Granular synthesis is a type of sound generation that operates on the microsound timescale. In principle, a sound is broken into tiny grains; each grain serving as a building block for macroscale composition. Participants will learn basic granular synthesis techniques along with an overview of its history as we build our own custom designed granular synth in the open source software Pure Data. Pure Data (or just "Pd") is an open source visual programming language for sound and multimedia. 

Participants will need a laptop with Pure Data installed and sound files to work with. https://puredata.info/downloads

Michael Masaru Flora is a computer musician living and working in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A series of hybrid study groups, workshops, and gatherings that aim to facilitate a collaborative space for the exploration of a topic or modality under the umbrella of Sound Studies. These get-togethers are experiments in how to learn, play, and listen in collaboration with one another. Rather than the traditional format of teacher/student, the aim is to create a generative communal environment fostered through curiosity and safe space. In other words, being together in a place about a thing.

S.C.U.M. (Santa Cruz Underground Music) is the revival of an old anagram to rekindle a collectivized effort towards performance and skill-share across various experimental art spaces and mediums.