Particle Sculptor is a polyphonic granular synthesiser designed in MaxMSP, featuring per-grain processing, custom modulation controls, and a slider array grid of per-grain effects controls.

This was the final technological output of my master's thesis project, featuring the most fully realised synthesis techniques of my research explorations into granular synthesis technology and composition inspired by ancient Epicurean atomism. Through the per-grain effects controls, Particle Sculptor offers a novel 'atomic-level' interface for manually crafting real-time grain streams on a grain-by-grain basis. More specifically, it gives the user a 'microscopic' level of mix control, with adjustable UI sliders given to every single grain generated by the engine. This allows for highly complex and stratified granular textures, loops, and gestures that would otherwise be difficult to stipulate in a granular synthesiser. Alongside a collection of other synthesiser designs I developed in my research, this synthesiser was used to compose two nature-themed granular soundscape compositions, each exploring different aspects of Epicurean physics and the atomic construction of reality (Matter and Void and The Dance of Atoms).

An experimental release version of Particle Sculptor is available on my Github! (See below)

IMPORTANT: it is currently only available as a Max project, and thus a working installation of Max 8.5 or later is required to run the synthesiser. I intend to release it as a standalone application/build in the near future – stay tuned.