Is Crusher-X worth getting?

[SODDI]

There are bits and pieces of granulation synthesis all over recorded stuff these days. I believe Charlie Clouser's theme for "American Horror Story" uses it, as does the main theme for the anime "Shin Sekai Yori".

As dayjob mentions, it is a valuable tool in resynthesis.

Why we have all been talking about crusher-x is that it DOES have valuable and unique granulation capabilities, including the ability to determine the grains' envelopes (but I'll be damned if I know what a "Blackman-Hanning" window is) in addition to its MIDI control.

Try giving the standalone freeware Granulab a try http://hem.passagen.se/rasmuse/Granny.htm
Use very simple samples like single tones (I'm using women's OOOHs an AHHHs) at first. Nothing too textured. Simply try to control it as an instrument. It can be very cool.

Of course, if I put my hands on Granulab it is going to end us as serious hell noise. Because I f**king want to. Because I love the hell noise.

[TwoToneshuzz]

I'm also looking at Granulator tools. My choice falls in favour of Padshop Pro. It seems to have a superior UI. High marks for ease of use. And the results are pretty impressive. Check out the Granualar worlds Demos by Simon Stockhausen..

Crusher X has just come on my radar recently at first glance it's not intuitive.

Cosmos F seems pretty heady, the quotes/mission statement are so unbelievable.

From the SonicLab website:

"SOFTWARE

Compositionally meaningful sound objects are subjected to a temporal change - spectral variation, which results as a pattern of change, as an invisible structure establishing the form of the sonic identity. We think the smallest sonic element as the granular sound event and its micro level characteristics influence the properties of the macro form. Our goal is to provide software based solutions controlled with compositionally meaningful parameters to drive this process of change . "… In fact it is not a sound that is produced, but a whole music in macroscopic form. This form is the result of rhythmic transformations, giving a polyrhythm of events with variable timbre, changing pitches and intensities - in short, rhythmic strands of meeting and jostling sounds…" (Xenakis 1985)

The overall goal of these software applications is to achieve a passage between the timbral attributes and the formal characteristics of the sound object which is created with the organization of micro sonic elements on multiple levels. Namely John Cage has regarded the form, the structure (the divisibility of a whole into parts) as the expressive content, the morphology of the continuity. The simultaneous morphologies in different dimensions, which focus on particular perceptual attributes of sound, lead to the existence of form."


Is this really true? It's fine as prose, entertaining, but really no more than a veil of words hiding more than it reveals, the authors Xenakis and Cage overwhelmed by their own genius.

As far as the Cosmosf GUI I feel I will likely get mesmerized by the eye candy instead of getting anything useful done. Black interfaces make me crazy though. Too dark, sombre and difficult imo.

[wasi]

Good thing there's a fully functional demo, so you don't have to take their word for it.

[Sampleconstruct]

crusherX has been a very important tool for me over the last 2 years. I use it in the studio and I process instruments with it when playing live, in my last premiere I processed a whole orchestra with it in surround mode with pretty amazing results. Since the last version sample import is possible so it becomes a granular synth really, but you can also play it like a synth with incoming audio, just set it to Poly/gated and you can play granulated chordal structures with incoming audio, really cool.

Some of my crusherX experiments and files on the cloud:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/s ... er-x-files

[TwoToneshuzz]

Good thing there's a fully functional demo, so you don't have to take their word for it.

Which one would you recommend that I try?

[TwoToneshuzz]

crusherX has been a very important tool for me over the last 2 years. I use it in the studio and I process instruments with it when playing live, in my last premiere I processed a whole orchestra with it in surround mode with pretty amazing results. Since the last version sample import is possible so it becomes a granular synth really, but you can also play it like a synth with incoming audio, just set it to Poly/gated and you can play granulated chordal structures with incoming audio, really cool.

Some of my crusherX experiments and files on the cloud:
http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/s ... er-x-files

I like your experiments with crusher X!


I'll check it out some more..

[SODDI]

Sampleconstruct - is that standalone or VST?

[Sampleconstruct]

Sampleconstruct - is that standalone or VST?

I'm using crusherX Mac - so it's a AU Plug-In, there is no standalone version for Mac unfortunately.

[Neon Breath]

i dont know about you guys but whenever i try a granulator plugin i always end up with unusable noise

got any example that would make granulalalal end up in a track ?

Since you asked for it, here then. All my pieces contain at some point, granular synthesis: http://soundcloud.com/red-fog

[cron]

i dont know about you guys but whenever i try a granulator plugin i always end up with unusable noise

got any example that would make granulalalal end up in a track ?

I'll chuck a recent work in progess of mine from my scratchpad Soundcloud page in here too: http://soundcloud.com/chqtestsubjects/unti

Everything in this except the kick is made by granulating 3 seconds' worth of an old music hall tune from 1915.

It's easier to talk about which effects aren't achievable via granular sythesis to be honest. As well as the more exotic stuff it's perfectly capable of replicating/approximating loads of traditional studio effects like amplitude modulation, flanging, chorusing, delay, reverb, pitch-shifting, gating... It's an incredibly versatile processing method.

[Sampleconstruct]

speaking of granulators... you guys seen this?

http://www.sonic-lab.com/

WOW, demoed Cosmos for some hours today, now I got the hang of it and simply love it, not only because of the amazing 3D graphics, but because of the sound results. Just loaded some soprano sax samples and got into a whole new cosmos of unheard sounds by setting up the modulation sources and destinations - totally stunning...



The noise bursts in the demo are killing me though, so I'll have to buy it

[Neon Breath]

speaking of granulators... you guys seen this?

http://www.sonic-lab.com/

WOW, demoed Cosmos for some hours today, now I got the hang of it and simply love it, not only because of the amazing 3D graphics, but because of the sound results. Just loaded some soprano sax samples and got into a whole new cosmos of unheard sounds by setting up the modulation sources and destinations - totally stunning...



The noise bursts in the demo are killing me though, so I'll have to buy it

Interesting. Any audio demo maybe? Cause I've tried the demo, and I really did not like the workflow, found it quite painful to use and ended giving up. I'm ready to give it another chance though if I hear something amazing coming out of it

[Sampleconstruct]

speaking of granulators... you guys seen this?

http://www.sonic-lab.com/

WOW, demoed Cosmos for some hours today, now I got the hang of it and simply love it, not only because of the amazing 3D graphics, but because of the sound results. Just loaded some soprano sax samples and got into a whole new cosmos of unheard sounds by setting up the modulation sources and destinations - totally stunning...



The noise bursts in the demo are killing me though, so I'll have to buy it

Interesting. Any audio demo maybe? Cause I've tried the demo, and I really did not like the workflow, found it quite painful to use and ended giving up. I'm ready to give it another chance though if I hear something amazing coming out of it

Here you go, my first recorded experiment after receiving my apps this morning, you get a personalized app via Email coded to the ID of your computer, so I got 2, one for my studio machine and one for my music laptop.

Processing the sample of a dumbbell plate, recording to disk, removing some clicks with RX2, levelling and adding some Reverb (B2) later inside Logic.

http://soundcloud.com/sampleconstruct/cosmos-a

[wasi]

you get a personalized app via Email coded to the ID of your computer, so I got 2, one for my studio machine and one for my music laptop.

The whole app is hard-coded to your machine? Wow, that's got to be the worst DRM scheme imaginable. If the good man finds his inner self and goes to live in the wilderness there's no way to use it on a new system? Or if I reinstall or upgrade my system and he's off skiing I have to wait until he's back to get an updated app? And here I was just getting ready to buy it...

Nice example though, sounds like a windchime-solo.

I read you removed some clicks manually. That's something I noticed as well, despite following the instructions given to avoid them (i.e. use simple ADSR), it does tend to click a lot on a pretty broad range of settings. Even if it comes with the granular territory I feel that's something that needs to be tempered down a bit, even if it's at the cost of mathematical purity.

Another thing I have a hard time with is eliminating the 'engine room'-type pulsing from those rotating generators. They're shaped like a wheel and it tends to infuse that rotating vibe into things.

Hm, is this still on topic...?

[Sampleconstruct]

you get a personalized app via Email coded to the ID of your computer, so I got 2, one for my studio machine and one for my music laptop.

The whole app is hard-coded to your machine? Wow, that's got to be the worst DRM scheme imaginable. If the good man finds his inner self and goes to live in the wilderness there's no way to use it on a new system? Or if I reinstall or upgrade my system and he's off skiing I have to wait until he's back to get an updated app? And here I was just getting ready to buy it...

Nice example though, sounds like a windchime-solo.

I read you removed some clicks manually. That's something I noticed as well, despite following the instructions given to avoid them (i.e. use simple ADSR), it does tend to click a lot on a pretty broad range of settings. Even if it comes with the granular territory I feel that's something that needs to be tempered down a bit, even if it's at the cost of mathematical purity.

Another thing I have a hard time with is eliminating the 'engine room'-type pulsing from those rotating generators. They're shaped like a wheel and it tends to infuse that rotating vibe into things.

Hm, is this still on topic...?

Turn Loop acceleration on the upper left all the way down to get a more constant streaming of things without the machine room effect

This is a very theoretical app (the manual is a bit ot in that respect too) but I like the attitude and with some extra work the results are rewarding enough to get into it, a good addition to the granular, experimental tool box.