Granular synthesis

Granular synthesis rebuilds sound from many short grains — brief, fade-shaped slices of an audio buffer — replayed as clouds rather than as looping cycles.

Because grains can be scattered in time and pitch independently of the source, granular engines turn a single sample into evolving pads and textures; Serum 2's granular oscillator is a prominent current example. The technique complements wavetables rather than replacing them: a wavetable frame is one cycle looped forever, while grains are short windowed slices that usually span many cycles.