Baby audio - Grainferno

[mcnelson]

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.

Atoms has minimal implementation and BA1 lacks it, AFAIK. Would be good to see all of the BA synths get MPE support.

[kraster]

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.

They did add a lot of functions to Tekno recently and that was a free upgrade.

Personally I'd like to see more modulators and a specific sample and hold style lfo.

Also the ability to snap the nodes in the MSEG's to a grid would be great.

[bmanic]

Anybody know if Baby Audio ever update/improve their plugins post release?

Grainferno has tremendous potential but it's lacking in some very obvious areas. For instance, there is no gain/amount for envelopes which is a HUGE miss. No way to modulate envelope amounts with modwheel, velocity etc. This is such a huge oversight I can not quite understand how it went through beta without this when it's available in all other modulation sources.

There's also no way to modify stereo width which can be a real problem when trying to create sounds that aren't always ultra wide, even if the source sample has a ton of stereo stuff in it. I wish there was a pre-grain section that would let us manipulate stereo width or mid/side + panning before it goes into the granular section. This would be especially powerful with the dual sample engine and the crossfade.

I've never really liked any of the Baby Audio products though I have demoed some of them over the years. They've always seemed half-baked and not entirely thought through.. this is the first product of theirs I'm seriously considering purchasing but as always, it's a bit half-baked with tremendous potential.

So.. anybody know if Baby Audio are ever listening to feedback and actually improving plugins post release?


EDIT: I took a look at their other plugins and version history. Yes, looks like Baby Audio are quite good at updating their plugins. This is encouraging to see.

[BABY Audio]

Thanks for all the comments, lots to respond to! If anything is missing from the answers below, please ask and we'll reply.

- Randomizer button: the random assignments was our way of handling randomness in Grainferno and there's a lot you can do. A global random button could lead to some pretty crazy results. It's not a bad idea per se, we'll see how it feels as we work on an update.

- Start/stop point adjustment available for the sample: No, but you can artificially create limits using certain controls. Depending on what exactly you’re looking to do you may need to crop your sample before bringing it in. A full sample editor felt too complex to address for Grainferno as it would complicate the UI and people are already working in their DAW. But we will consider it if we get a lot of requests.

- MPE: This is going to be a bigger overhaul for us. We know some users have asked for more MPE compatibility for Atoms as well. (Still the majority of users don't appear to be asking for this, but we understand it's a growing demand). We're developing the skills necessary to do MPE implementations at the highest level. It will be fully in a future Atoms v2. For Grainferno it's something we'll be looking into as well for a future update or V2.

- Modulating envelope amount: Depending on exactly what you’re looking to do, you might be able to achieve the result (or something very similar) with some cross modulation. That being said, we want working with Grainferno to be as quick and easy as possible, so we will add this to our list of update considerations.

- Pre-grain stereo control: We will consider what an implementation of this entails.

- Swing options for the modulators, the morph types and the grain rate: Interesting ideas, although we're not quite sure what you're envisioning with the morph types. Let us know and we'll add it to our list of feedback.

[miketimothy]

It seems there's only midi learn on the standalone not the plugin, at least a sustain pedal would have been nice let alone MPE.

[m-ac]

Any chance we could get a solo function for each of the layers? I know there's a mix slider, but once you have modulation on that....it'd just be nice to have a simple solo function or separate volume controls per layer.

Also, I see you guys are still using that HORRIBLE audio cutout every x seconds with your demos. Please, get rid of that. Just give us a 14 day fully functioning demo. The cutout completely takes the user out of the moment. What's your thinking? It's already a time limited demo ffs. Every - single - time - the audio cuts out, an internal voice goes 'fck this' and makes me want to quit the plugin. We're so spoilt with choice nowadays, it doesn't take much friction to consider choosing alternative options. Sad but true.

[kraster]

Thanks for all the comments, lots to respond to! If anything is missing from the answers below, please ask and we'll reply.

- Randomizer button: the random assignments was our way of handling randomness in Grainferno and there's a lot you can do. A global random button could lead to some pretty crazy results. It's not a bad idea per se, we'll see how it feels as we work on an update.

- Start/stop point adjustment available for the sample: No, but you can artificially create limits using certain controls. Depending on what exactly you’re looking to do you may need to crop your sample before bringing it in. A full sample editor felt too complex to address for Grainferno as it would complicate the UI and people are already working in their DAW. But we will consider it if we get a lot of requests.

- MPE: This is going to be a bigger overhaul for us. We know some users have asked for more MPE compatibility for Atoms as well. (Still the majority of users don't appear to be asking for this, but we understand it's a growing demand). We're developing the skills necessary to do MPE implementations at the highest level. It will be fully in a future Atoms v2. For Grainferno it's something we'll be looking into as well for a future update or V2.

- Modulating envelope amount: Depending on exactly what you’re looking to do, you might be able to achieve the result (or something very similar) with some cross modulation. That being said, we want working with Grainferno to be as quick and easy as possible, so we will add this to our list of update considerations.

- Pre-grain stereo control: We will consider what an implementation of this entails.

- Swing options for the modulators, the morph types and the grain rate: Interesting ideas, although we're not quite sure what you're envisioning with the morph types. Let us know and we'll add it to our list of feedback.

I did mention more modulators. Even one extra envelope and LFO would be very welcome.

A sample and hold mode for the LFOs would be cool as would note on random. I find these kinds of modulators are very useful for modulating sample position.

A snap to grid for editing LFO nodes.

Grain reverse probability.

[Cuauhtli]

Can one move the samples to another location? Would be nice to have the location for files as an install option like Arturia, Steinberg, NI, etc.

[aMUSEd]

Does it support poly aftertouch at least?

[BABY Audio]

We just pushed a 1.1 update for Grainferno! It's largely performance based. Future updates will be more feature focused. The suggestions/requests from the posts since our last reply here have been added to our list or were already on there

Changelog
- CPU optimizations
- Synth voice clicking issues eliminated
- Added Exponential grain window shape (mode for Shape parameter)
- Added sample load via file browser to circumvent specific sample drag and drop issues
- Added extra high quality option for both realtime use and rendering
- File extensions are no longer capital sensitive when loading samples
- Main visualizer improvements (OpenGL and non-OpenGL)
- Other misc visual improvements

You can grab the update at babyaud.io/downloads or via our manager app

[miloszz]

What are the MIDI CCs that control the macro knobs in the VST?

The MIDI learn function only exists in the standalone and doesn't carry over to the plugin as far as I can tell and no MIDI CCs are listed in the manual. In Ableton you can MIDI map them but they have to be remade every single time the plugin is opened, which is less than ideal.

[c_voltage]

Pretty not a bad thing.
From probable requests, some management for lfo\envelope curves (ability to save\load user vaweforms i mean) would be nice.
Simple step modulator would be useful too.
As well Instant playbacking mode lol (ok my fav), after that i definitely would grab this.
Without that probably too, but not right now.

[InfernoEDM]

Thanks for all the comments, lots to respond to! If anything is missing from the answers below, please ask and we'll reply.

- Randomizer button: the random assignments was our way of handling randomness in Grainferno and there's a lot you can do. A global random button could lead to some pretty crazy results. It's not a bad idea per se, we'll see how it feels as we work on an update.

- Start/stop point adjustment available for the sample: No, but you can artificially create limits using certain controls. Depending on what exactly you’re looking to do you may need to crop your sample before bringing it in. A full sample editor felt too complex to address for Grainferno as it would complicate the UI and people are already working in their DAW. But we will consider it if we get a lot of requests.

- MPE: This is going to be a bigger overhaul for us. We know some users have asked for more MPE compatibility for Atoms as well. (Still the majority of users don't appear to be asking for this, but we understand it's a growing demand). We're developing the skills necessary to do MPE implementations at the highest level. It will be fully in a future Atoms v2. For Grainferno it's something we'll be looking into as well for a future update or V2.

- Modulating envelope amount: Depending on exactly what you’re looking to do, you might be able to achieve the result (or something very similar) with some cross modulation. That being said, we want working with Grainferno to be as quick and easy as possible, so we will add this to our list of update considerations.

- Pre-grain stereo control: We will consider what an implementation of this entails.

- Swing options for the modulators, the morph types and the grain rate: Interesting ideas, although we're not quite sure what you're envisioning with the morph types. Let us know and we'll add it to our list of feedback.

I did mention more modulators. Even one extra envelope and LFO would be very welcome.

A sample and hold mode for the LFOs would be cool as would note on random. I find these kinds of modulators are very useful for modulating sample position.

A snap to grid for editing LFO nodes.

Grain reverse probability.

It actually does functionally have note on random! The randomness modulators are generally "per-grain", but if you turn the smoothing all the way up to infinity, it will hold the same random value per note, and then get a new random value for the next note (without the different notes interfering with each other).