The Kyma Language for Sound Design, Version 4.5

GrainCloud
Xtra Sources Category
Generates a cloud of short-duration grains of sound, each with the specified Waveform and each with an
amplitude envelope whose shape is given by GrainEnv. The density of simultaneous grains within the
cloud is controlled by Density, with the maximum number of simultaneous grains given by MaxGrains.
Amplitude controls an amplitude envelope over the *entire* cloud (each individual grain amplitude is
controlled by GrainEnv). Similarly, Duration is the duration of the entire cloud, not of each individual
grain.
You can control the Frequency, stereo positioning, and duration of each grain as well as specifying how
much (if any) random jitter should be added to each of these parameters (giving the cloud a more
focused or a more dispersed sound, depending on how much randomness is added to each of the
parameters).
Waveform
The waveform of the oscillator inside each grain.
GrainEnv
Defines the shape of each grain’s amplitude envelope. To minimize clicks, choose a wavetable that
starts and ends on zero.
MaxGrains
Maximum number of grains that can be playing at any one time. The smaller this number, the less
computational power the GrainCloud requires (but the less dense the texture you can generate). For
even denser textures, put more than one GrainCloud into a Mixer, and give each GrainCloud a different
Seed value.
Amplitude
An overall level or amplitude envelope applied to the entire cloud. Note that this is independent of the
amplitude envelope on each individual grain.
Density
Controls the number of new grains that can start up at any one time. Small Density values result in a
sparse texture; large Density values generate a dense texture.
GrainDur
The duration of an individual grain.
The duration of each grain is a function of three parameters:
GrainDur + CyclesPerGrain + (GrainDurJitter * 2 * (GrainDur + CyclesPerGrain))
To specify the number of waveform cycles within each grain (implies that higher frequency grains will
have shorter duration than lower frequency grains and assures that every grain will contain an integer
number of full cycles of the waveform):
GrainDur = 0 s
CyclesPerGrain =
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