The Sounds Beneath Your Fingers - Borderlands Granular Synth

Borderlands Granular is a very unique beast. Granular Synthesis is based on the concept of taking small sections (Grains) of any sound and rearranging those sounds and layering them to create a new playable sound. The idea of granular synthesis started with experimental composers like Iannis Xenakis splicing recorded sounds on tape with a razor blade back in the 1950's and stringing them back together.

The development of samplers and later software based sample manipulation made the granular process a lot easier and less likely to result in injury than playing around with tape and razor blades. Modern computers and synths have expanded the sound palette of the Granular concept to include the ability to adjust the envelope, pitch, variable length and number of grains it is possible to layer up.

Borderlands Granular is an iPad app that was developed by Chris Carlson. He took the idea of granular and created a beautiful interface which really transforms the iPad surface in to a unique musical instrument. Each sound sample is represented as a rectangular waveform that can be dragged around the screen, resized and arranged along other samples to create a performance you play directly and very expressively with your fingers.

The grains of sound from each sample are played by grain "clouds". These clouds can be moved around over the samples so they are pulling the grains of sound from the sample (or even several overlapping samples) they sit over. The grain clouds can be moved along the waveform in any direction and their vertical position on the waveform controls the volume at which they play back.

The grain clouds have controls for the number, length, pitch, vibrato, overlap, volume and stereo width of the grain samples. There are also separate controls for the envelope shape of each grain and the ability to turn on a gravity mode so the grain clouds can be shifted around the screen using the iPad's accelerometer by tilting the screen.

Borderlands is beautiful to look at and to play. You really need no musical knowledge or ability to understand Granular Synthesis in order to enjoy it. The interface is so immediate and intuitive that a child can pick it up and enjoy experimenting with sound. The great thing about Borderlands is that it is not just an experimental noise maker. It is capable of making everything from an atonal cacophony to lush mellow and melodic soundscapes.

My video is at DLive