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Best Granular VSTs?

rhizomusicosmos

rhizomusicosmos

Active Member
NI Reaktor has had granular synthesis for a while and there are quite a few free and paid instruments that use its capabilities:


GRIP Grain Cloud Synth:

ENTRY

www.native-instruments.com www.native-instruments.com

This is a pretty cool granular instrument for Reaktor I picked up last year - Cataliz
www.blinksonic.com

CATALIZ°

www.blinksonic.com www.blinksonic.com

NI Kontakt does it, too. There are a few ready-made granular instruments by various developers, such as Fracture Sounds' Granulate:
fracturesounds.com

Granulate 2 | Fracture Sounds

Granulate is a powerful granular manipulation engine for transforming any audio file into a range of pads, drones, textures and rhythmic sounds. Choose from over 80 inspiring presets, or import your own audio for limitless possibilities. Runs in Kontakt 5.1 or above.
fracturesounds.com fracturesounds.com

Realtime granular effects have become quite mainstream now. I used to use Ross Bencina's Audiomulch for live granular mangling. I'd like to try Portal from Output. Anyone using that one?
 
Dirtgrain

Dirtgrain

Senior Member
I have a bunch (a sucker I am), and I like Spacecraft right now. I did not like it at first, but after using it some, it is neat and because of its design, it gets me places I wouldn't go otherwise.

The granular engine in Pigments is great (better than my experiences with Rapid--maybe better than Falcon).

Biotek is cool in concept, but I always have felt it should have more controls--same with the Glitchmachines stuff (which I've never gotten good results with--except for . . . glitchy stuff).

Sometimes I use Granulizer. I like switching out the samples for some of the presets, trying out different samples, with the presets as a starting point often (I do the same thing with NI Form sometimes).

S + A Cycles has my interest, but it's so pricey.
 
Pier

Pier

Senior Member
rhizomusicosmos said:
I'd like to try Portal from Output. Anyone using that one?
Click to expand...
I'm curious too. Seems like the best granular fx on the market, but quite expensive for a one trick pony like Movement.

In a similar vein there's Remnant:



Creative Intent - Shop Audio Plugins

Creative Intent creates experimental audio plugins and audio effects used by mixing engineers, musicians, producers, sound designers. Elevate your audio productions with our creative tools, including distortions and grain delays.
www.creativeintent.co www.creativeintent.co

It's currently on sale for $29 at Plugin Boutique.
 
P

pondinthestream

Active Member
I also like Soundmorph Dust. Much more powerful than appears at first sight. The spatial particle thing it does can have a huge effect on the sound
 
Brian2112

Brian2112

Active Member
Dirtgrain said:
I have a bunch (a sucker I am), and I like Spacecraft right now. I did not like it at first, but after using it some, it is neat and because of its design, it gets me places I wouldn't go otherwise.

The granular engine in Pigments is great (better than my experiences with Rapid--maybe better than Falcon).

Biotek is cool in concept, but I always have felt it should have more controls--same with the Glitchmachines stuff (which I've never gotten good results with--except for . . . glitchy stuff).

Sometimes I use Granulizer. I like switching out the samples for some of the presets, trying out different samples, with the presets as a starting point often (I do the same thing with NI Form sometimes).

S + A Cycles has my interest, but it's so pricey.
Click to expand...
Yea. Forgot Cycles. Probably my favorite. Just eats my cpu but worth it.
 
C

CATDAD

The Feline Father
I'll put in another vote for Pigments! It's just really fast and easy to use, can be layered with some conventional sounds to "ground" it, lots of modulation, solid FX tools, can use it alongside the sequencer for some pseudo-generative stuff.

Actually I initially regretted purchasing Pigments, not because it was bad, but because I already had similar tools. But when they added the granular engine it fell right in to place in my toolbox! It's not too often you get such a sweeping refund on buyer's remorse!
 
fourier

fourier

Active Member
Pigments here too, I'm biased (having the keylab88 mkii helps) but I've never come across a softsynth with such an easy interface, combined with such freedom to tweak the sounds.
 
gzapper

gzapper

Active Member
Kuusniemi said:
I am partial to Audio Damage's Quanta. That little sucker gives out unexpectedly musical things from places you would not expect.

Also the granular in Omnisphere is quite good as well.
Click to expand...
Quanta, Mangle and Pigment are the best three I've played with that are out now.
Thinking about output's Portal but its pricy.
The most musically useful one that I've used was Audioease's Rivverrun, had really nice simple controls that got great sounds. But the abandoned that one, so its yet another one that's off my machine.
 
Jiffster

Jiffster

Member
Another thumbs up for Quanta from Audio Damage. Not a granular synth but, their Phase three plug is also incredible!
 
Damarus

Damarus

Active Member
Okay I'm surprised no one mentioned @slateandash Cycles. I've used most of the ones mentioned and Cycles takes it to the next level.

Otherwise I will usually reach for Granulartor II, or Omnisphere for a typical granular engine

Edit: jk it was mentioned a few times, just didnt read well enough :)
 
timprebble

timprebble

Sound designer, Composer, Sound library developer
Its not new or recent but GRM Freeze is an excellent granular plugin... very high quality, and I really like being able to save settings and then do moves (manually or auto timed) between settings. It seems very good at retaining quality & not just becoming mush... Also capable of great manipulated buffer type processing. Its part of the GRM Classic bundle:

Grm

inagrm.com inagrm.com

The two deepest granular software I have seen would be Crusher X and Sound Particles - does anyone have experience with either? Far more the cheapest but capable of incredible results:

Crusher X

Granular Synthesis with crusher-X

All about granular synthesis
www.accsone.com www.accsone.com

Sound Particles
soundparticles.com

Sound Particles

A CGI-like software for Sound Design, capable of using particle systems to generate thousands of sounds in a virtual 3D world
soundparticles.com soundparticles.com
 
P

pondinthestream

Active Member
timprebble said:
Its not new or recent but GRM Freeze is an excellent granular plugin... very high quality, and I really like being able to save settings and then do moves (manually or auto timed) between settings. It seems very good at retaining quality & not just becoming mush... Also capable of great manipulated buffer type processing. Its part of the GRM Classic bundle:

Grm

inagrm.com inagrm.com

The two deepest granular software I have seen would be Crusher X and Sound Particles - does anyone have experience with either? Far more the cheapest but capable of incredible results:

Crusher X

Granular Synthesis with crusher-X

All about granular synthesis
www.accsone.com www.accsone.com

Sound Particles
soundparticles.com

Sound Particles

A CGI-like software for Sound Design, capable of using particle systems to generate thousands of sounds in a virtual 3D world
soundparticles.com soundparticles.com
Click to expand...
I use crusherX, not sure it is worth the complexity but can't deny the power of it. I am thinking of Sound Particles next sale. Soundmorph Dust is a very nice product between crusherX and sound particles.
 
HeliaVox

HeliaVox

Active Member
I have the most current version of Dust, and it's just not working in Catalina/Logic/Bitwig.
Don't waste your time, there are many other apps out there that work.
 
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