Quick Reference

GrainMill Reference

BrkEdit Reference

Glossary Items

GrainMill Reference

  • About GrainMill
  • Basic Understanding
  • Running GrainMill
  • Range
  • Shaping grains
  • Extending duration
  • Texture density
  • Grainsize
  • Grain wander
  • Grain pitch
  • Grain loudness
  • Grain output timing
  • Grain location
  • BrkEdit Reference

  • Startup, Save & Compare
  • Operation
  • Zoom/Scroll
  • Edit
  • Settings
  • Help
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    Glossary Items

  • The input soundfile: the sound with which you begin
  • The output soundfile: the sound you create
  • What is a 'grain' of sound?
  • Decibels: a measure of loudness
  • Milliseconds: a measure of time
  • Timbre: a description of tone quality
  • Splices: butt and sloping joins
  • Panning a sound
  • Mono and stereo soundfiles
  • Default settings
  • Attack - Sustain - Decay: envelope shapes
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    The infile

    The infile is the currently selected soundfile to be processed. It must be a mono soundfile (one channel), 16-bit (in the current version), and either
    WAV or AIF format. As with any sound processing, the qualities of the infile greatly influence the  result.

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    The outfile

    The outfile is produced by GrainMill. It will be mono or stereo depending on the options selected. The program automatically provides a name
    for the outfile by adding 'OUT' to the name of the infile.  For example, if your infile was called 'piano.wav', the default outfile name would be
    'pianoOUT.wav'. You could name a second version, 'pianoOUT1.wav', etc.

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    What is a 'grain' of sound?

    A 'grain' is a tiny bit of something - in this case sound rather than e.g., sand or corn. A sound made up of lots of small 'grains' usually has a somewhat uneven texture. It can sound just a bit rough-textured or bumpy, or may sound fiercely repetitive.  Similarly to the paintings of Seurat, who used tiny dots of paint rather than the usual brush stroke, the sound is made up of lots and lots of tiny pieces. A sound made up of grains is described as 'granular', and creating sounds like this is called 'granular synthesis'.'

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    Decibels: a measure of loudness

    The scale of loudness calculated in decibels (abbreviated as dB) is a logarithmic scale. The logarithmic scale is used for decibels because this is how the ear works. What this means is simply that equal divisions of the scale will sound to us as equally louder or softer, whereas mathematically the values are actually doubling. Logarithms are a way of linking linear and geometric values (such as 1, 2, 3,4 and 2,4, 8, 16): a single (i.e., equally spaced) step in the linear scale involves a doubling of the previous value in the geometric scale. If the loudness scale were to be represented on the screen as a linear scale (and the same is true of pitch), most of the changes that we can perceive with our ears would be bunched together at one end of the scale. Textbooks on acoustics provide a full mathematical explanation of these matters, and often include a chart illustrating where familiar sounds normally come on the scale of decibels.

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    Milliseconds: a measure of time

    A millisecond (abbreviated as ms) is one thousandth part of a second. The thousandth decimal place is the third to the right of the decimal point (tens-hundreds-thousands). So 1 millisecond can also be written as 0.001 sec, 50 ms can be written as 0.050 sec, and 100 ms is the same as 0.1 sec. To convert from milliseconds to seconds, move the decimal point three places to the left (adding zeroes if necessary), and to convert from seconds to milliseconds, move the decimal point three places to the right.

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    Timbre: a description of tone quality

    Timbre means the 'colour' of a sound, which in turn is described technically by its 'spectrum' -  how many and which frequencies are present as the sound flows
    through time. This frequency content is constantly changing, in some sounds more than in others. For example, a flute has a clear luminous tone,
    while an oboe has a considerably more complex sound, and a locomotive engine has a very rich sound indeed! 'Colour' is but one of the many
    words borrowed from the visual arts to describe sonic differences; they all come down to the ever-changing frequency content of a sound.

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    Splices: Butt and sloping joins

    In the 'classical tape studio', analog tape was spliced by cutting off selected pieces with a razor blade and then joining up the pieces with a special white splicing tape. These cuts were usually made with the help of a splicing block, and there was a groove at 45% for a 'smooth' join (the two pieces of tape would overlap) and a vertical groove for what was called a butt edit (no overlap at all). Similarly, in GrainMill, the grains are 'abutted' when there is no overlap. However, note that there is in this case still the tapering of the sound from and to zero volume, with which each grain is shaped in order to avoid clicks.

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    Panning a sound

    The terminology 'to pan a sound', 'panning a sound', or just 'panning', refers to the psycho-acoustic effect whereby sound appears to move through space. To illustrate: a (stereo) sound can 'move' from left to right. In this case, the stereo image is actually coming out of both speakers, but the right hand speaker starts with zero volume and the left hand speaker with full volume. Then the right hand speaker gets progressively louder as the left hand speaker gets progressively quieter. To the ear of the listener (positioned centrally in front of both speakers), the sound appears to move from left to right.

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    Mono Soundfile

    'Mono' is short for 'monophonic' -  literally, 'one sound'. A mono soundfile has only 1 'channel'. If there are two loudspeakers, the (same) sound
    signal is output by both of them.

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    Defaults

    Programs frequently use 'defaults'. A default is a pre-set 'typical' or 'recommended' value, or simply a parameter setting to get started with. The
    defaults in GrainMill allow you to start the program, load a soundfile, click on MAKE IT and get something interesting!

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    Attack - Sustain - Decay

    These terms refer to the loudness shape (amplitude 'envelope') of the sound. They describe some of the most noticeable and important features of a sound. The attack describes how the sound begins, in particular how quickly the loudness increases; the Sustain portion refers to the loudness characteristics of the main part of the sound the Decay portion is how it ends, for example whether it stops abruptly or gradually trails off into silence. Each grain created by GrainMill has a simple, symmetrical, ASD shape. Note that the more familiar acronym ADSR, standing for Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release, while acknowledging that the attack of many sounds reaches a peak point from which it falls back  (decays) to the Sustain level (e.g. many brass sounds), is  named specifically for keyboards - the Release refers literally to the release of a key, triggering the final Decay of the sound.

    Experimenting with BrkEdit is one of the best ways of exploring amplitude envelopes.

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