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What's New

User-visible changes per Grainsmith desktop release. The current shipping version is 1.1.15 on macOS and Windows. Grainsmith Field, the iPhone and iPad app, has its own version history.

Grainsmith shipped its first releases under the name Grainulator; the app was renamed to Grainsmith in 1.0.9. The plug-in's internal identifier was kept unchanged through the rename, so DAW projects saved with the older build keep loading the plug-in.

v1.1.15 — Windows editor scaling

  • Windows: the plug-in editor is no longer clipped when the system display scaling differs from the monitor's, for example Ableton Live at 150%.
  • macOS: no change. The Mac build carries the same version number so both platforms stay in step.

v1.1.14 — Editor size in Mac hosts, round two

  • macOS: fixed the AU editor drawing at a quarter of its size in hosts such as Logic when displays have different resolutions. The 1.1.13 fix did not cover the AU path.
  • Windows: no change.

v1.1.13 — Editor size in Mac hosts

  • macOS: fixed the editor drawing at half size in the corner of the host's plug-in window when the host window and the main display have different resolutions. This also clipped the License dialog.
  • Windows: no change.

v1.1.12 — Windows is stable

  • Windows moves from beta to a stable release. macOS and Windows are now on the same version.
  • The License tab opens by itself once per machine, not every time you load a project. The banner and the gear button stay available.
  • The License dialog now shrinks to fit small editor windows, so its title and close button stay visible.

v1.1.11 — Key-aware pitch, STRETCH, and a new look

This release was tested as an opt-in beta first. macOS shipped it as stable on 29 September. Windows shipped it as a beta and became stable in 1.1.12.

  • STRETCH. Each layer has a GRAIN | STRETCH switch. STRETCH plays the loaded audio through a time-stretching engine instead of the grain engine. Controls that do nothing in STRETCH are dimmed, and STRETCH is not available in Instrument mode. Experimental.
  • KEY and TUNE. The Pitch popup has a KEY picker. Grainsmith analyzes a loaded or recorded sample for its pitch and key, and can snap grain pitch to the key you choose. Experimental. Pitch tracking can still struggle with fast note changes, noisy sources, and large jumps in register.
  • NOTE MODE. A three-state control in the Pitch popup: Off, Hold, and Sustain. Hold keeps a grain's pitch consistent as it crosses note changes. Sustain loops grains inside the note they started on. Experimental.
  • Head Stagger. The HEADS popover has a per-layer Stagger control with two or more heads. At 0, extra heads spawn grains on the same tick. Turn it up to spread them out in time.
  • New interface. The GRAIN, TEXTURE, SYNTH, FX, and MOD tabs have a new look, and the Morph bars are lighter.
  • Live mode: the default FEEDBACK is now 0.5. Grains that read across the record head blend across the join.
  • Fixed playback pitch and length after the output sample rate changes. Recording stops and keeps its take when the sample rate changes.
  • Fixed per-layer Morph amount and Morph LFO rate not surviving a project or preset restore.
  • Fixed a preset loaded after an empty one keeping audio and spectral state from the previous preset, host tempo following with the editor closed, and cleanup when you change a modulation destination.
  • Fixed clicking the waveform in STRETCH not jumping to that position.
  • Several factory Soundscape presets now use grain hocking.

Versions 1.1.8 to 1.1.10 were internal test builds and were not released.

v1.1.7 — Controller and host fixes

Windows received 1.1.4, 1.1.6, and 1.1.7 as separate downloads. macOS went from 1.1.2 straight to 1.1.7, so its changes are listed together here.

  • OXI E16. The E16 profile now sends 14-bit CC pairs. The LED rings follow the knob's real position on log and square-taper controls. Mod wheel, expression, and brightness CCs no longer move parameters when they arrive on the E16's reserved channels. See Controllers.
  • The Controllers panel shows a warning when a controller that needs MIDI output is connected but has no MIDI output route. A button fixes it in one click. The warning only appears when that hardware is present.
  • Grain density is now limited by the largest active head, not just head 1. Before, long grains from heads 2 and 3 could be cut short as density went up.
  • Windows, Cubase: fixed an endless plug-in restart loop that froze the interface and could crackle. See Host compatibility.
  • Windows standalone: the window no longer clips the interface at display scaling above 100%.
  • Windows: fixed a host crash when unloading the plug-in or quitting the host.
  • Windows installer: fixed garbled characters on the component page. The VST3 files inside the installed bundles now carry the Grainsmith name, which fixes "could not be loaded" errors in Reason on Windows.

v1.1.1 — Reason support and clearer activation errors

  • The main Grainsmith VST3 is now tagged as an instrument-capable effect (Fx|Instrument). Hosts that keep separate instrument and effect lists, Reason 13 in particular, now show Grainsmith in their instrument section and route MIDI notes to it. Grainsmith FX stays a plain effect on purpose, and existing projects are unaffected. Details and per-host notes: Host compatibility.
  • License activation failures now tell you what actually went wrong. If the app can't reach the license server, you see the underlying network error (for example a firewall block or no connection), a note that your key was not used, and what to try next. Every activation error includes the support address, and long messages wrap instead of clipping.

v1.1.0 — Multi-head playheads

  • Up to three independent playheads per layer. The new HEADS popover sets head count, per-head Size and Spread on an XY pad, per-head Speed, Pitch, and Level, and includes musical configuration presets.
  • Heads are draggable directly on the waveform: double-click to gather them, Option-drag to move them as a group.
  • 24 new parameters, all automatable and MIDI-learnable.
  • Fixes: Live-mode loop-edge behavior and a Save As crash. Presets move to v33; presets saved by older versions load unchanged.

v1.0.18 — Controller sync fixes

  • Quantized (synced) controls now stay in step across the on-screen needle, the LED ring, and MIDI-learned hardware. Fixes drift between what the knob showed and what a controller reported.

v1.0.17 — Pitch modes

  • The GRAIN-tab Pitch knob now snaps to a chosen pitch set. Click the small caret (▾) on the Pitch knob to pick a mode: Octaves, Oct+5ths, Scale, Free, or Chromatic. In Scale mode you also pick one of 12 scales (Major, Minor, Pentatonic Major, Pentatonic Minor, Dorian, Mixolydian, Harmonic Minor, Phrygian, Lydian, Locrian, Whole Tone, Chromatic).
  • The knob snaps on release, so you can drag freely and land on an allowed pitch when you let go. In Free mode the readout shows decimals; the other modes round to whole semitones. New patches default to Chromatic (whole-semitone snapping), matching earlier behavior.
  • The per-grain pitch variation on the TEXTURE tab gained the same five modes (previously Octaves / Oct+5ths / Scale only) and shares the scale selection with the Pitch knob — pick a scale in either place and both follow.

v1.0.16 — Controller support

  • Faderfox UC4 hardware controller support, plus fixes to Live mode carried over from the 1.0.15 review.

v1.0.15 — Live mode length and feedback

  • Live mode (record incoming audio into a layer's buffer, then granulate it) gained loop-length and feedback controls and a de-click pass on the record and play seams.

v1.0.13 / v1.0.12 — Feel and fixes

  • Spectral panel refinements, a per-layer level Trim, and a batch of interaction fixes. Fixed sample paste from the clipboard.

v1.0.9 — Renamed to Grainsmith

  • The app's display name changed from Grainulator to Grainsmith. In a DAW the plug-in now shows as "Grainsmith" (and "Grainsmith FX" for the effect build). Installed file names were left unchanged so existing projects keep loading the plug-in.

v1.0.8 — Maintenance

  • Fixed a crash on launch affecting Intel Macs, caused by a factory preset failing to load. Apple Silicon Macs were unaffected.

v1.0 — Initial release

The first public release (as Grainulator). A dual-layer granular synth with a spectral block, modulation matrix, and a shared post-mix effects chain.

What's in the box

Grain engine — per layer. Two independent granular voices with size, density, pitch, speed, jitter, spread, pan, and level. Each layer has its own audio buffer, loop points, freeze state, scan controls, and reverse probability. The desktop layout shows both layers side by side; the compact AU and iPad layouts use a layer switcher.

Window shaping (TEXTURE tab) — per layer. Eight window shapes per layer (Hanning, Gaussian, Trapezoid, Triangle, Tukey, Pluck, PluckSoft, ExpDecay) with Tilt, Curve, and Sides, plus a second target shape and a Morph knob with rate that crossfades between the two. Pitch variation, dynamics randomisation, reverse probability, and scan rate/depth all live here.

Spectral Array Oscillator (SAO) — per layer. A phase-vocoder synth per layer with Focus, Transpose, Tilt, FMT/Pitch/Both mode, Clarity, Partials, Scan, and Capture/Clear controls. MIDI-responsive and polyphonic.

Voice Interaction. A panel between the two Spectral columns with three cross-voice effects — Follow (time-domain source coupling), Vocode (spectral envelope transfer), and Duck (bipolar amplitude sidechain) — governed by a direction switch and a power toggle.

Global synthesis block (SYNTH tab). Sub Oscillator (Sine / Tri / Saw / Sqr with selectable octave and base note), VCA ADSR, Filter ADSR with bipolar depth, and per-layer root note plus shared glide.

Per-layer filter (GRAIN tab). Ten filter models (Stilson, Microtracker, Krajeski, MusicDSP, Oberheim, Improved, RKSimulation, Hyperion, DaisyLadder, CytomicSVF) with cutoff, resonance, drive, and an envelope-depth knob driven by the Filter ADSR on the SYNTH tab.

Global effects chain (FX tab). Signal flow is Master Filter → Compressor → Delay → Reverb, all running on the summed two-layer signal:

  • Master Filter. Same ten filter models as the per-layer filter.
  • Compressor. Feed-forward log-domain with stereo-linked detection, 6 dB soft knee, parallel-mix blend, and an optional tanh soft-knee limiter.
  • Tape Delay. Stereo with independent L/R times, four routing modes (Dual / PingPong / Single / Cascade), two time-change behaviours (Tape / Fade), saturation in the feedback path, tempo sync with swing offset, and infinite-loop capture.
  • Multi-mode Reverb. Three selectable algorithms — Misty (Signalsmith Basics), Cloudy (Mutable Rings / Griesinger), and Stormy (Oliverb / extended Griesinger-Dattorro) — sharing one surface. Stormy is the default and includes shimmer and infinite freeze.

Modulation matrix (MOD tab). Five lanes, each with a source picker (LFO, Envelope, Euclidean LFO, Step Sequencer), a destination from 45 active targets, an amount and curve, and a layer target. Rhythmic sources share a clock that can free-run or lock to host tempo at a musical division.

MIDI control. Two play modes (Free and Instrument). Per-layer root note plus a shared glide knob in the Envelopes & MIDI column.

Platforms

  • macOS standalone, AudioUnit (v2 / v3), VST3, AAX. Universal binary (Intel + Apple Silicon).
  • Windows standalone and VST3.
  • iPadOS — a separate product, Grainsmith Field. See its own documentation.

Audio file formats

  • Everywhere: WAV, MP3, FLAC.
  • macOS only (via Core Audio): AIFF, M4A (AAC), Ogg Vorbis.

The Windows build does not decode AIFF / M4A / Ogg — convert those to WAV before loading.