jc855 / grainstation-c

Granular Live Performance Workstation

Grainstation-C

Written by Micah Frank under GPLv3

http://micahfrank.com

http://micahfrank.bandcamp.com

Grainstation-C is an open-source, granular performance workstation designed to build realtime, evolving sound sculptures with optional ambisonics. It seamlessly integrates with a Novation LaunchControl XL Mark 2 (easily modifiable for any other controller) and can processes 4 disk tracks and 3 live input streams. You can save any state as a snapshot and morph to that snapshot at any point in a performance. It has 6 independent pitch delay lines, 6 switchable low pass and high pass filters, live audio looping and multiple granular processing controls including granular time-stretching, frame animation and granular pitch shifting.

Grainstation-C was originally inspired by the Make Noise System Concrete but shortly took on many unique characteristics of its own. http://www.makenoisemusic.com/synthesizers/system-concrete

I used it on my latest album Quetico extensively to process field recordings and create walls of textures. I very happy happy to now offer it to the public!

Watch this demo video to see what it can do!

Questions

Please ask any questions in the issues section: https://github.com/chronopolis5k/Grainstation-C/issues

Controller

Grainstation-C has been developed to integrate with the Novation Launch Control XL Mark2. However, any other controller should work as well. The MIDI note and controller mapping schema is in the MIDI Specification.txt file

This repository includes 4 template pages for the Novation Launch Control XL. To change pages, press [User + Track Control 1-4] buttons

• Page 1 - Granular Controls - pitch, time-stretch, grain size

• Page 2 - Granular and Filter Controls - grain duration, filter type (low pass, high pass), filter frequency

• Page 3 - Pitch Delay Controls - delay time, delay feedback, delay pitch shift

• Page 4 - Delay and Convolution Controls - delay send amount, convolution send amount

• Page 5 - Ambisonics / Spatial Audio Controls - azimuth angle, altitude angle

Download the Launch Control XL Mk2 software (for loading the templates): https://bit.ly/2y3rWul

Recording

You can render a file in real-time to the /renders folder simply by pressing the [Record Arm] button on the Launch Control XL. The button will begin to blink and your performance will be recorded. You can stop and restart recording as needed by pressing the button again.

Ambisonics

You can enable the ambisonics flag and immediately tweak the azimuth and altitude for any track. When you render the performance, a multichannel B-encoded file will also be rendered to the "b_format" folder.

Installation

Grainstation requires Csound: http://csound.com/download.html CsoundQT comes with Csound and will enable you to run Grainstation C.

See this video for a quick explanation about installation and setup https://www.dropbox.com/s/im1vivrjv98isub/Grainstation-C_config.mp4?dl=0

Page Controls Overview