Granular synthesis is a method that operates on the microsound (all sounds on the time scale shorter than musical notes, the sound object time scale, and longer than the sample time scale. Specifically this is shorter than one tenth of a second and longer than 10 milliseconds, including the audio frequency range (20 Hz to 20 kHz) and the infrasonic frequency range (below 20 Hz) level. Based on the same principles as sampling, however, the samples are not used directly but are split in small pieces of around 1 to 50 ms in length. These small pieces are called grains. Multiple grains are then layered on top of each other all playing at different speed, phase and volume.

The result is no single tone, but a soundscape that retains the tone, pitch resonance and timbre of the original acoustic guitar recordings. There are no additional over-dubs, instrumentation or post-production effects.

Acoustic guitar and original compositions :: D.McKENNA