Granular synthesis

Multiple grains may be layered on top of each other, and may play at different speeds, phases, volume, and frequency, among other parameters.

At low speeds of playback, the result is a kind of soundscape, often described as a cloud, that is manipulatable in a manner unlike that for natural sound sampling or other synthesis techniques.

By varying the waveform, envelope, duration, spatial position, and density of the grains, many different sounds can be produced.

Greek composer Iannis Xenakis is known as the inventor of the granular synthesis technique, having expanded upon Gabor's theoretical foundation.

[1][page needed] The composer Iannis Xenakis (1960) was the first to explicate a compositional theory for grains of sound.

[3] Twelve years later, in 1986, the Canadian composer Barry Truax implemented real-time versions of this synthesis technique using the DMX-1000 Signal Processing Computer.