Best granular VST ?

[elnn]

I like to buy granular synths, use them for an hour or two and then never touch them again.

This is the Way.

[Halma]

I have a few granular synths. I like spacecraft the most and then audio damage quanta. The latter one only on my iPad but it still sounds dope.

Spacecraft on the other hand is so much fun to use. Unfortunately I don’t have a MPE keyboard yet. I have both versions: pc and iOS and both are great but the iOS one combined with the touch interface is a killer combo.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm looking forward to trying to new granular features in Equator 2, if I do decide that huge upgrade price is worth it.

One of the coolst granular synths out there right now is Pigments I think. You can load 6 wav files in one granular osc and it cycles between them, which gives this cool effect which is different than just layering granular oscs or samples in other synths.

[ecasasmusic2]

Pigments 2. Very intuitive and always useful results.

[chk071]

I like to buy granular synths, use them for an hour or two and then never touch them again.

Would probably be the same for me.

[Neon Breath]

Spacecraft on the other hand is so much fun to use. Unfortunately I don’t have a MPE keyboard yet. I have both versions: pc and iOS and both are great but the iOS one combined with the touch interface is a killer combo.

Totally agree. SpaceCraft is totally unique in term of workflow and its take on granular synthesis is quite different and makes it super fun. Very underrated granular synth imo, there's nothing like it in the VST realm.

[himalaya]

I'm looking forward to trying to new granular features in Equator 2, if I do decide that huge upgrade price is worth it.

One of the coolst granular synths out there right now is Pigments I think. You can load 6 wav files in one granular osc and it cycles between them, which gives this cool effect which is different than just layering granular oscs or samples in other synths.

Equator 2 goes further: it allows to cycle through *every* sample. For each oscillator (x6). So with care you can have a huge sample set being modulated in realtime, which is on top of any granular parameters you may have firing off at the same time. This is simply sublime under MPE control. Loads of presets in Equator2 make use of it.

If you are into deep, intricate textures, this granular-sample-sequencing can give truly unique sounds.

[simmo75]

I'm looking forward to trying to new granular features in Equator 2, if I do decide that huge upgrade price is worth it.

One of the coolst granular synths out there right now is Pigments I think. You can load 6 wav files in one granular osc and it cycles between them, which gives this cool effect which is different than just layering granular oscs or samples in other synths.

Equator 2 goes further: it allows to cycle through *every* sample. For each oscillator (x6). So with care you can have a huge sample set being modulated in realtime, which is on top of any granular parameters you may have firing off at the same time. This is simply sublime under MPE control. Loads of presets in Equator2 make use of it.

If you are into deep, intricate textures, this granular-sample-sequencing can give truly unique sounds.

Is there a tutorial on how to use this functionality?
The index button is greyed out for me, no matter what I do.
Also, how do you add grains?

[JJWL]

Is Pigments 2 worth paying $70 if I mainly want it for the granular synth?

[DrFolder]

I absolutely adore Madrona Labs Kaivo for granular synthesis. I am also very fond of the granular in Lectric Panda's Torsion and Fritz rack extensions in Reason. Torsion is the granular synth and Fritz is a granular effect. Torsion and Fritz have extensive randomization capabilities.

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm looking forward to trying to new granular features in Equator 2, if I do decide that huge upgrade price is worth it.

One of the coolst granular synths out there right now is Pigments I think. You can load 6 wav files in one granular osc and it cycles between them, which gives this cool effect which is different than just layering granular oscs or samples in other synths.

Equator 2 goes further: it allows to cycle through *every* sample. For each oscillator (x6). So with care you can have a huge sample set being modulated in realtime, which is on top of any granular parameters you may have firing off at the same time. This is simply sublime under MPE control. Loads of presets in Equator2 make use of it.

If you are into deep, intricate textures, this granular-sample-sequencing can give truly unique sounds.

So equator has a round robin type setting where the grains actually cycle between oscillators?
Does it also do granular on multi-sampled instruments like omnisphere?

Also, have the filters been improved? They went into digital shit at high resonance in the first one.

[Neon Breath]

Is Pigments 2 worth paying $70 if I mainly want it for the granular synth?

Depends what you are looking for, but for $70 I'd say it's quite a nice deal. As a comparison, Quanta is $99 and you get absolutely nothing else, not even effects, just granular synthesis at its purest form. So for $70, you get a superb synth with high quality cutting edge granular algorithms + probably the most deepest (and easiest as a bonus!) modulation system you kind find in a granular synth... + all the effect board.... + even more synthesis methods like wavetable. So yeah, I think it's quite a solid deal.

Give the demo a spin to make sure you like it, but Pigments as a granular synth is definitely up there up par with the others.

[himalaya]

I'm looking forward to trying to new granular features in Equator 2, if I do decide that huge upgrade price is worth it.

One of the coolst granular synths out there right now is Pigments I think. You can load 6 wav files in one granular osc and it cycles between them, which gives this cool effect which is different than just layering granular oscs or samples in other synths.

Equator 2 goes further: it allows to cycle through *every* sample. For each oscillator (x6). So with care you can have a huge sample set being modulated in realtime, which is on top of any granular parameters you may have firing off at the same time. This is simply sublime under MPE control. Loads of presets in Equator2 make use of it.

If you are into deep, intricate textures, this granular-sample-sequencing can give truly unique sounds.

So equator has a round robin type setting where the grains actually cycle between oscillators?
Does it also do granular on multi-sampled instruments like omnisphere?

Also, have the filters been improved? They went into digital shit at high resonance in the first one.

Grains cycle between oscillators? Not sure what this is, but what I said is that in Equator2, you can modulate (use any modulator) to trigger any sample (in the Granular folder, to be precise). So, each sound source, and there are six, can be set up to ‘scan’ like this through loads and loads of samples, all along as they are ‘granulated’. With just one granular ‘oscillator’ this can sound immense. Add all six into the mix and can be totally bonkers.

Granular on multi-samples? Absolutely yes! And you can dynamically select/ modulate the samples within the multi-sample, so if you don’t like the starting sample of say, the nylon guitar, because it does not have the right attack transient, simply select another maybe an octave higher.

Just keep in mind: every sample can be used in the granular engine, but how these can be interacted with differs. You get the most fun with the samples from the Granular folders especially as all the samples in such a folder can be modulated/triggered dynamically. Please read the manual.
Another cool feature: use the new Multi-Mod source and create a pseudo wave-sequencing sound!

The Filters are the same for now.

[Whywhy]

I add: Equator 2 have a granular delay too in the fx section. (2 rows of effects are available, with routing and 1 feedback line. You can load ,if you need, the granular delay effect multiple times. )

[Echoes in the Attic]

I'm looking forward to trying to new granular features in Equator 2, if I do decide that huge upgrade price is worth it.

One of the coolst granular synths out there right now is Pigments I think. You can load 6 wav files in one granular osc and it cycles between them, which gives this cool effect which is different than just layering granular oscs or samples in other synths.

Equator 2 goes further: it allows to cycle through *every* sample. For each oscillator (x6). So with care you can have a huge sample set being modulated in realtime, which is on top of any granular parameters you may have firing off at the same time. This is simply sublime under MPE control. Loads of presets in Equator2 make use of it.

If you are into deep, intricate textures, this granular-sample-sequencing can give truly unique sounds.

So equator has a round robin type setting where the grains actually cycle between oscillators?
Does it also do granular on multi-sampled instruments like omnisphere?

Also, have the filters been improved? They went into digital shit at high resonance in the first one.

Grains cycle between oscillators? Not sure what this is, but what I said is that in Equator2, you can modulate (use any modulator) to trigger any sample (in the Granular folder, to be precise). So, each sound source, and there are six, can be set up to ‘scan’ like this through loads and loads of samples, all along as they are ‘granulated’. With just one granular ‘oscillator’ this can sound immense. Add all six into the mix and can be totally bonkers.

Granular on multi-samples? Absolutely yes! And you can dynamically select/ modulate the samples within the multi-sample, so if you don’t like the starting sample of say, the nylon guitar, because it does not have the right attack transient, simply select another maybe an octave higher.

Just keep in mind: every sample can be used in the granular engine, but how these can be interacted with differs. You get the most fun with the samples from the Granular folders especially as all the samples in such a folder can be modulated/triggered dynamically. Please read the manual.
Another cool feature: use the new Multi-Mod source and create a pseudo wave-sequencing sound!

The Filters are the same for now.

Sounds very cool. I mean to say Grains cycle between samples (not oscillators).

I'm also curious if there is some sort of multi-granular, or stacking of grain streams, like with Falcon or Halion, or Bitwig sampler (via stacking). IF the manual is available without purchasing, I'll check that out.