Description:
Chaosynth is a new sound synthesis system being developed by the author and others working at Edinburgh University. Chaosynth functions by generating a large amount of short sonic events, or particles, in order to form larger, complex sound events. This synthesis technique is inspired by granular synthesis. Most granular synthesis techniques, however, use stochastic methods to control the formation of sound events, while Chaosynth uses a cellular automaton. Following an introduction to the basics of granular synthesis, the author explains how Chaosynth's technique works. He then introduces the basics of cellular automata and presents ChaOs, the cellular automaton used in Chaosynth. The article concludes with some final remarks and suggestions for further work.