Concatenator - Granular Audio Synthesis

Tutorial | Apr 14, 2025

In today's video, I explored the Concatenator by DataMind Audio, a unique granular audio effect that uses samples from your hard drive to replace the input signal, matching pitch and dynamics with a clever algorithm. It offers various customizable grain settings and can create interesting textures and ambient sounds, making it a versatile tool for music production. There's a seven-day trial available, and I find it an innovative concept worth checking out.

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Summary #

Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

Today, I explored the Concatenator by DataMind Audio, a unique granular audio effect. Unlike traditional granular effects that use your synthesizer or microphone input to create grains, Concatenator matches these inputs with samples from your hard drive, swapping your original sound for pieces from these samples. It claims to use AI, but it seems more like a smart algorithm rather than full AI or LLM, as it operates quite fast.

In the video, I set up a simple synthesizer playing a saw lead and applied the Concatenator with some random samples. By adjusting the mix and grain controls, such as min/max length, I manipulated the sound. Short grain sizes created more noise, while longer grains played extended sample segments. Variability in sample selection can be finely tuned, and the 'Stickiness' parameter affects how likely the software is to choose consecutive audio slices, with lower values increasing randomness.

Removing all modulators, I demonstrated how the pitch of the input is also attempted to be matched by the software. This granular effect differs from others like Portal, which processes input signals directly. Instead, Concatenator draws from your hard drive samples to match the input's pitch and dynamics.

I experimented by using the Concatenator with my microphone input, although it might be hard to understand speech due to its transformative nature. This reminds me of Krotos' Reformer Pro, which serves a similar function. Concatenator is priced at 149 euros/dollars, lacks iLock, and offers a seven-day trial. It also comes with something like a "Compopulator," which lets you use samples from specific artists to achieve a unique vibe.

Applying it to voice, you can incorporate Foley samples, fitting well in movie scores where you perform noises to prompt the software to choose similar sample grains. Back with the synthesizer, I loaded a long ambient track to show how even individual samples can be chunked into grains, creating intriguing textures with varying grain lengths and reverb.

I further played with loading different samples, from video piano pieces to keys I sampled from Triton, observing how Concatenator perfectly matched my input's pitch while pitching the samples. Increasing the particle count increases CPU load but also the sound's density.

Overall, I find Concatenator fascinating. It enables experimenting with random samples or complete tracks, aligning input with output in an innovative manner. Although its price might be steep, the trial allows potential users to explore its possibilities. I bought it during its beta phase, appreciated its distinct approach, and was requested to review it post-launch, leading to this video as I believe it offers something truly new.

You can find the Concatenator in the description link if you're interested. Don't forget to leave feedback and subscribe for more content. Thanks for watching!

Transcription #

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] So today it's about the Concatenator by DataMind Audio.
[00:00:05] And if I had to describe it, I would say this is a granular audio effect.
[00:00:11] But the twist here is that you don't use the audio input from your synthesizer or maybe
[00:00:17] from your microphone to create the grains.
[00:00:20] You use different samples from your hard drive and find the perfect matching pieces
[00:00:27] to your input signal.
[00:00:29] So it exchanges your original sound with some samples or grains from these samples on your
[00:00:38] hard drive.
[00:00:39] And it says it uses AI for this, but I don't think it's AI.
[00:00:45] It's not an LNM.
[00:00:46] It works pretty fast.
[00:00:47] It just tries to match with a very clever or smart algorithm the input signal to some
[00:00:53] random samples on your hard drive.
[00:00:55] So you can choose which kind of samples you want to use on the left side here, right?
[00:00:59] And it works pretty fast.
[00:01:00] I'll show you this in a minute.
[00:01:02] So what we have here as a setup, we have just a synthesizer here playing a saw lead.
[00:01:09] Nothing special.
[00:01:11] And then on this or after this synthesizer here, we have the concatenator with some random
[00:01:16] samples loaded in.
[00:01:17] And you bring up here the mix.
[00:01:30] And when you change the input signal, it also changes here which kind of samples it chooses.
[00:01:46] And you can change all kinds of settings here for the grain controls, right?
[00:01:51] So for instance here min max, it's pretty interesting.
[00:01:54] So it controls the minimum grain length and the maximum grain length.
[00:01:58] So at the moment you can hear it's a lot of noise or it's very noisy.
[00:02:04] So the grain size is pretty short and it chooses different bits and pieces from different samples.
[00:02:13] So we make the grain size here longer and then it plays longer pieces from these samples.
[00:02:25] And then you can change the variation of course, how often you select different samples at
[00:02:31] random I think.
[00:02:32] Stickiness here controls the likelihood of choosing time consecutive slices of audio.
[00:02:37] Lower values increases the average grain length, lower values increases randomness.
[00:02:43] And you can also modulate this here.
[00:02:44] You can see there's an LFO on there, maybe just to remove this here.
[00:02:48] I'll just, let's remove here all the modulators for now.
[00:02:59] And you can hear it tries also to match the pitch of the input signal.
[00:03:19] So this is actually a pretty interesting granular audio effect, something that's different.
[00:03:25] Obviously there are probably gazillion granular audio effects already on the market.
[00:03:32] I think the most popular one here is called, what's the name, Portal.
[00:03:38] That goes actually in the same direction, but here Portal is like a traditional granular
[00:03:43] effect, right?
[00:03:44] It takes the input signal, reads out some grains and plays it back in different manner.
[00:03:50] And Concatenator goes in a completely different direction.
[00:03:53] It just takes different samples from a hard drive for these grains.
[00:03:57] And it also tries to match these grains.
[00:04:00] So it makes sense, right?
[00:04:01] It's the right pitch.
[00:04:03] And you can also dial in your spec white and the amp white.
[00:04:07] So if your input volume changes, right, you choose the right sample that has the same
[00:04:14] kind of dynamic or something like this.
[00:04:17] And the spec white, I think it tries to match the overtones from the input and the output
[00:04:21] signal.
[00:04:22] You can, you know, change this here and have different outcomes to it.
[00:04:27] And if you put this here, let's say on an audio signal here, it's my microphone, and
[00:04:39] that's my microphone.
[00:04:42] And then I choose this here and just talk over it.
[00:04:45] Or maybe I just disable here my OBS microphone for a moment.
[00:05:03] Yeah, it's very hard to understand probably what I say there.
[00:05:11] But it reminds me of this one plug in by Krotos.
[00:05:19] It's called Reformer Pro.
[00:05:22] And it came out a few years ago, but it goes in the same direction.
[00:05:27] I don't know if they actually do the same thing as Datamind Audio here with Concatenator.
[00:05:33] By the way, it's 149 euros dollars.
[00:05:39] It's no iLock and there's also a seven day trial available so you can try it out if you
[00:05:43] want to.
[00:05:44] And they also use here something like a Compopulator, right?
[00:05:52] And you can buy certain brains from certain artists here, but I think or I guess this
[00:05:57] is the same technique, but they deliver this plug in with some samples from these artists
[00:06:03] and then you choose or pick and choose with the same effect, with the same granular effect
[00:06:09] from these samples from these artists.
[00:06:12] And you get the same vibe or the same feel of this.
[00:06:17] So we talk here about Concatenator.
[00:06:21] So this is Concatenator on the voice so you can also bring in some Foley samples and then
[00:06:27] you talk, right?
[00:06:28] Or you make some noises and then you can put this in a movie score or whatever.
[00:06:34] You don't need to pick basically the right samples, just play sounds or make noises
[00:06:41] with your mouth in the right frequency, the right intensity and with the right amplitude
[00:06:46] envelope and this one then chooses the right samples from the hard drive.
[00:06:52] So let's put this here back on the synthesizer for a moment.
[00:06:56] And let's remove just some of these samples so we can see how fast this works.
[00:07:01] So we had here a lot of different samples before, but it turns out you can also do
[00:07:07] something like just put in one long sample.
[00:07:10] So here I have some ambient tunes I made.
[00:07:20] So let's track this in.
[00:07:22] You can see it's just one sample or one long sound file and extracted here different pits
[00:07:27] and pieces from this audio file.
[00:07:37] And then you play here a sound, again my solid.
[00:07:51] Make the grain length a bit shorter.
[00:08:05] And maybe you can use your reverb on that, always nice.
[00:08:22] You can probably make some interesting drones or ambient sounds with this.
[00:08:49] It's probably also nice on bass sounds, you know, replacing the bass sounds with some
[00:08:54] artifacts or with some Foley samples here and there.
[00:08:57] I haven't tried this yet, but I want to.
[00:09:01] So it works only also with songs or let me see, I have had some, some kind of, or let
[00:09:09] me see, actually my other, let me see, I had this one here.
[00:09:16] So let's track this in.
[00:09:19] This is basically a video I downloaded from YouTube, piano piece.
[00:09:31] Let's try this one.
[00:09:48] You can see it matches perfectly with my pitch of the input synth.
[00:09:57] I think it also pitches these samples.
[00:10:01] Then I have here, let's go back there, sample collections, polarity, I have here some keys
[00:10:08] I sampled from Triton, so let's put these in here.
[00:10:16] Maybe I remove, just move this on here.
[00:10:20] Nice.
[00:10:33] So, you can see on the left side of the CPU, if you drive up
[00:11:03] the particles or the number of particles you want to choose, it also goes up, right?
[00:11:14] But you can create a more dense sound out of it because you just use multiple or more
[00:11:30] particles.
[00:11:46] So I find it pretty interesting because you can just throw random samples you have on
[00:11:51] the hard drive in this device or you can throw in complete songs or just stuff you just sampled
[00:11:59] household instruments, I don't know.
[00:12:01] Just throw it in there and just experiment with these parameters here and this one tries
[00:12:07] to match the overtones, it tries to match the pitch and it tries to select the right
[00:12:13] samples for it.
[00:12:14] So you match the input signal with the output signal.
[00:12:17] So it's kind of interesting device.
[00:12:19] Maybe it's too expensive for what it does, I have no idea.
[00:12:23] But like I said here, there's a seven day trial available, so you can try it out for yourself
[00:12:28] if it's actually for you.
[00:12:29] I think it works in all kinds of different contexts, so ambient, foley if you want to
[00:12:35] create some sound effects, also some bass music if you just want to have textures on
[00:12:41] top of your drums or on top of your bass sounds, could be interesting or just use your voice
[00:12:47] to create textures or drone sounds with lots of reverb.
[00:12:52] So it can work in every kind of different contexts.
[00:12:56] I bought this here a few months ago when it was in beta and it released in version one
[00:13:01] point.
[00:13:02] Oh, I think a few days ago, and they asked me to do a video on this.
[00:13:08] But I didn't answer so far, but I wanted to make a video anyway, because I think it's
[00:13:14] a great concept.
[00:13:15] It's something different actually, it tries to do something different.
[00:13:20] And there's no iLog.
[00:13:21] So that's why I made a video about it, right?
[00:13:24] So I just want to show you something new.
[00:13:28] So that's Concatenator, I put the link in the description below, maybe it's interesting
[00:13:32] to you.
[00:13:33] Yeah, that's it, I think.
[00:13:37] Let me know what you think, leave a thumbs up, leave a subscription and I'll see you
[00:13:40] in the next video.
[00:13:41] Bye.
[00:13:41] Bye.