Basics of Synthesizers (7) – Granular Synthesis

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Hi! This is Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer. Today, I’ll introduce granular synthesis, which is composed of “grain” units.

The principle of this type of sound synthesis is very similar to the concept of sampling. Granular synthesizers take small parts of a sample and store them as units. Those units are called “grains.” That is where the name “Granular Synthesis” comes from.

The grains have lengths ranging from approximately 1 to 100 ms, and these samples can be played at different times, phases, speeds, and frequencies in a granular synthesizer. Thus, cloudy sounds that resemble long reverberations and continuous tails are produced by these manipulations.

In 1947, Dennis Gabor introduced this concept, which was first implemented in a computer in 1974 by Curtis Roads, an electronic music composer specializing in granular and pulsar synthesis. The spans are quite long, aren’t they?

The emergence of granular synthesizer hardware was significantly delayed due to the large computational requirements and high CPU speed needed for the calculations. Thus, the real-time version of this synthesizer emerged 12 years after the use of granular synthesizers in Curtis Roads’ music.

DMX-1000 (https://120years.net/dmx-1000-signal-processing-computer-dean-wallraff-usa-1978/)

The real-time granular synthesis was invented by Barry Truax, a Canadian composer. This synthesis was processed by the DMX-1000 computer.

Naturally, you might wonder about the existence of physical hardware, as with other synthesizers. The upper photo shows the modern, dedicated granular synthesizer hardware, the GR-1, which was released in 2017.

This shows that this kind of synthesis processing requires a lot of computing resources. And this means that many virtual synthesizers using this method require significant computing power.

Granular effect “EFX Fragments” by Arturia (affiliate link—if you purchase this plugin through it, I will receive a small commission to support my work :)).

However, for implementation in DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), no physical hardware is needed to use granular synthesis. Arturia’s EFX Fragments is a great example.

Granular effect “Portal” by Output (also affiliate link)

Output’s “Portal” plugin is another excellent granular effect.

This is the official video of the EFX Fragments. You might hear the “shimmering sound” from it.

This sound could be effective in ambient music that requires long tails on the sounds. I like these sounds, but I’ve never used them in my music… ^^;; However, someday I will…

OK, I’ll wrap this up today. See you in the next post!

Life Update: Live Sound Engineer, Mixing Instructor, and Thesis Work (Oct 26, 2025)

Hello everyone, this is mixing engineer and music producer Jooyoung Kim.

It’s been another busy week, so this one’s going to be a short life update post. ^^;

Last Saturday, we held the second “Frisketch x Yeonjun Yoon | Um” concert.

I worked as the sound director again. We used the same venue as the June concert, but this time we positioned the piano differently.

In the meantime, I picked up another Peluso P87 and added two RØDE NT55s for ambience. The sound came out much closer to what I had in mind this time.

Because of the speaker placement, I decided to run the mix in mono. Since the only instrument was the piano, the main mic (P87) captured it beautifully.

That said, when the artist mentioned, “I wish the piano tone were a bit less metallic,” I completely agreed. Haha.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I assisted Sound Director Sung-won Yang in his class “Mixing with IR Reverb” at the Arko Arts Human Resources Institute in Ilsan.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took over and led the mixing lecture myself.

Sometimes I wonder if I made things too difficult, but the topics I consider most important in mixing tend to be the challenging ones.

So I told the students, “It’ll all make sense later—trust me,” and just went for it. Haha.

Honestly, I had so much I wanted to cover, but time was short. I trimmed and trimmed until the lecture fit the schedule perfectly—but it still felt a bit like a Spartan session.

Hopefully it wasn’t too much to absorb all at once.

By the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here before, but I’ve been teaching major practical courses at my graduate school since finishing my master’s degree.

I used to give private lessons only to a few close acquaintances, but now that I’m officially teaching as part of the program, I’ve been thinking a lot more seriously about pedagogy and teaching methods.

Also, my master’s thesis has finally appeared on D-Collection (The archive of theses in South Korea).

The topic is the same as my journal publication, though since it’s an earlier research version, the experimental conditions may feel a bit rougher.

I wanted to cite my published journal paper in the thesis abstract (which is normally standard practice), but unfortunately the publication and submission dates overlapped too closely.

I even contacted the university library afterward, but they said the submission was already finalized and online revisions weren’t possible.

Still, since the journal was published first, there’s no real issue academically.

(For context: a thesis isn’t considered an official publication—once your advisor approves it, the degree is granted.)

Interestingly, I couldn’t find another case online where the timing overlapped this perfectly. ^^;

As for my recent live recordings, I’ve finished most of the mixing, and now my Mac Studio is running endless deep learning sessions again.

Compared to my old Windows PC with a GTX 1080, the Mac runs quieter and stays much cooler.

I’m redoing the experiment I failed back in May, and this time I plan to take my time and turn it into a proper paper.

I already got IRB approval, so I’m hoping the training finishes soon.

(Each CNN run takes about 20 days, by the way… hahaha… ha… 😭)

I’m planning to try a WaveNet model as well, but I’m slightly worried it might overrun the IRB deadline. 😭

That’s how things have been lately.
See you in the next post!

Won the Gold Prize in the DTM Koshien (甲子園) + Life Update (Oct 17, 2025)

Hello, this is Mixing Engineer and Music Producer Jooyoung Kim.

Lately I’ve mostly been posting about sound engineering projects, but this time, I finally did something more in line with my role as a music producer.

DTM甲子園2025

Last month, I submitted one of my tracks to the DTM Koshien, organized by Movement Production in Japan.

To be honest, I’d been so busy afterward that I almost forgot about it—but out of a total of 431 entries, my track placed in the top 11 and was officially awarded the Gold Prize.

Everything is labeled as a “Gold Prize,” so I suppose it’s more like being recognized as a finalist. (The video thumbnail says “Gold Prize Nominee,” but it really is a Gold Prize…^^)

The song I submitted is called Seiun (星雲, “Seongun”, means “Constellation”).
Originally, it was a full track with two verses, but since the competition required only a one-verse submission, I merged the first and second verses into a single version.

Also, the bass in the song was performed by me and painstakingly edited note by note. As with most of my works, I handled everything on my own—vocals, instruments, arrangement, mixing, and mastering.

I really appreciate that, just like with Sonicwire before, Movement Production judged the entries fairly and still awarded a foreigner like me. I’d like to release the full version with both verses someday, but that’s something I’ll need to discuss further.

The awards ceremony and event, along with the grand prize announcement, will take place in Tokyo next Sunday. I’d really love to attend, but between my limited Japanese and the cost of the flight ticket… it’s not easy.

Money’s been draining fast these days. For instance, I just got my TOEFL results today—and I completely messed up the speaking section, so I’ll need to retake it… another 300 USD gone. This will be my third attempt…

These photos are from last Tuesday’s performance of Practice Piece: Triptych, held at a venue called Seoul National University Power Plant. It featured simultaneous live recording and amplification of saenghwang (Korean mouth organ), drums, processed vocals, piano, and synthesizers. The artist is considering releasing a live album, and I’m currently working on that.

Tomorrow I’m also working as a sound director for a small concert, and next week I’ll be assisting as a lecturer at a place called Arko.

Fortunately, I do have some projects lined up, like live recording for concerts and teaching—but all my earnings immediately go into buying gear like microphones and cables, so I’m broke again. ^^; I suppose that’s just the fate of those of us in music and sound.

If only I had passed the TOEFL this time, I could have worried less for a while…

On top of that, I’ve also submitted a paper with a fairly simple topic. If it gets rejected again, it’s going to hurt, but at least I managed to finish it well enough to submit. Time to start writing the next one.

Anyway, that’s a quick update from me!
See you in the next post. 🙂

XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color Flash Sale! (~Oct 11, 60% Off)

Hello! This is Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer.

I’m excited to share that XLN Audio’s RC-20 Retro Color—the creative effect plugin famous for adding that authentic ‘Retro’ coloration to your sound—is having a flash sale this weekend!

I’ve received a Not-For-Resale (NFR) license to produce a thorough review for you. And if you decide to pick up the plugin using the links I provide, I’ll earn a small commission—Honestly, that small commission is a monumental help in keeping my work going and putting food on the table…:) Your support means the world to me.

Let’s start!

RC-20 Retro Color

Click image to purchase RC-20 at Plugin Boutique

RC-20 Retro Color has earned its place as one of the true ‘modern classic’ coloration plugins. Despite having been released nearly a decade ago, it remains incredibly popular, with producers all over the world still loving it. It has definitely become a steady seller in the world of creative effects.

These are the six distinct effects modules that make up RC-20’s sound design capabilities:

  1. Noise: This generator adds texture by letting you select various noise types (like vinyl crackle or tape hiss) and allows the noise level to follow the amplitude of the source material (using the Follow parameter).
  2. Wobble & Flutter: Use this to introduce the pitch inconsistencies associated with unstable analog playback (like a worn cassette or vinyl). You can also expand the effect from mono to stereo width.
  3. Distortion: This module is straightforward—it makes things sound distorted, offering a range of saturation from subtle warmth to heavy fuzz.
  4. Digital: Degrade the audio to recreate the sound of vintage digital gear by lessening the sample rate or bit depth to provoke that classic digital noise and artifacting.
  5. Space (Reverb): Simply put, this is a reverb module for adding depth and dimension.
  6. Magnetic (Volume Drops): This simulates the wear, flutter, and volume loss artifacts associated with magnetic tape recording and playback.

You also get helpful visual scopes that show you exactly how each effect module is transforming your sound in real-time.

To manage the overall vintage intensity, simply use the Magnitude fader, which controls total amount of the effects.

Finally, the bottom of the plugin offers essential final controls, letting you adjust the Input/Output Gain and apply a crucial EQ filter to shape the final tone of your colored sound.

Final Thought

Really simple, isn’t it?

The core effects are incredibly powerful, yet the parameters are streamlined and intuitive. With a plugin this effective and this easy to use, there’s truly no reason not to add it to your collection!

Purchase XLN Audio RC-20 Retro at Plugin Boutique

I especially recommend it for sound designers who frequently work on music for advertisements, as well as music producers of all genres. You’ll be able to inject a huge range of interesting and fun effects into your tracks. I think it would be particularly cool for adding grit and vibe to Rock vocals, and it’s already a staple in the production of Lo-fi music.