Baby audio - Grainferno

[aMUSEd]

How long is the intro offer for?

[kevvvvv]

Been playing with the trial with my own samples - with interesting results.

The included factory presets are very droney, not much use outside film mood accompaniment.

My own samples are starting to sound interesting though, more rhythmic, percussive and recognisably tonal enough to fit into a tune (I like the "turn my sample into a tonal synth" button)

Here's what I'm trying.

1 - take a melodic loop from a track I'm currently working on.

2 - bounce the loop down to audio

3 - drag into Grainferno.

This way I'm getting a new sound that's musically relevant to the piece I'm developing.

Anyone else exploring Grainferno and getting more than "just droney stuff" out of it?

[kraster]

I'm a big fan of the baby audio UI/UX and this is one of their best, imho.

Like Kevvvv said above it's actually excellent for more rhythmic stuff.

I've been using sample pairs and modulating their respective positions with Lfos and tying the grain generation rate to bpm.

The use of MSEGs as LFOs is great since you can use them to sequence things like the scan direction.

The grain compressor is a great touch and can really transform the sound into something gnarlier.

It's not reinventing the wheel but it's one of the easiest and nicest to use.

[Funky40]

Is there a start/stop point adjustment available for the sample ? (non destructive truncate)
Can´t find any

[DCrown]

[Alchemedia]

Has anyone compared Grainferno to Refractalizer?

[kraster]

Has anyone compared Grainferno to Fractalizer?

There is some overlap but Grainferno is more about turning one or two samples into oscillators and has more of a traditional synth workflow.

Fractalizer is more about morphing between multiple samples and manipulating their timing while using a granular engine for playback

I'd say grainferno lends itself more towards being a playable instrument and Fractalizer is more sound design oriented.

That's not to say that you can't use either for music or sound design but each has a different emphasis.

[billinder33]

I like Baby Audio stuff so I demo'd this. It's pretty cool. Love the UI and modulation system - very easy to understand. Was quickly getting some very usable sounds with just the included sample grains. I don't really do ambient music, so granular's not something I use often, but I was able to quickly get some really nice punchy sounds out of it thanks to the nice graphical envelope UI and general ease of use.

I think the intro price is very fair for what it is. I have more instruments than I can effectively make use of at this time so probably won't buy this one, but if I were looking for a good granular-only instrument, this would definitely be an option. May revisit it sometime in the future.

[BONES]

The audio demos sound very "grainy", there's something not quite right about the sound. It might be usable but it's not a tone/style that appeals to me. I've got a few granular synths but Concept 2 is the only one I've ever found any use for. It's not really my kind of thing.

[kraster]

One thing I like about grainferno is that it nails the original granular ideas better than most.

Grain emission rate, grain length, grain envelope, buffer (sample) scanning/position, spray, pitch offset and per grain modulation are all pretty close to the Dennis Gabor/Iannis Xenakis/Curtis Roads ideas of granular synthesis.

Particularly how Grainferno leans into the idea of grains to produce tonal stuff ie. very short grains e.g. 50ms.

Granular often becomes synonymous with any sample chopped into component parts. But to me that's more like sample slicing/micro loopers than granular.

When you push the rates up with very short grain lengths you get closer to Gabor's idea of particle synthesis.

[Alchemedia]

DataMind is about to release an update which enables using Refractalizer as a live effect. I don't think Grainferno can do this, right?

[kraster]

DataMind is about to release an update which enables using Refractalizer as a live effect. I don't think Grainferno can do this, right?

No it can't.

I have the Beta of Refractalizer with the Live rolling buffer. It's absolutely awesome.

You can have multiple buffers with different lengths and pitches running simultaneously and then interpolate between them. You can also capture a buffer and save it as a sample, you can also freeze the buffer at any time.

It turns it into a kind of really elaborate granular looper.

There's an effect version of it that can be inserted directly on a track but the instrument version can take in external audio via a sidechain. The effect and instrument versions are more or less identical apart from that.


Refractalizer is definitely the more capable of the two but as I said above Grainferno is more direct and focused and a joy to work with. I do think that Baby Audio have some of the best UIs in the business and that counts for a lot.

They're both fantastic. We're spoiled for choice.

[Alchemedia]

DataMind is about to release an update which enables using Refractalizer as a live effect. I don't think Grainferno can do this, right?

No it can't.

I have the Beta of Refractalizer with the Live rolling buffer. It's absolutely awesome.

You can have multiple buffers with different lengths and pitches running simultaneously and then interpolate between them. You can also capture a buffer and save it as a sample, you can also freeze the buffer at any time.

It turns it into a kind of really elaborate granular looper.

There's an effect version of it that can be inserted directly on a track but the instrument version can take in external audio via a sidechain. The effect and instrument versions are more or less identical apart from that.


Refractalizer is definitely the more capable of the two but as I said above Grainferno is more direct and focused and a joy to work with. I do think that Baby Audio have some of the best UIs in the business and that counts for a lot.

They're both fantastic. We're spoiled for choice.

Thanks for clarifying! Even when it comes to granular synthesis, less is never more, is it?

[mcnaz]

I like how easy it is to turn a sample into an oscillator with audio rate modulation. The lack of MPE is a little disappointing though. Are there plans for MPE? If so, will it be in the 1.x version or will it come in 2.x which I assume is a paid upgrade? Sorry, not familiar with the Baby Audio ecosystem hence the questions re features and upgrades.

[nanostream]

Same here. I’m interested and I’ll try the demo this weekend, but I’m wondering if full MPE support is in the cards.