# Granular Shoot 'n' Loot...

- Site: Analog Industries
- Author: Chris Randall
- Date: 2012-10-17
- URL: https://analogindustries.com/2012/10/granular-shoot-n-loot/

![Granular Shoot 'n' Loot...](https://analogindustries.com/images/blog/borderlands_ai.png)

Yay, Borderlands Granular for iPad is finally out! Despite my personal opinion that the author may need to re-address his product-naming paradigm (related: watch for my new synth app for the iPad, Fallout 2 Subtractive), this one is right in my wheelhouse, visually. Any iPad audio app that doesn't look like an oscilloscope from 1967 is A-OK in my book, and this app is most assuredly _not_ a skeuomorphic disaster area.

Functionally, it is similar to Curtis, except you can overlay several sounds; it lacks some of the playability of Curtis, but by the same token, it lacks a lot of the questionable control mechanisms, and in my brief relationship with it, it lacks all the bugginess. (Unlike Curtis, which I can freeze in a matter of minutes, I haven't managed to crash Borderlands yet.)

I won't go and give it a one star "ZOMG U CANT LODE URSER SOUNDS FAILZZZZ111ELEVENTY!!" review in the app store, because I'm giving the developer the benefit of the doubt and assuming that he has an update planned in a most ricky-tick fashion to allow me to load my own sounds. (Edit: see below.) As of release, it has four samples, and that's that. Also, there is no way to save a state and recall it later; Borderlands lives very much in the Here, the Now, the Holy Fucking Tide in the Affairs Of Man. Etc. I assume this will be addressed as well.

Why do I assume those two things? Because visually and operationally, this developer knows his shit, and there's no way that he didn't think of those. So he'll get to them eventually, or we're gonna have a problem here.

So, maybe not ready for prime time just yet, chiefly because there is going to be a fundamental sameness to all its output given the fact that everyone is sharing the same source material. (Such is the nature of granular synthesis, after all.) But as an exploration in to a more sophisticated and visually stimulating iteration of the general ideas put forth by Curtis, it merits support, and I would like to see where it goes over time. Provisionally, five star review from me, with the noted caveats.

$3.99 in [the iTunes store](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=sTCd28A32go&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fborderlands-granular%252Fid561369733%253Fmt%253D8%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30). I recommend an iPad 2 or 3; I don't really see how this would be any fun on an iPad 1, but you're welcome to try. Overview video on Vimeo [here](https://vimeo.com/49586854). (I'd embed it, but it's Vimeo, so that'd suck.) Product website [here](http://www.borderlands-granular.com/app/).

**EDIT:** Apparently, it \_does\_ load user samples, but not in the normal manner. You can make a playlist called Borderlands in iTunes and it will access those. It actually says this in the second paragraph of the info page, but for some reason I didn't notice it. I just looked in the File Sharing part of the Apps tab, because that's where such things normally go. So, perhaps a bit of a usability fail, but nothing too tragic. I'll try it out later today and report in the comments.

## Comments (30)

**RGiskard** (2012-10-17):

Been waiting for that to be ported to iOS. Except for the oddness in loading your own sounds (create an itunes playlist called Borderlands and restart the app) it's a good app.

All the parameter mess prone to pop up in granular synths condensed to a few useful controls, which the tutorial manages to explain well. I did read Road's book, which helped understand what's going on in Borderlands. Not a requirement, though! It's a very clever UI.

Also waiting on the update. Meanwhile, if the app crashes and burns when loading files, you need to reinstall. Yay.

**coyoteous** (2012-10-17):

Oh, those wacky CCRMA kids!

**krylenko** (2012-10-17):

Granular synthesis is fun to play with, but on every granular box I've used I always want to condense down the parameters to a single More Interesting knob.

**beauty pill** (2012-10-17):

I'm very excited about this app and was waiting breathlessly for its release.

I have a real emotional relationship with the general granular family of alchemy (for lack of a better --- or even a good --- phrase.)

I love the idea of time torn asunder.

Didn't realize I needed an iPad 3 to dig into it, but I've been needing an excuse to get one anyway.

- c

**beauty pill** (2012-10-17):

The way that this thing illustrates/transmogrifies time is pretty ingenious. Instantly understandable to me.

- c

**darklordjames** (2012-10-17):

It sits very poorly with me that he is trading on what is obviously someone else's product name.

**soup** (2012-10-17):

i don't have an ipad but this looks great. i really like the interface.

**beauty pill** (2012-10-17):

@darklordjames: Branding misjudgement. Definitely not a deliberate reference. Dude is a scientist.

- c

**Chris Randall** (2012-10-17):

I agree with Chad. There's actually a clarification about it on CDM a few weeks ago, but my personal opinion is that he was most likely completely unaware of the game. I've done things like that a couple times. So my kidding was also self-deprecating.

His main mistake is probably doing a Google search on the name, thinking "well, that's some old game. Who cares?" Not, of course, realizing it was a franchise with a major upcoming release, and was hugely popular. Not a big deal, and I would be shocked if there was malice aforethought.

-CR

**beauty pill** (2012-10-17):

"I got other ideas...like a micro brewery that also serves frozen yogurt. I'm thinking of calling it Microsoft..." - 30 Rock

**huggie** (2012-10-17):

Instant purchase! A granular masterpiece. I'm already making beautiful granular percussion and FX from random sound sources...

- Hugo

**ToneHead** (2012-10-18):

Unfortunately it crashed hard on my iPad 3 within a few minutes - the one thing that's common to most of the iPad granular synthesizers I've tried so far. On the plus side, it has a very nice interface that's immediately comprehensible and usable if you know what granular is.

**noisegeek** (2012-10-18):

I'm impressed by how useable this sounds. Most granular stuff sounds more or less the same to me (like the glitch equivalent of the dubstep drop), but this occupies a very different space. A bit Underworld-esque with the samples in the demo.

**coyoteous** (2012-10-18):

Indeed, it's all so grainy. I do a lot of stuff with really long grains (yeah, like the rice), which I prefer to call boulders. When you approach a second or more, they're really more like samples, loops, phrase fragments, etc. If the application allows long grains, longer times and denser streams will likely bring the it or the host to its knees. I sometimes don't have much use for the original intention things. There was a Norris plug-in for Sound Effects, and whatever the commercial version of that host was, called Sample Hose. It might not have even been technically granular, but I got a lot of milage out of it. I think he uses the Wishart term: brassage. Speaking of which, I still sometimes muse about getting CDP. I also like(d) Cecelia.

**beauty pill** (2012-10-18):

There are, like, seven words and phrases you just wrote that I don't know.

- c

**Chris Randall** (2012-10-18):

Hey, I don't even know 'em. Is there going to be a test later?

-CR

**coyoteous** (2012-10-18):

Sorry, that was chronically sleep-deprived rambling. I'm guessing, but let me be your google proxy:

Sound Effects - http://www.riccisoft.com/soundeffects/

(later it became something else under micromat, the techtool people, but even google doesn't seem to remember about that)

Michael Norris - http://www.michaelnorris.info/

Sample Hose - one of Norris' old plug-ins for SE (proprietary format or Premiere, can't remember)

Trevor Wishart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Wishart

CDP - Composer's Desktop Project

http://www.composersdesktop.com/

brassage

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Trevor+Wishart+brassage

Cecelia - http://code.google.com/p/cecilia4/

(the older versions were csound front-ends)

Uncle Ben's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Ben%27s_Rice

(unfortunately UB and/or his website are down)

**seancostello** (2012-10-18):

I knew all of coyoteous' terms. I'm JUST THAT COOL.

I have a few of Trevor Wishart's books. Some of his ideas (such as the granular stuff) seem practical for a lot of users, while some of the other ideas are overly academic for my current tastes, and would require one of those special rooms with a ton of speakers and all the listeners huddled together in the center of the room. The granular ideas in his books are summed up pretty well by Curtis Roads in "Microsound."

Something that has always struck me as weird: The books that go into great depth about granular synthesis tend to have no coverage of the "glitch" style buffer manipulations. This could be viewed as granular synthesis with a single read pointer, tons of randomization, and no windowing. My guess is that it has more to do with an academic bias against the sort of musicians that use this technique.

**atlastop** (2012-10-18):

Thank you coyoteous. Great post!!!

**beauty pill** (2012-10-19):

Sean: Or maybe bias/resentment against an academic idea applied without academic rigor but with pop charisma? :)

- c

**coyoteous** (2012-10-19):

I tried to post this last night, but as my mom says when her ipad is not cooperating: "the internet is broken."

seancostello: You are cool and "that cool," but how cool on a nonlinear scale of zero to twenty bass strings? (Hmm, should the scale be bipolar and/or allow imaginary numbers. If at least the latter, I shall be a self-assessed -20i bass strings cool.)

I wonder if the Strange in Strange Agency is an academic EM nod. Since this is also about naming your granular app, it seems these guys are maybe more hip(ster) and less academic than the CCRMA Kid, who gets a video game name hall pass for being a scientist.

I think veteran academics think nonacademic things are nonacademic, and therefore not cool academically speaking, or cool non-academically speaking and therefore nonacademic. I kid, but there are also entry-level academics trying to push the real world and their interests into academia with thesis topics as wacky as "A Multivariate Vector Analysis of the UREI 1176 Peak Limiter All-Buttons-In Mode and its Ramifications in Popular Music." I think they move on or get in step.

Speaking of names and granular synthesis, does anyone around here remember antiorp?

**seancostello** (2012-10-19):

@coyoteous: The granular iOS app at the top of the post is by a person that graduated from the MST (Masters in Science and Technology) from CCRMA. The graduates of this program seem to be more focused on the commercial side of digital audio than the Ph.Ds that come out of CCRMA.

Meanwhile, CCRMA as a whole is more focused on "real world" applications of digital audio than many other computer music centers. Julius Smith has had a fair amount of EE PhDs under his wing, and some of them have worked on modeling guitar amps and stompboxes, spring and plate reverbs, stuff like that. Jonathan Abel, one of the co-founders of the current incarnation of Universal Audio, is now a researcher and lecturer at CCRMA.

All I remember of antiorp is that they were a proto-troll, who just happened to be involved in the electronic and computer music field. Interesting Max apps, but ultimately no different than the people who post idiotic YouTube comments. Being a dick far outweighs any amount of genius one might possess, at least in my world view.

**Chris Randall** (2012-10-19):

I'm surprised you and coyoteous don't have a regular beard-growing klatch. You guys live like a mile from each other, if memory serves me correctly, and the Venn diagram of your interests overlaps everywhere except your atrocious admiration of Neal Young.

-CR

**beauty pill** (2012-10-19):

Ha ha ha!

Your dissing Neil Young is so weird to me, given your love of Tom Waits.

It's usually the opposite: Neil Young-likers dismissing Tom Waits as "theatrical" and "inauthentic," etc.

- c

p.s. I love both. And they love each other, btw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9laF_joukQs

**bongo_x** (2012-10-19):

"And they love each other, btw."

This isn't one of the weird fan fiction things, is it?

bb

**Chris Randall** (2012-10-19):

It's precisely because Tom Waits is theatrical and inauthentic (and, you know, doesn't sound like a cat getting strangled) that I like him. The amount of earnestness I can stand from a multi-millionaire is limited at the best of times.

-CR

**coyoteous** (2012-10-20):

CR: I think you are confusing me with a non-dick, though I am also a non-genius, so maybe I'm safe there. The now unbroken internet tells me I am some 1500 miles as the crow flies from Valhalla Central, add another 500 to drive. Klatching, stalking, etc. are out of the question. But, I do like Neil Young for the most part. A friend of mine's older brother seemed to get every record before anyone else did. Harvest was one of them, and it left a lasting impression on me. CSNY, Crazy Horse, etc. maybe not as much, but I give him a solid 4 bass and 6 guitar strings of cool.

seancostello: Thanks, that's good information about CCRMA. I was trying to make some absurd meta-point in my post that was lost even on me by the time I finished it. I guess academia and the real world aren't always as black and white as Uncle Ben and Eric(h) Huzenlaub, nor is cool. Yes, I've beaten the cool thing into the ground and will try to stop now.

Regarding antiorp: I only recently read some things about it being a group. My direct associations were early on, well before integer and especially Netochka Nezvanova/nn/NN, also before he/it seemed to morph from male to female. Anyway, I have the krop3rom||a9ff CD around here somewhere and upon last listen years ago, found it to be cool... uh, I mean good.

Yes, I had to look up the CD title:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netochka_Nezvanova_ (author)

Anyway2, I communicated with "it" privately which was a very different than on the soundhack/freesound list, or what ever it was called. Yes, we were virtual lovers, much like Neil and Tom*. That's enough about that.

OS 9 people can experience granular synthesis, and an antiorp GUI, with Audio Ease's thonk. It can still be found at the following link. I tried to find it directly and gave up. It might have been right in front of me somewhere. A quick search yielded this, though:

http://www.audioease.com/Pages/Legacy/

Pardon me while I finally get to have some caffeine, as the 3D printer is about to finish the mug it's been making all day.

*not really

**audioworld** (2012-10-21):

@coyoteous: regarding antiorp, seems we both had similar experiences 13 years ago. I still habe some mails from "it" archived, written in the same uber-cool syntax he used to write in the forums. I sent him the money for the app directly and seem to remember he lived in eastern europe? We also included one track of him on the EMAGIC/LOGIC users CD which I mastered. Anyway, good memories somehow about being in the "inner circle of EM" and being cool..-)))

**metaphysician** (2012-10-22):

i remember antiorp's various leet-speek screeds on discussion lists around 1999-2000. definitely a talented individual, but someone i think purposefully upsetting the balance as well. yet eventually this coalesced into various rants meant to showcase or highlight how absolutely amazing and life changing using Nato+0.55 would be for video performance artists.

the interesting thing is that you would expect someone with an off-grid rebel like mentality like that to be into open source, and freely making the code available, but as i remember it was somewhat expensive and definitely closed source.

**brandon daniel** (2012-10-23):

Heh, Oasys PCI, now that brings back memories...