Grains

Up to 96 grains, pitch that can follow a scale, and a delay and reverb on the grains.

Grains records the last 10.5 seconds of what you play and turns it into clouds of tiny slices, each with its own pitch, direction and place in the stereo field. Your dry sound stays untouched.

Buy Grains · $37ListenTry for 14 days
Tonestatic Grains, Silk Cloud preset, light face
Video

From Init to loops.

A patch built from Init in Ableton Live, frozen on the beat and dragged out as loops onto Live’s clip slots. No talking, just the sound.

96Overlapping grainsEach with its own pitch, direction and pan.
10.5 sCircular bufferLive, or looped with Freeze until you let it go.
1/16On the gridWith the transport rolling, grains read from whole sixteenths.
LFODrawn by handA breakpoint editor you drag onto most knobs.
Listen

Audio examples, dry and processed.

Source
Drums recording → plugin bypassed → Your ears
Dry+ Electrostatics
0:00–:––
Grain · envelope display, shape stepper
Grain

Grain rate, size and stereo width.

Grains keeps the last ten and a half seconds of what you play and plays back tiny slices of it, dozens at a time, each at its own pitch, direction and place between the speakers. This section decides what those slices are like.

Ratehow oftenHow often a new grain starts, set as a note length. Low settings leave gaps; high settings overlap into a continuous sound.
Offsethow far backHow far behind what you play each grain reads, in note lengths. At zero the cloud starts on the note.
Sizehow longGrain length, 30 ms to 1 s. Below about 40 ms grains sound like a buzz; above about 300 ms you hear whole notes.
WidestereoHow far grains are panned from the centre.
ShapesoftnessSets the grain envelope from soft to sharp. The stepper underneath picks the type: Triangle, Gaussian, Sinc or Spike.
Stretchslow downTurn it up and the grains fall further and further behind what you play, so a phrase comes back slowed down at the same pitch. At zero they keep pace with you.
Pitch · Low / Unison / High histogram, Scale block below
Pitch

Octave balance and scale.

Choose how often a grain plays an octave down, at pitch or higher up. Turn up two at once and you get chords rather than a plain transposition. Switch Scale on and the grains at pitch and above land on notes that fit your key.

Lowoctave downThe share of grains played below the input pitch.
Unisonat pitchGrains at the pitch you played, or near it in your key when Scale is on.
Highhigher upGrains that jump up, onto notes of your key when Scale is on.
ScalekeyPick a root and a scale; its own switch turns it on and off.
Mixhow muchHow many of the unison and high grains follow the scale.
Random · each grain drawn as a dot in the L/R field
Random

Timing, direction and probability.

With these at rest, every grain plays, each one the same and evenly spaced. Turn them up and no two grains match.

ScattertimingLoosens the timing and length of grains, from steady to unpredictable.
ReversebackwardsHow many grains play backwards.
ChanceoddsHow likely each grain is to play. Lower settings leave random gaps.
ModdriftA slow pitch drift applied to all grains.
Mixer · Dry and Grains faders, Drive, Bit, Fback, Filter, Reso
Mixer

Separate levels for dry signal and grains.

One fader for your dry sound and one for the grains. Drive, Bit and the filter only touch the grains, so what you play stays clean underneath.

Dry / GrainsfadersSet the balance, or link them to move together.
Drive · BitgritThe same drive as Alpine’s Drive engine, and Bit to make the grains lo-fi.
FbackregrowthFeeds the grain output back into the grain input.
Filter · ResodarknessA 4-pole low-pass on the grains, with resonance.
Effects tab · Delay and Reverb panels
Effects tabDelay · Reverb

Delay and reverb, on the grains, your dry sound or both.

A delay and a reverb, each with its own switch. Out of the box they only touch the grains and leave your dry sound clean; a menu on each lets them take your dry sound instead, or both. The reverb takes the grains directly rather than the echoes, so the two can be set apart.

DelayechoesEchoes in free time or in step with your song, placed Normal, Wide or Ping Pong.
ReverbspaceThe same room as Alpine’s Studio reverb, with its own blend, length and low cut.
Routingwhat goes inWet Only, Dry Only or Dry / Wet, for each of the two.
Mod tab · breakpoint editor on a 0 / 50 / 100 grid
Mod tabBreakpoint LFO

A breakpoint LFO for most knobs.

Draw a shape, then drag the LFO onto almost any knob, or the Dry and Grains faders, and it follows the shape. An orange dot shows which controls are moving.

BreakpointsdrawnAdd, move and remove points to draw any shape you like.
LFO chipdrag & dropDrop it on a knob to make that knob move.
Rate · SyncspeedFree, or in time with your song.
Shapestarting pointStart from a ready-made shape and bend it.
Undotry thingsStep back through your shape edits, and forward again.
Tonestatic Grains, Looper looping one bar, light face
Looper and export

Freeze a loop, edit it while it plays, export it as a WAV.

Freeze catches the grains in a length you pick, from a sixteenth up to 1 bar or 2 bars, on your DAW’s bar lines. The loop keeps playing while you turn the knobs, so you can reshape it as it goes round.

Once you are happy, drag it from the Looper onto an audio track in your DAW and it lands there as a WAV. The export is the loop as you hear it, with the EQ, the Mixer and the delay and reverb on it; your dry sound is left out.

Studio tools

An EQ and tuner, built in.

EQ dialog, light face

EQ

Simple, three knobs for quick tone shaping, or Advanced, eight bands of cuts, shelves, bells and a notch.

Pre or Post: before the grains it shapes what they are made from, after them it shapes the cloud and its effects, with your dry sound left as it is. The EQ is saved with each preset, Pre or Post included.

Tuner dialog, light face

Tuner

Shows the note and cents, at A4 = 440 Hz. Mute the output while you tune between takes.

Specification

Formats, latency and presets.

VST Compatible
FormatsVST®3 · AU (macOS) · VST3 (Windows)
macOS11+, Universal, Apple Silicon native
Windows10+, 64-bit
I/OMono or stereo in, stereo out
Latency1.5 ms (the output limiter’s lookahead), reported and compensated
TempoGrains read from whole 1/16s with the transport running; delay times and LFO sync
LooperFreeze 1/16 to 2 bars; export one Length as a WAV, aligned to the host grid when available, with EQ, Mixer and effects
Presets59 factory presets (Clouds, Experimental, Harmonic, Lo-Fi, Rhythmic) plus your own, and a randomise button
HeaderEQ (Simple or 8-band, pre or post, saved with each preset), tuner (A4 = 440 Hz), dark/light face
UpdatesFree

Tonestatic Grains

One granular engine with drive, a filter, a delay and a reverb after it, and a breakpoint LFO. EQ and tuner included. Free updates.

$37 $49
Buy Grainsor try it free for 14 days