Making your first bleep: how RTGS3 generates sound

Launch the RTGS3 application and start its audio engine by clicking the "Power On/Off" button so that it burns red:

Open up the Buffers window by clicking the "View Buffers..." button:
The Buffers window is where RTGS3 stores its audio data for granulation. You'll notice that there are two empty waveform displays here, which means that you can work with two separate source sounds at the same time. For the purpose of this tutorial we're going to fill these buffers with a sine wave.

In the Buffers window, open the Generate Audio window by clicking either of the "Fill Buffer..." buttons:

In the Generate Audio window, set the "Data to Write" menu to "Sine Wave", the "Amplitude" slider to 75%, and the "Frequency" to 220. Hz. Then click the "Generate" button and watch as your buffer gets filled up with audio data:

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other buffer.

Close the Generate Audio and Buffers windows, and return to the main RTGS3 interface window.

Click the "Generate a Grain" button:
You should have heard a bleep from your speakers. If you didn't, then make sure your audio hardware is set up properly and that RTGS3 is using the correct driver. See the System Setup Section for more information and help.

Move the Grains "Length" slider all the way to the right, and click again on the "Generate a Grain" button:
This time, the bleep you heard was longer. In fact, if your settings match the image above the length of the bleep you heard would have been somewhere between 170 and 200 milliseconds long (about 1/5th of a second). In the next section, we'll look at how different parameter settings affect the sound of individual grains.