ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how granulation works, and offers some suggestions on how it might be used in games to generate and enhance engine models, dialogue, sound effects, crowds and music with a focus on their realtime use in video games. Granular synthesis can be defined as using short sound events in a synthesis method, such as frequency modulation, to produce a full sound texture from these grains. A granular technique commonly used in games is to break a sound into its component parts and to use scripting or other implementation techniques to describe an algorithmic method of playback. Ableton Live uses granular synthesis when time-warping samples in real time, but allows for little direct control over the granulation parameters. Video games tend to be a representation of an alternate reality, so sounds that are based in reality, such as sampled sounds, are typically the most appropriate for games.
