Grainstorm

Quick start

From a sample to a cloud.

The window

Roughly in the order the sound flows.

Header

The preset bar (previous, next, the list, SAVE), the power button (bypass) and the menu (three lines) with this manual. Click the logo for the version and credits.

Source

The sample the grains are read from, its menu and LOAD.

Voice

Level, Voices, Root, Bend and Key Track.

Grains

Ten knobs for where the grains come from and how they play, and the Pitch Spray steps menu.

Window

The drawn fade in and out of every grain.

Modulation

Tabs for the four drawn envelopes (Volume, Mod 1–3) and the Matrix.

Filter

Each voice's filter, with its power button.

Effects

Four effect slots and, beside them, the Macros or the XY Pad.

Using the controls

A knob that the matrix moves shows a thin ring: the range the modulation can take it over, and a dot where it is now. The window can be made larger: drag its bottom-right corner.

Signal flow

What happens to a note.

Every voice has its own grain stream, its own Volume and Mod 1–3 envelopes, its own matrix (velocity, note and Random are per note) and its own filter, so each note of a chord can move differently. The voices then meet in the effects. A voice that has finished costs nothing.

Source

The sound the grains are made of.

The menu lists the Built-in sources, made by Grainstorm and tuned to C4: Glass Choir, Metal Bells, Breath, Pluck Arp and Drone Sweep. Under Your Samples are the files in your Samples folder (next to Grainstorm's presets), and at the end Show Samples Folder.

LOAD (or dropping a file on the waveform) takes a WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG or MP3, up to two minutes, and copies it into your Samples folder, so sessions and presets find it again.

Waveform

The whole sample, with its name, length and channels. The lit line is Position: click or drag to move it, double-click to reset. The shaded band round it is the Spray. Thin lines show where each voice is reading (Scan moves them on); the sparks are the grains, brighter while louder.

Grains

Where they come from, how long, how many, which pitch, which way.

Position

Where in the sample the grains come from (or click the sample). Route an envelope to it in the matrix to sweep it. 0 … 100 %

Scan

While a note plays, its position moves on through the sample at this share of the sample's own speed: 100 % plays it along in time, −100 % backwards, 0 % freezes it in place. −200 … +200 %

Spray

Scatters each grain's start round the position, up to this much either way in all: a little blurs, a lot turns the sample into a cloud. 0 ms … 2 s

Size

How long each grain lasts. Short grains buzz and click (a few ms), long ones play recognisable bits of the sample. 5 ms … 2 s

Density

How many grains start each second, per voice. With Size it sets how many overlap; the level adjusts so a dense cloud doesn't get louder. 0.5 … 200 /s

Jitter

How irregular the grains' timing is. 0 %: a steady pulse (rhythmic at low density); 100 %: random. 0 … 100 %

Pitch

Transposes the grains (on top of the note, with Key Track). ±24 st

P. Spray

Pitch Spray: each grain plays up to this many semitones off, at random, in the steps the menu in the card's title sets. 0 … 24 st

Steps menu

Pitch Spray Scale: Free (any pitch: a chorus-like smear), Semitones, Fifths (fifths and octaves: shimmer) or Octaves only.

Reverse

The chance a grain plays backwards. 100 %: every grain. 0 … 100 %

Spread

Scatters the grains across the stereo field. 0 %: all in the middle. 0 … 100 %

Window

How every grain fades in and out.

Drawn left (the grain's start) to right (its end), with the same tools as the envelopes. A smooth hump (Hann) is soft and clean; a fast rise and long fall plucks; a slow rise and sudden end swells into each grain; a flat top with steep sides keeps more of the sample (and clicks). The menu's Windows submenu has the classic ones ready: Hann, Hamming, Blackman, Gauss, Tukey, Kaiser, Expodec, Rexpodec and more. The window is kept in presets.

Voice

How notes play the grains.

Level

Each voice's output level. −48 … +6 dB

Voices

How many notes can sound at once. A note past that takes over the oldest voice (its grains ring on). 1 … 16

Root

The note that plays the sample at its own pitch (with Key Track on). The built-in sources are tuned to C4. C1 … C7

Bend

Pitch Bend Range: how far the pitch wheel bends the grains, up and down. 0 … 24 st

Key Track

The note sets the grains' pitch, from Root. Off, every note plays the grains at the same pitch: keys then only start and stop voices, handy for drums, textures and drones.

Envelopes

Four drawn shapes per voice.

Mod 1–3 have a power button (off: not calculated) and a Bipolar switch: bipolar, the drawing goes up and down from a centre line and sends −100 to +100 % into the matrix; off, it runs from the bottom, 0 to 100 %.

How an envelope plays

When a note starts, the envelope fades in over Attack and plays the drawing from the left. While you hold the key, the part between the two loop handles (the dots under the drawing) repeats. When you let go it fades out over Release, still following the shape.

Loop

The button with the loop picture. Click to step through, right-click to choose: Off (play once, hold the end), Forward, Backward, Palindrome (back and forth).

Trigger

Trig: restart on every note. Legato: only after silence. Tempo: never restarts; it follows the song like an LFO and notes only fade it in and out.

Sync

Free: speed set by Rate. Note, Dotted, Triplet: Rate becomes a note value, the whole drawing lasting that long at the song's tempo (120 BPM without a host), with a beat grid.

Rate

How fast the shape plays (Free), or how long the drawing lasts as a note value (synced; clockwise is faster).

Attack

How long a note takes to fade into the envelope. Right-click it to disable it.

Release

How long it fades out after the key is let go. Right-click it to disable it: the envelope then holds the value it had when you let go.

Drift

A smooth random wobble on the output, never the timing. Right-click to disable.

Drawing & editing

The envelopes and the grain window share the same tools.

Draw

Freehand: drag across the shape.

Line

Drag a straight line (its ends snap to the grid when synced; hold Cmd for free). Then drag its end dots, or the ring to curve it; Cmd on the ring for an S-curve.

Warp

Grab the shape and drag: sideways moves that moment earlier or later, up and down bends the shape around it.

Lift

Drag up or down to raise or lower the edit region (or the whole shape).

Move

Drag sideways to slide the edit region along; without a region it shifts the whole shape round.

Random

A new random shape. The menu has Rhythm, Melody, Organic and Wobble generators.

Smooth · Normalize

Soften corners and steps; stretch the shape to the full range.

Menu (≡)

Undo and redo, copy and paste, zoom, edits (Smooth, Normalize, Flip, Reverse), random generators, Waveforms, Windows and ready-made shapes by category, Percussion first. Right-click the drawing for the same menu.

Shift-drag marks an edit region that drawing, edits, Random and shapes are limited to; its handles stretch, repeat, scale and tilt what's inside. Cmd+C / Cmd+V copy and paste between any of the drawings, Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z undo and redo, Cmd+scroll or pinch zooms. Contour's manual describes the region handles in full: they work the same here.

Modulation matrix

Eight slots, each voice its own.

Open the Matrix tab. Each slot is one row: Source × Amount (× Via) + Offset → Destination, optionally smoothed. Click a cell for its menu; drag Amount, Offset or Smooth up and down, double-click to reset.

Source

Envelopes: Volume, Mod 1–3. MIDI: Velocity, Note, Mod Wheel, Aftertouch, Pitch Bend, CC A, CC B and Random (a new value per note). XY Pad: X and Y. Macros 1–8.

Via

A second source that scales the slot. None: always on.

Destination

Grains: Position, Scan, Spray, Size, Density, Jitter, Pitch, Pitch Spray, Reverse, Spread. Voice: Level. Filter: Cutoff, Resonance, Morph, Drive. Macros 1–8.

Amount

How far, either way: 100 % moves the destination across its whole range. Pitch shows it in semitones (100 % = 48 st). ±100 %

Offset

A fixed shift added to the slot, also with no source. ±100 %

Smooth

Glides the slot's output over this time. 0 … 2000 ms

CC A and CC B learn from your controller: click Learn under the matrix, then move a knob.

Filter

One per voice, fourteen types.

Switch it on with its power button (Filter On; off, it isn't calculated). Because every voice has its own filter, an envelope on Cutoff sweeps each note.

Type

Ladder LP / HP / BP at 24 or 12 dB (Moog-style), SVF Morph and Notch, Diode (303-style), MS-20, Formant, Comb + and −, Phaser.

Cutoff

The filter's frequency (a comb's pitch). 20 Hz … 20 kHz

Resonance

How much the filter rings at the cutoff. 0 … 100 %

Morph

Depends on the type: SVF low → band → high, Formant the vowel, Comb damping. 0 … 100 %

Drive

Pushes the grains into the filter: grit and a fatter resonance. 0 … 100 %

Key

Filter Key Tracking: how much the cutoff follows the note, from C4. At 100 % an octave per octave. 0 … 100 %

Effects, macros, XY pad

After the voices.

Four slots in series, starting as Chorus, Delay, Reverb and an empty one. Each has a menu (which effect: OTT, Distortion, EQ, Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Reverb 2, Flanger, Phaser, Width, Compressor, Pitch, Filter, Gate), an edit button that opens the effect's own editor with its live display, a power button, a Mix or Send knob and its two most useful controls. Drag a slot by its number and dots to reorder; its settings come along.

Macros

Eight knobs. Right-click any effect control to map it to one, over a range of your choice; route them to and from the matrix; right-click a macro to rename it. All automatable.

XY Pad

The second tab beside the effects. Drag the dot to play XY X and XY Y, two bipolar matrix sources; the corners show where they're routed, and the output's recent peaks run behind it. Double-click to centre.

Spring

Lit: the dot glides back to the centre when you let go (XY Spring). Off: it stays where you leave it.

Presets

Everything is saved: knobs, drawings, the window, the sample, effects and macros.

SAVE stores your sound as a user preset; the menu also has Save As, Delete and Open Folder. A * after the name means you've changed something since loading it. If a preset's sample is missing on another computer, the rest of the preset still loads.

Recipes

Starting points; then explore.

Specifications

The numbers.