Oddment Audio Groc Demo at AES University of Michigan Chapter Tomorrow Apr 5th

For those that can make it, Oddment Audio's Groc will be demo'd at the University of Michigan tomorrow. Details follow.

"This month we were lucky enough to meet Trevor Reed, another local in our little Michigan town that was enthusiastic enough about Groc and Oddment to join us in the development effort. With both a software and music background, we think Trevor can help us accelerate Groc’s workflow and user interface. It has also been great to put our first real Groc into someone’s home studio and let them explore on their own.

John will give a presentation on Groc for the Audio Engineering Society’s University of Michigan chapter on Friday April 5 at 1-2pm (tomorrow!). If you happen to be near Ann Arbor, the event is open to the public and we have included all of the details below. A huge thanks to Nick West, the student AES chapter chair, and Dr. Jason Corey with the Performing Arts Technology faculty for helping to organize this event. We also expect Justin Van Slembrouck from Modern Sounds to join us and share a bit about what they have been working on lately. This should be a lot of fun, and as an alumnus of the department, John is anticipating a lovely trip down memory lane.

In preparation for Friday, John had a chance to present Groc to the Northwestern Michigan College audio technology students. Thanks to Brady Corcoran for arranging this and to all the students that had really great questions and seemed enthused about granular synthesis. We hope these local audio enthusiasts can help us record samples, create patches and maybe even help to produce and test Grocs before shipping them to you!"

Groc Granular Engine: Speed and Size Controls

video upload by oddment audio

"From Gabor's early thinking and experiments, one of the core ideas of granular synthesis is independent manipulation of time and pitch. Commercial time stretch, auto-tune, pitch shift and harmonizing algorithms are all closely related to granular synthesis. So all good granular synths should have a "speed" control that can slow down or reverse a sound without pitch shift, and should enable pitch shifts (e.g. playing different keyboard notes) while preserving playback timing.

The idea of a granular synth, as opposed to a time stretching algorithm, is to provide additional controls to impact how grains are selected, their length and many other attributes.

In this example we show Groc's playback "speed" and grain "size" controls. We demonstrate independent control of the playback direction and speed from the "direction" and size of the individual grains. This creates all kinds of interesting possibilities and reveals some surprising attributes about speech perception. Near the end of the example we can still perceive the macro structure of the sound (the words) in spite of the micro-sounds being time reversed."

Groc - from train announcement to wavetable synth

video upload by oddment audio

"Can Groc do wavetable synthesis? Oh yes.

Here’s how: (1) pick a sound, (2) set the speed near 0, (3) turn the overlap all the way up, (4) use small grains, (5) have fun playing with speed and grain size to seamlessly move between the original sound and your wavetable synth!"

Groc Granular Synth - Vibraphone manipulation with time path

video upload by oddment audio

"This is an example of using Groc's time path to get an infinitely sustaining note from a staccato vibraphone sample. Then we use our new sound in a fun, little cover...who can name that tune?"

New Groc Granular Hardware Synth from Oddment Audio

video uploads by oddment audio

Playlist: 1. Groc granular synth - modulating fun

Here we have simple note sustain while modulating grain bandwidth, overlap, placement (in stereo field), distortion drive and filter cutoff frequency. Oh, and our first reveal of the delay unit!

2. Violin and ambience with Groc granular synth

Here we are editing sample loop points, ADSR envelope and Groc's unique "time path" to create lush sustains from a short violin clip.

3. cool fall day + warm groc tones

walking on a cool fall day, accompanied by warm tones produced by groc granular synth

4. Groc - LED sequence with spatial sound

This video shows the first testing of the groc interface board, and includes the first audio demonstrations of spatial sound overlaid. Headphones recommended!

5. Groc Demo - Grain parameters

First demo of groc's grain parameters with a guitar loop as audio sample.

"Sculpt sound. Modulate everything. Do you groc?

Stunning, yes.

Slim, yes.

Powerhouse, also yes.
quad core 64-bit ARM processor
1GB RAM, 4GB of user storage
vivid DSI touch screen
cutting edge signal processing
fits in a bread box

Not like the others.

Groc demonstrates that a compact form can deliver unparalleled functionality. Access dozens of parameters in the custom granular synthesis engine with 4 grains encoders. Achieve one-of-a-kind manipulations of playback speed, shape multiple envelopes, edit audio sample crop and loop points, adjust 4 LFOs, 3 macros and morph between patches with just 8 more encoders. Add in an entire world of effects, accessed with just 4 more.
The large and vivid touch screen provides rich information and beautiful visualizations of your sounds, and enables deep functionality within just a touch or two. Is this where we mention the placard at Oddment HQ that reads, “Down with menu diving!”?

Patch without limits.

Every parameter on groc is a modulation destination, and connecting modulation sources is as easy as plugging in a patch cable (w/o the need to search in your closet).

To go with its myriad destinations, groc has a bounty of modulation sources: 4 LFOs, 4 envelopes, MIDI velocity, key tracking, polyphonic after touch and all the rest.
In the event you were hoping to use a physical patch cable, yes, you can use groc’s modulation sources to wiggle analog voltages via the 4 control outputs. Or configure them as inputs to control any of groc’s parameters with CV from your other gear, a sustain pedal or you name it.

Did you want to sequence a parameter, or draw a custom modulation curve on the touch screen? That seems reasonable and groc will support you. Do you want to connect a dozen or more modulation sources to the same parameter? That is far less reasonable, but that’s just, like, our opinion."

Learn more about Groc and Oddment Audio: www.oddmentaudio.com