Performing a live synth rig: real-time granulation, scripted modulation, and free-rhythm sets

This module builds toward the thing granular synthesis was always meant for: standing in front of an audience with a hybrid rig — SuperCollider for microsound, Surge XT for voices, a DAW as the set’s spine — and improvising an 8-12 minute textural set in the lineage of Objekt or Roads-school electroacoustics, where nothing is safely pre-sequenced. Live input becomes material the moment it arrives; pacing comes from tempo you bend by hand, not a grid.

The arc starts supported. First, wire up the circular-buffer architecture from “Live granulation requires recording to a looping buffer first” in a studio setting, learning by ear why the grain pointer must trail the record head. In parallel, script a first “Formula modulator” in Lua that breathes life into one Surge patch, and rehearse “pulsar synthesis” and “waveset manipulation” as texture generators until switching between pitched, buzzy, and glitched regimes is a reflex — these three are the part-task drills, because on stage there is no time to think about pointer offsets or duty cycles. Next, design the drum palette offline: the 808/909 waveform-analysis principle plus DSP-literate before/after listening make those voices intentional rather than preset-shaped. A dress rehearsal adds the automated master-tempo lane, practicing free-rhythm pacing before the unsupported capstone recording.

The required atoms are exactly what the capstone cannot survive without: the granulation plumbing, the modulation and texture engines, the tempo and multiscale-organization moves, and the judgment principles — economy of selection, heuristics over formalism — that govern every live decision. The supporting atoms (physical-modeling voices, Ambisonic spatialization, envelope internals, spectral scale design) enrich the rig’s palette and deepen the DSP literacy the set draws on, but the performance stands without them.

Runnable examples

Generated from the context/ instrument corpus by concept (redistributable idioms only). Do not edit — regenerate with gen-module-examples.mjs.

feedback-loop

{ CombN.ar(Impulse.ar(2) * 0.3, 0.2, 0.2, 3) }.play

_{supercollider-0015 · CC0}

s("cp").delay(0.5).delaytime(0.166).delayfeedback(0.7)

_{strudel-0018 · CC0}

physical-modeling

Mandolin m => dac; 0.9 => m.pluck; 220 => m.freq;

_{chuck-0043 · MIT}