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Install Grainsmith Field

Grainsmith Field is a native iOS and iPadOS granular instrument. One download gives you two things: a standalone app you launch from the home screen, and an AUv3 plug-in you load inside a host such as AUM or Logic. Both are built from the same code and installed together.

App Store install

Grainsmith Field is on the App Store. Search for Grainsmith by Plastic Factory and tap Get, or open the App Store link from plasticfactory.com.

  • Requires iOS/iPadOS 16.0 or later. Devices that can't run iOS 16 aren't supported.
  • Universal app. The same binary runs on iPhone and iPad. iPhone gets a compact layout of the same instrument.
  • Landscape only. Field runs in landscape on both iPhone and iPad. Turn your device to landscape when you open it.

First launch

Tap the Grainsmith icon on your home screen. The app opens in standalone mode.

The first time you use a recording feature, iOS asks for microphone permission so Field can capture and granulate live sound. Accept it if you plan to record; you can decline and turn it on later under Settings → Grainsmith → Microphone. Playing back a loaded sample does not need the microphone.

Field keeps playing when you background the app, so a drone or loop continues while you switch away. The screen may still sleep during long passages; the audio keeps running.

Loading your own audio

Field integrates with the Files app. Presets you save appear in Field's folder under On My iPad → Grainsmith, and you can open audio files stored in Files directly into the app.

Using Field as an AUv3 in a host

This is the most common point of confusion, so read this part carefully.

Field is an audio-effect plug-in (type aumf), not an instrument plug-in. In your AUv3 host it loads in an audio-effect / FX slot, not the instrument slot. If you look for Grainsmith in your host's instrument list, you won't find it. Open the host's list of audio effects (often labelled FX or "Audio Unit Effects") instead.

The plug-in's identity, taken from the app's audio-component registration:

Field Value
Type aumf (Audio Unit music effect)
Subtype GiP1
Manufacturer Grnu
Name in host Plastic Factory: Grainsmith Field

Because Field is an audio effect, it sits in the signal path and expects audio to reach it. To use Live mode and recording inside a host, route an audio source into the FX slot that holds Field. With nothing feeding the slot, Field has no input to capture. Loading a sample and playing it back from inside Field works without any external input; the Live and record features are the parts that need a source.

In the standalone app this doesn't come up. The standalone app runs its own audio pipeline and takes input from the device's microphone or line input directly.

Field registers as a sandbox-safe AUv3, so hosts such as AUM and Logic for iPad can scan and load it. Whichever host you use, the rule is the same: look in the audio-effects list, and feed the slot an input for Live and recording.

See also