I have been playing with using Confusing Simpler as a granular-style processor.
To do this:
Load or record a sample into Confusing simpler
Turn on grid (have to right click IN the little sample window in the bottom)
Turn up the number of grid slices
Modulate the “start slice” – use a Sawtooth LFO to sweep through the sample linearly.
The problem with this approach is that even if you turn up click elimination (at the bottom of the module), it still has a fair amount of annoying clicks and/or thumps.
So the solution would be to put a VCA/Envelope combo after the Confusing simpler, so that the amplitude is zero when each slice begins and ends.
There’s a problem though. You want the envelope to work on individual slices (or since we’re doing granular) or grains. To do that the start and end of the envelope have to happen at the start and end of each slice.
What you have to work with in Confusing Simpler is the ‘EOC’ trigger output, which fires at the end of each grain/slice.
The problem is this. The envelope ALSO has to last the same length as the slice. I don’t know how to make that happen.
A thought I had was to use a full wave rectified sine wave, with the frequency correllated to the slice length. For example a 1 second sample, chopped into 32 slices, you would need a frequency of 32 HZ.
BUT you can’t can’t get the slice length from Confusing sampler, as it’s the function of how long the sample is and how many slices you have. And just to make it fun, the number of slices is modulatable, and the length of the slice is variable.
So which of you clever people has an idea how to handle it? Or is there already a granular module you can use in this way to time stretch audio?
I’ll experiment with @jeremy’s Grains module. But part of the fun is trying to roll your own and getting interesting results.
If you map the “Slice Maker” start and end button to CV-Pam you get a CV read out from there.
If you divide the start from the end with math you get some kind of “length” in CV.
It also changes according to where in the loop the slice is. So you could use that data somehow to create a slightly shorter GateLength to drive an Envelope. Maybe even ShapeMaster. ?!
And then it could be triggered by EOC. If the slices play all the time that should also work as a sort of “Start of Cycle” Trigger. You would have to fool around with Attack and Decay to find something that works though.
The only problem is: if the length of the recorded sample changes it also changes the “length” in CV readout you get.
Sorry, it might not be what you are looking for but my brain told me to mention it. Maybe it helps to find the real solution.
With Simpliciter, there’s a “ramp” output that respects the “Slice maker” start and end points. That should work for generating an envelope by using any module that supports phasors.
Voxglitch grain engine 2 is missing one feature I need: recording audio. The way Confusing Simpler does it is perfect: it’s double buffered, meaning it records into a background buffer while the forground buffer plays. Stop recording, the background buffer becomes the foreground buffer and starts playing.
If Grain Engine 2 did that it would be brilliant.
That double buffered recording makes for a killer live looper setup. I record long loops and they take so long to repeat they don’t sound so loopy. I hate dudes who do the ed sheeran 4 bar loop thing, and I’m closer to free jazz than that ginger hellspawn.
I have not tested it though, so I’m not sure it will do what you want. The manual says it records audio to one of the sample slots in Grain Engine, so it looks like you’ll have to switch over to that slot at the end of the loop.
Maybe it helps to find the real solution.