Getting Started
Splinter may seem quite daunting at first. But don't worry - this guide will help you get on your way. Download the PDF or read online.
Exploring [s]
Explore the capabilities of Splinter[s] by triggering grains with movement of your right hand, while controlling grain parameters with your right hand. See figure 1 for the connections between gesture and synthesis, and figure 2 for diagram of the hand rotations.
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Once you have grasped the controls, select a different envelope from the drop-down menu in the grain control panel. The envelope shapes are shown in figure 3:
When you feel like you're getting the hang of the instrument, turn on the switch to the left of ‘Envelope’, enabling envelope selection with your right hand: five fingers selects quasi-Gaussian, index finger selects expodec, and index + middle fingers select Gaussian. Then try loading a new sample from the drop-down menu, and choosing a sample starting point using the waveform’s menu on the left-hand side (figure 4). Explore the instrument again, noting how your movement affects the instrument.
Exploring [c]
Close Splinter[s].mxc, and open Splinter[c].mxc in Max. Follow the same set up as before, and load “01 Test Tone” again. Explore the sound again, noting the new connections between gesture and sound shown in figure 5. When comfortable, select some different samples and explore the instrument from there.
Splinter – Getting started
To get an idea of Splinter’s capabilities, check out the demo video and sound examples here.
Set-up
Open ‘Splinter[s].mxc’ in Max. Set your audio device (Core Audio + your interface) and start with a high I/O vector size (1024 or 2048).
Select the folder “Splinter samples”, set the file type to WAVE, and select “01 Test Tone.wav” from the drop-down menu. The sample will load in the waveform viewer.
Turn on audio by clicking the speaker icon , and click the play button (under the file selector) to preview the loaded sample. (If no sound is playing, make sure all audio settings have been set correctly and the master volume is turned on.)
Activate the Leap by clicking “Leap on/off” or by pressing spacebar, and check that the indicator light in the top left corner is green. (If red, make sure your Leap is connected correctly and your Leap Motion software is not paused.) Splinter will now react to movements above the Leap Motion controller.
Figure 4. Waveform controls.
1. Select sample starting point.
2. Drag sample starting point.
3. Move waveform view (drag left-right), zoom in (drag up), zoom out (drag down).
4. Draw waveform.
Figure 5. Splinter [c] connections.
Colored lines are for clarity only. BPF = Bandpass Filter.
Figure 1. Splinter[s] connections.
BPF = Bandpass Filter.
Figure 3. Envelope shapes.
1. Quasi-Gaussian
2. Expodec
3. Gaussian
Figure 2. Hand rotation on x- and z-axes.
Z-rotation
X-rotation