 'DoGrainDelays' message will make each voice (aka layer of grains) pause slightly (randomly between 0 and 200% of the grain length) when starting the next grain; this should smooth out the granulation process and avoid all grains starting/stopping at almost the same time. This is done automatically when the granulator is started and is particularly useful when switching on-the-fly from very short grain lengths to very long grains lengths.
A 'SmoothMode' message is related to DoGrainDelays but here the delays are no longer random. Instead they're spread out evenly--(and with no grain length