Little slices

Today's shot is from a pre-work walk with the Minx around The Meadows. Just behind us are some trees, a loop in the Irwell, and then the Crescent which was just getting busy (it was around eight o'clock). The trees completely block the noise, though, so our little break, sat on a bench, was completely tranquil.

And this afternoon I was in college for a session on granular synthesis, which, to be honest, I didn't know anything about when I started the course. I won't get into any great detail here, but basically it involves taking a sample (short clip) of another piece of music or any sound, actually, and using it as the basis for a new sound. Watching the tutor, Yoss, at work in these situations is simply inspiring.

Incidentally, the sample is referred to as the grain (hence granular synthesis), which is portrayed in the software as being made up of little slices of sound. This is actually how sampling itself works, except tens of thousands of slices are taken per second, which I remember from my final year project at university, which I did on 'Fourier analysis'.

Much as I enjoyed university, it was an intellectual and educational low point for me, but oddly enough I did come away with a love of physics that has stayed with me for the rest of my life.