Re: [microsound] Re: granular applications

["kranning@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <kranning@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

granular synthesis is for electronic music what distortion/fuzzbox
is for guitar music...a crutch, or a door to new expression...an excuse,
or a component of a personal voice.

maybe the issue isn't granular synthesis itself, but rather musicians not
pushing the technique far enough. there are a great many possibilities that
fall under the technique "granular synthesis" + many of them are not
exploited with commonly used software.

and, musicians using granular synthesis don't have any monopoly on
poverty of musical thought -- that's equally available to all genres.

http://www.miau-miau.com
> 
> Hello all, on this subject I would like to ask a question that I have been
> grappling with.  Do any of you (composers) worry about tying your sound too
> closely to granular synthesis?  I love the myriad sounds that come from this
> technology, but I hesitate to make that my compositional basis.  I don't
> think that throwing samples into crusher x, reaktor, audio mulch (or any
> other granular app)ultimately gives the timbral palette the technology
> promises.  I hear a lot of music coming out that uses this as its main
> compositional device and rather than finding it intriguing and listening to
> minute details, it seems conventional and boring simply because it sounds
> like the composition didn't move beyond scanning a sample.  I know that
> maybe this is a huge generalization given that different source samples give
> you different results, but really it doesn't sound terribly different from
> anything else that relies solely on granular synthesis.  A good example of
> this is the pimmon album on Kraak that got rave reviews by list members
> recently, this sounded very conventional to me and not at all inspired in
> comparison to say, Fennesz' endless summer (or even better "plays"), music
> that used granular technology (I think) but not as the only compositional
> technique. I love the sound of certain technologies, like granular synthesis
> or Buffer Override, but after a while, it sounds tired when it is used to
> the point of exclusion.   Please let me know what you think about this.