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Quick Start

You'll have sound coming out of Grainsmith in about five minutes.

First-launch shortcut

The very first time you launch Grainsmith, the app loads a factory preset called First Patch with a sample already attached. Press Play (standalone) or hold a MIDI note (plug-in, Instrument mode) and you'll have sound immediately — no setup required. The walk-through below assumes a clean session with your own sample, but you can also just start tweaking First Patch.

  1. Install Grainsmith by following the install guide.
  2. Launch the standalone app, or open Grainsmith as a plug-in in your DAW — load it on an instrument track (or use Grainsmith FX on an audio track).
  3. Drag any audio file onto the waveform display at the top of the window. WAV, MP3, and FLAC work everywhere; macOS also loads AIFF, M4A, and Ogg. Any sample rate is fine — Grainsmith resamples to the session rate automatically.
  4. Press Play in the header (standalone), or play a MIDI note from your DAW (plug-in, Instrument play mode).
  5. Turn the Density knob on the GRAIN tab up to around 30. You should hear a stream of grains pulled from your sample.
  6. Turn the Pitch knob up an octave (+12 st). The grains shift up while keeping the same grain size and density.
  7. Open the FX tab and raise the Reverb Mix knob. Welcome to ambient music.

Next steps