Grain Prism: Hieroglyphic Interface for Granular Sampling

This paper introduces the Grain Prism, a hybrid musical instrument that combines granular synthesis and live audio recordings. Presented in a capacitive touch interface, users are invited to create experimental sound textures with their own recordings. The interface’s touch plates are introduced within a series of obscure glyphs, instigating the player to decipher the hidden sonic messages. This way, the mysterious interface opens space to aleatoricism in the act of conjuring sound, and therefore the discovery of “happy accidents” in making electronic music.