Download yours from the App Store! Or see it in action. You can record any sound with your iPhone microphone, and then use the recording as a basis for your real-time granular jams.
Take a look in Wikipedia for more background on Granular Synthesis in general. Also, here is a great interview with Curtis Roads, one of the progenitors of digital granular synthesis, to whom we pay homage with our app name. Still more curious? Then we recommend the grand tome, Microsound.
I downloaded Curtis and really like it. I found a few things though I have questions and comments about. Why does it say “lite version?” Also, I have an itouch, so I have to hook up an external mic to it which also has an out port for headphones or speakers to, etc… Anyways, that works fine. However, when I unplug the mic from the itouch, Curtis locks up instead of just playing the sound through the itouches built in speaker. Other then that I love it. Will probably hook it up to the computer later and record some sounds it creates.
Thanks for the feedback Travis. The iPod and iPhone do some strange things under the hood when audio routing is changed. I will add this to the bug list. It’s called “Lite”, because there are plans for a “Heavy”
There are some features I would like to add, but they will take some time to implement. Meanwhile, we all get something to play with!
okay, great! I played with it some more and am liking it even more. I look forward to the new features! thanks for the great app!
[...] track I composed using erotic vocal sounds which I granulated on my apple iTouch with the “Curtis Granular Synthesizer” application for the [...]
Fantastic work on this lucas! I’ve been playing around with this app quite a bit the last few days, and I look forward to Curtis “Heavy”!
I’ve been playing with Curtis for a few days and really enjoy it, however the one feature I really miss is the ability to output sound through the iPhone’s internal speaker, rather than the much quieter earpiece speaker. Will this be addressed in a future update, or perhaps in the “heavy” version?
Hi Joe, what generation iPhone are you using? Curtis plays through our speakers without a hitch!
I’m using an iPhone 3G running the latest 3.0 OS. I’ve tried adjusting sound settings, plugging headphones in, switching to vibrate – Nothing seems able to change the output from the earpiece speaker to the ringer speaker
Ahh.. that earpiece. We’re on it! Thanks Joe!
OK, we’re happy to report that Curtis 1.2 fixes the problem; now the sound is LOUD! It will be available within a week or so, ie as soon as Apple approves it!
Awesome, excellent work guys! Always great to see a proactive approach from app developers
Hi chaps,
when in ‘load’ mode i don’t have or see the option for web access control. The option is available on slice, but then that’s another app.
Itouch user.
Thanks,
Harmi
Hi, we removed the web access control. Now external sounds are added much more easily, using the Apps tab in iTunes.