Granular hardware : options?

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

I love the IDEA and sound of granular delay/synthesis

I have not found anything that makes it a practical reality for me.

I had a Microcosm, sold it. I’m not going to re-litigate the reasons, that’s in another thread somewhere. But basic lack of control and the filter stepping. I want more control over the grains/etc…

Just replaced that with the Mood. Still doesn’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like this pedal and I’ll probably keep it, but I can’t determine the time the loop records for or have any good control over grains/etc.

So, what hardware should I try next? What am I missing? Is there anything out there that makes granular fun to work with, has control over all the necessary parameters, can loop/etc?

What’s the cool thing I can’t find anywhere?

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#2

For me granular has always worked better as an instrument, pads that you can play and so on. As an effect I think it’s really underwhelming.

I really like the implementation in Blackbox where you can use samples almost like a synth or take a sample and time stretch it’s with a gnarly granular effect…

So maybe you need something like a Blackbox or Tasty Chips GR-1 instead of a granular effect.

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#3

interesting

I just feel like I’ve heard some stuff I liked that must have been granular effects and I’ve not been able to achieve them

Perhaps I’m using the MOOD wrong. Maybe I’ll try to get something wild going on it and sample it to play back in Maschine like a synth or something like that.

Good looking out, I’ll explore this.

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#4

A wild suggestion, but you could always get a small eurorack case with audio in and out and do some granular things out there. I believe there are quite some models, which really excel in that. Of course, that’s a route of temptations, so you would have to be very careful. :upside_down_face: :upside_down_face: :upside_down_face:

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#6

…check for for fruity chips hardware instruments…

but be warned…those are expensive…but hey, they got granular covered full on for real…

#7

Modular welcome

Tell me what I’m looking for

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#8

I know it’s not really hardware, but Borderlands on iOS is quite powerful.

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#9

Really depends on what exactly you are looking for, but I would take a look at:

  1. Mutable Instruments Beads (new iteration of Clouds)
  2. Qu-Bit Nebulae
  3. Make Noise Morphagene

Pack it in a Intellijel Palette 62hp case, use the 1U strip for your ins and outs, throw in something additional (like a crazy delay) and here you go :slight_smile:

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#10

If you have an iPad, Borderlands is really nice to play with:

Edit: oops I’m off topic, just read the “hardware” word ^^
Plus it’s been introduced by @Hooger. Double miss.

You can use a Digitakt, although you’re not affecting input in real time.
OT might be a good tool too, haven’t tried it really on input resampling but now that I think of it I should definitely explore this idea.

I haven’t tried Red Panda Particle v2 but check the forum about it. Seems pretty cool.
Last but not least, ZOIA has a granular delay and certainly all the options you need!

Note: I love my Microcosm!

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#11

Damn that looks cool

#12

Instruo Arbhar

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#13

I should receive in the next few days this new granular module:

Morphagene is very cool but not for real-time performances.

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#14

I am into granular mainly for live performance (manipulating Lyra8\DFAM and Azzam Bells The Crown)

I use

  • MA Count2Five pedal
  • MI Beads

Soon (aka waiting for it)

  • Addac VC112

Next on my list if I find a good deal…

  • Arbhar
  • ER 301
  • NE Versio DSP

I am making a eurorack performance case (slowly) with the focus on granular, filters and probably another EOC fx module. Will keep it minimal (need to fly with it) so will try out many modules and settle on what I like most and sell the rest.

ITB I just use Bitwig sampler for granular experiments.

#15

I bought borderlands now… after years. And I was underwhelmed although it was kinda cool.

I am using a few other iPad apps, I really like:

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#16

I do have an ipad, this thing looks cool, as far as what I can find.
Is there a “getting started” video you recommend? It looks a little complicated. I think it looks cool, but I can’t really get my head around what’s going on in the videos I could find on it.

Also, I need something for real time, so would this do audio through and process in real time or is it using samples loaded into the iPad?

#17

holy shit that thing is cool

I’ll take their reverb and stereo distortion module too…

#18

Since it hasn’t been mentioned yet, did you look into the Poly Effects Beebo pedal? Since it has the Mutable Instrument ports there is also the granular modul in there. There’s also a Eurorack version of it.

#19

It is very straightforward, but I haven’t used it in years, my iPad is too old now.
Here is what I can remember:

  • You introduce some waveforms (the wave files you put in there) : they are taken as maps, and can be superimposed
  • You create granular generators (“cloud” ?): graphically, a generator is a circle, and it creates a number of little bubbles, that will have take a length of the waveform, a part of it depending on the distance from the center of the generator circle. The number of “bubbles” (or grains?), that actually create the sound, as well as the speed at which they are generated, the speed at which they read the sound, most of this can be very intuitively parametered.

It’s more a granular synth than an FX per se, I don’t think you can dynamically feed it with recorded input but it might have changed.

Here is a tutorial:

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#20

You can direct record into Borderlands. You can also start the modulated grain clouds and then record audio into it and move the waveforms around or just hope for happy accidents.

#21

To me, granular = software.
It’s been invented on computers, and it really benefits from being able to see and change many parameters at the same time.

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