New granular synthesiser available

[visa tapani]

Granite is designed to be intuitive, musical, productive, and as much as possible, sound good at any parameter combination (and that is key for the internal modulation concept to work musically). [...] I just feel that you might be comparing it to something it doesn't claim to be. It's definitely not intended to be the complete granular workstation, but on the other hand I think it offers things which other approaches don't.

Thanks for the reply James, fair enough. It seems that you have a clear vision in what you're doing and I'm simply not part of your target market. However, it seems to me that you have already done half of the sound design in advance, and left the user with only a handful of possibilities. Sure, with this approach it "sounds good at any parameter combination", but is this really such a worthy goal, as it kinda makes the instrument a one-trick pony? I think that for something to be an isntrument, it must be able to sound bad as well, and the users should be left with the ability to express themselves with their own sound design. I disagree that limiting out the extreme parameter ranges is necessary "for the internal modulation concept to work musically", since the user can decide precisely the modulation ranges and simply avoid the ranges where it doesn't sound good. In fact IMO this approach underestimates the customers somewhat, assuming that they simply arbitrarily punch in values and are thus helpless to protect themselves against the bad sounding extreme ranges, unless they are hid from them.

It does seem that this approach does appeal to many. However, simply expanding the parameter ranges and adding a couple of more parameters would open the plugin up for a totally new market in addition to keeping in touch with the ones that are currently interested. There are not many VSTi's doing granular synthesis, and I for one would buy it in a blink of an eye if it offered a wider sonic palette. I think people would also not complain about the price if it was feature-richer, since a product with more possibilities in general is perceived to be of higher value...

[synthtweaker]

With this new beta version I seem to be back to the old problem of certain wavs loading and others either not appearing in the waveform window or just crashing the whole program to desktop. It also would not play a load of my saved presets from the last version and occasionally I seem to get silence during playback of a waveform when I would expect to hear sound (even after tweaking the controls a lot). For me at least this beta version seems very unstable.

[zeep]

Just some quick questions: How is this synth for percussive sounds? Is the main volume envelope ADSR fast enough for that? Also, does it have portamento with different modes like On & Always?

[experimental.crow]

With this new beta version I seem to be back to the old problem of certain wavs loading and others either not appearing in the waveform window or just crashing the whole program to desktop. It also would not play a load of my saved presets from the last version and occasionally I seem to get silence during playback of a waveform when I would expect to hear sound (even after tweaking the controls a lot). For me at least this beta version seems very unstable.

its loaded every .wav i've thrown at it , so far ...

[newsonicarts]

With this new beta version I seem to be back to the old problem of certain wavs loading and others either not appearing in the waveform window or just crashing the whole program to desktop. It also would not play a load of my saved presets from the last version and occasionally I seem to get silence during playback of a waveform when I would expect to hear sound (even after tweaking the controls a lot). For me at least this beta version seems very unstable.

Sorry to hear you had some problems with the 1.1 public beta. This is exactly the feedback needed. Would be really appreciated if you could send an example .wav and presets that you had problems with to support@newsonicarts.com.

Thanks

[randomelement2`]

I'm definitely planning on buying this sometime. I love the samples that I heard. I'm much more interested in tweaking non-synth sounds because I prefer something that sounds somewhat organic. It has a richer sound to my ears.

[newsonicarts]

With this new beta version I seem to be back to the old problem of certain wavs loading and others either not appearing in the waveform window or just crashing the whole program to desktop.

FYI I can confirm there was indeed a bug here which has now been fixed. A new 1.1 public beta will be available in the next day or so...

Thanks

[zeep]

Just some quick questions: How is this synth for percussive sounds? Is the main volume envelope ADSR fast enough for that? Also, does it have portamento with different modes like On & Always?

Seeing i have no DAW at the moment, and am verry curious about this synth, i really must ask again.

[newsonicarts]

Just some quick questions: How is this synth for percussive sounds? Is the main volume envelope ADSR fast enough for that? Also, does it have portamento with different modes like On & Always?

Granite is certainly no drum sampler. However, it comes out with some pretty nice results if you throw drum loops at it (check the demo for some presets), and if used along side other tools such as slicers it can definitely be useful in designing creative, highly-processed drum sounds.

[suecae_sounds]

I've used Granite for percussive sounds (albeit only once), with great results.

[Beno.]

sorry, didnt see that..means im out then, my clockwork pc isnt up to the job

you still have not upgraded your PC?

[zeep]

Just some quick questions: How is this synth for percussive sounds? Is the main volume envelope ADSR fast enough for that? Also, does it have portamento with different modes like On & Always?

Granite is certainly no drum sampler. However, it comes out with some pretty nice results if you throw drum loops at it (check the demo for some presets), and if used along side other tools such as slicers it can definitely be useful in designing creative, highly-processed drum sounds.

Thanks for this.

[zerocrossing]

Granite is designed to be intuitive, musical, productive, and as much as possible, sound good at any parameter combination (and that is key for the internal modulation concept to work musically). [...] I just feel that you might be comparing it to something it doesn't claim to be. It's definitely not intended to be the complete granular workstation, but on the other hand I think it offers things which other approaches don't.

Thanks for the reply James, fair enough. It seems that you have a clear vision in what you're doing and I'm simply not part of your target market. However, it seems to me that you have already done half of the sound design in advance, and left the user with only a handful of possibilities. Sure, with this approach it "sounds good at any parameter combination", but is this really such a worthy goal, as it kinda makes the instrument a one-trick pony? I think that for something to be an isntrument, it must be able to sound bad as well, and the users should be left with the ability to express themselves with their own sound design. I disagree that limiting out the extreme parameter ranges is necessary "for the internal modulation concept to work musically", since the user can decide precisely the modulation ranges and simply avoid the ranges where it doesn't sound good. In fact IMO this approach underestimates the customers somewhat, assuming that they simply arbitrarily punch in values and are thus helpless to protect themselves against the bad sounding extreme ranges, unless they are hid from them.

It does seem that this approach does appeal to many. However, simply expanding the parameter ranges and adding a couple of more parameters would open the plugin up for a totally new market in addition to keeping in touch with the ones that are currently interested. There are not many VSTi's doing granular synthesis, and I for one would buy it in a blink of an eye if it offered a wider sonic palette. I think people would also not complain about the price if it was feature-richer, since a product with more possibilities in general is perceived to be of higher value...

I totally agree with this post. I'd go as far as to say that if you're into spending money on a Granular synth, chances are you're not afraid of sounds that the mainstream would consider "non-musical." Even a kind of "redline" indicator in the UI might be enough to let the user know, "if you go beyond this point it all might go to hell!" Therefore those of us who are so inclined might say, "BRING IT." Keep the presets rated "PG" if you want, or maybe add a folder called "hit the fan" to show off extreme settings.

[suecae_sounds]

1.1 is out!

What's new:

* 64 bit support

* Loop position modulation recording

* New activation process, including offline activation

* Reworked Setup dialog and new Info screen

* Reworked graphics engine with several fixes and enhancements

* Several other small enhancements and fixes.

[Shabdahbriah]

sorry, didnt see that..means im out then, my clockwork pc isnt up to the job

you still have not upgraded your PC?

I'm all for the "if it ain't broke...(etc.)" mind-set, but IIRC he did make the leap to Windows ME recently.