New Arturia granular effect plugin

[Sampleconstruct]

it doesn't have Midi in.

would be nice though

at least it seems to be sidechainable in logic
so maybe in a future release ?

I agree, Midi In would definitely expand the possibilities!

[tactile_coast]

You can only tune it with a knob/Macro, it doesn't have Midi in.

The Filter Cut off shows up as a modulatable parameter so you dont need it. You can easily achieve the same effect by routing MIDI to the Fragments track then using your DAWs MIDI in note modulator to control the filter cut off, its called Keytrack in Bitwig. Just tried it out and its really simple to do.

[Sampleconstruct]

You can only tune it with a knob/Macro, it doesn't have Midi in.

The Filter Cut off shows up as a modulatable parameter so you dont need it. You can easily achieve the same effect by routing MIDI to the Fragments track then using your DAWs MIDI in note modulator to control the filter cut off, its called Keytrack in Bitwig. Just tried it out and its really simple to do.

That doesn't work in Logic which is my main DAW, Fragments would need to be available as a Midi controllable Plugin in Logic. It would work in Cubase, so thanks for the suggestion.

[j wazza]

Always cool and fun to see new granulators around the block, but I think Silo is far much superior. If you already have one of the 3 mighty granulators: Silo, Crusher-X or Portal, there's really no reason to get this, it's just overlapping tools at this point.

But if you don't own any granulator yet though, this could be a nice option to consider.

why is silo better?

agree that theyre all pretty similar though

[Neon Breath]

Always cool and fun to see new granulators around the block, but I think Silo is far much superior. If you already have one of the 3 mighty granulators: Silo, Crusher-X or Portal, there's really no reason to get this, it's just overlapping tools at this point.

But if you don't own any granulator yet though, this could be a nice option to consider.

why is silo better?

agree that theyre all pretty similar though

More unique & unorthodox features in Silo, like the spatialize that has quite unique types, the different reverb modes that can be applied to the grains, the mask which is pretty unique. I also prefer working with Silo's buffer, I didn't click at all with the one in Fragments. Also, Silo can allow up to 1000 overlapping grains VS 256 in Fragments + few other unique things here and there. Not saying Fragments is bad, I just thing it's a bit underwhelming if you already have Silo or Portal.

[kidslow]

Forgive me father for I lack GAS. If I was offered a launch price of $29 would have strongly considered it, but I am confident the price will regularly be on sale to match the $49 offer in my account ... so there's absolutely no urgency. Perhaps I will wait until FX Collection 3 comes along with a beyond compelling price.

Creative Intent Remnant, Puremagnetik Granular Suite, and the free Lagrange, Emergence, and ++bubbler ... plenty of granular effects at my disposal. Feel like I should exhaust those first. Call me crazy. I find the UI of Output Portal more appealing, so that would be top of my list to demo, perhaps after a Red Panda Particle 2 pedal. Maybe one day will happen upon a use case where Fragments compels another look but not happening this month. I appreciate the discussion and will take some time to check out the comparison videos.

[kidslow]

I will say this after starting to watch Databroth's comparison video, Fragments interface is really not to my liking. Two different scrollers sliding left to right and then this crazy window in the middle that tries to convey depth of field somehow? That's a lot of visual distraction and I find it way-y-y too busy and not in a good way. What is that depth of field window in the center of the interface supposed to show? Is it necessary? Can it be disabled? Reminds me of playing space games on the Atari 5200.

But perhaps visual feedback beyond basic dials & sliders in a granular engine is not a priority for me. I will say Portal is significantly more intuitive and lean by comparison just from watching some videos.

[Kalamata Kid]

What is the lowest sale price for Portal?

[kidslow]

Seems to be around $97, but their resale policy is sub-optimal. Arturia wins by both of those metrics.

[Kalamata Kid]

Portal has been on my list to buy but looks like it will be a long wait for the sale with a lower price.

[vitocorleone123]

Portal has been on my list to buy but looks like it will be a long wait for the sale with a lower price.

Having tried the Arturia, Silo, and Portal... Portal is the one to get (for me) when it's down to $100 or so. Alternative is a granular synth like Quanta when it's on sale down toward $60. Having an effect would be more convenient than dragging and dropping a sample into Quanta.

Sure, it's possible to buy Pigments for that much money... but I sold Pigments because the sound of it bored me more than any other softsynth I've ever had.

[kidslow]

If you have an iPad, you can snag Quanta iOS cheap. I got it on sale for $2.99. Touch screen seems like a natural with some of these granular effects. Output Portal on a touch screen would be a beast.

[j wazza]

Portal has been on my list to buy but looks like it will be a long wait for the sale with a lower price.

Having tried the Arturia, Silo, and Portal... Portal is the one to get (for me) when it's down to $100 or so. Alternative is a granular synth like Quanta when it's on sale down toward $60. Having an effect would be more convenient than dragging and dropping a sample into Quanta.

Sure, it's possible to buy Pigments for that much money... but I sold Pigments because the sound of it bored me more than any other softsynth I've ever had.

i dont have silo but would get it for like 20 with a pa voucher, id say for the price portal isnt worth it with all these cheaper options, but it is probably the best one ive tried, but only slightly and the others are good enough

but granular synths blow all these effects away imo

[vitocorleone123]

Portal has been on my list to buy but looks like it will be a long wait for the sale with a lower price.

Having tried the Arturia, Silo, and Portal... Portal is the one to get (for me) when it's down to $100 or so. Alternative is a granular synth like Quanta when it's on sale down toward $60. Having an effect would be more convenient than dragging and dropping a sample into Quanta.

Sure, it's possible to buy Pigments for that much money... but I sold Pigments because the sound of it bored me more than any other softsynth I've ever had.

i dont have silo but would get it for like 20 with a pa voucher, id say for the price portal isnt worth it with all these cheaper options, but it is probably the best one ive tried, but only slightly and the others are good enough

but granular synths blow all these effects away imo

I have Quanta but it’s limited vs the desktop (grains, voices, etc).

[j wazza]

I have Quanta but it’s limited vs the desktop (grains, voices, etc).

whats the desktop?

i dont have quanta i wasnt talking about that specifically but was saying that generally gran synths can do more than gran fx

they have more control over time, direction, sample position, speed etc, gran fx always recieve the sound going forwards in time at a set speed and can only delay the sound, they can reverse individual grains but not the whole sound, same for speeding up grains etc

gran synths can quickly sweep through the sample position for like a minute long sample, switching between forwards and reverse, instantly turning it into a cloud

falcon, rapid, padshop etc are good options

effects are useful for using on the fly, meaning you can experiment with the input and hear the granular result in real time without bouncing each time you change something

with either id say the priority is to really focus on what sounds you put into it, that makes the biggest difference. get 1 good gran synth and effect, and then keep experimenting with different sounds to put in rather than thinking its the plugin's fault and getting gas for other plugins

its easiest to not get a mess if you play it safe with the notes, like minor triads, 7ths, pentatonic etc.
The sounds should have variation in volume and texture.
i usually get rid of any clicks in the sound first too with envelopes
i made a great granular pad by playing a minor 7th arp on an fm synth, in bitwig i randomised when each note triggers and the velocity, used velocity to modulate the fm amount for texture variation. this sounded kinda like wind chimes, and already sounded a bit like a randomised granular swarm. then I put sinevibes droplet on, its a random multi tap delay. then i sampled it, layered it an octave up (by speeding it up so timing of the notes sped up too). Then sampled it into falcon's granular synth to turn it into an atmospheric cloud. each layer of randomness made it less of an arp and more of a cloud