GRAIN Tab¶
The GRAIN tab is Grainulator's default view and the heart of the granular engine. It is arranged as a four-column layout — GRAIN | MORPH | FILTER | MASTER — and sits below a dual waveform display (one per layer in the full layout, or the focused layer full-width in compact layouts). The knobs edit whichever layer is currently focused via the header bar selector; the Master column shows both layers side by side.
GRAIN column¶
Four hero knobs — Size,
Density, Pitch,
Speed — sit above a secondary row of
Jitter, Spread,
Level, plus a small grain-field visualization
that plots each currently active grain.
| Control | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
Size |
0.001–1.5 s | Duration of each grain. Short sizes give choppy, rhythmic textures; longer sizes produce smooth, pad-like tones. Latched at grain spawn. |
Density |
1–512 Hz | Grain spawn rate. Higher values create denser, overlapping clouds; lower values leave sparse, audible gaps. |
Pitch |
−24 to +24 st | Transposes each grain in semitones. Applied at spawn time, so moving it re-pitches only new grains. |
Speed |
−3 to +3 | Internal playback speed multiplier. Negative values play in reverse; values outside ±1 combine with Pitch for extreme time-stretch effects. Latched at grain spawn. |
Jitter |
0–0.5 s | Random offset added to each grain's start position. Small amounts humanize the stream; larger amounts scatter grains across the buffer. |
Spread |
0–1 | Stereo spread of grain pan. 0 is mono, 1 is full L/R separation. |
Level |
−70 to +12 dB | Per-layer grain level. This is the same parameter as the layer fader in the Master column — moving one moves the other. |
Size and Density
interact: their product is roughly the overlap. At 100 Hz with 50 ms
grains you have ~5 grains at once — a continuous drone. Drop density to
5 Hz and you hear each grain individually. Jitter
then breaks up machine-gun periodicity.
MORPH column¶
The MORPH column drives the Macro modulation — a single hero knob that sweeps a user-chosen set of parameters at once. A smaller LFO knob automates it, a bar graph below visualises current depth for each assigned target, and the gear button at the top right opens the settings popup for assigning targets and depths.
| Control | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
Morph |
0–1 | Macro knob that simultaneously moves every assigned morph target. 0 leaves parameters at their base values; 1 drives them to their configured target values. |
Morph LFO |
0–0.5 Hz | LFO rate that automates the Morph knob. 0 disables the LFO. Very slow rates (below 0.1 Hz) work well for long evolving pads. |
| Settings (gear) | — | Opens the morph settings popup for assigning targets and depths. |
Start with Morph at 0 while you dial in a
patch, then push it up — or enable Morph LFO
— to get the patch moving.
FILTER column¶
The FILTER column is the per-layer filter, upstream of the global master filter on the FX tab. This tab exposes only the tone-shaping controls; the filter envelope (ADSR and Env Depth) lives on the SYNTH tab.
| Control | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
Filter Model |
10 models | Dropdown selector: Stilson, Microtracker, Krajeski, MusicDSP, Oberheim, Improved, RKSimulation, Hyperion, DaisyLadder, CytomicSVF. Each model has a distinct saturation and resonance character. |
Cutoff |
20 Hz – 20 kHz | Filter cutoff frequency. |
Reso |
0–1 | Resonance amount at the cutoff. High settings self-oscillate on some models. |
Drive |
0–1 | Input drive into the filter stage. Adds saturation and harmonic content, especially at higher resonance. |
MASTER column¶
The Master column is the global output mixer, moved here from the FX tab in the 2026-04-07 layout revision so layer balance and wet/dry are always visible on the default view.
| Control | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
Layer 1 Pan |
−1 to +1 | Stereo pan for Layer 1. |
Layer 1 Level |
−70 to +12 dB | Layer 1 vertical fader. Mirrors the Level knob in the GRAIN column. |
Layer 2 Pan |
−1 to +1 | Stereo pan for Layer 2. |
Layer 2 Level |
−70 to +12 dB | Layer 2 vertical fader. Mirrors the Level knob when Layer 2 is focused. |
| VU meter | — | Stereo meter on the master output (post layers, post wet/dry). |
Wet/Dry |
0–1 | Global wet/dry balance between the granular output and the dry input. |
Dual waveform display¶
Above the panel row the GRAIN tab draws two waveform displays side by side, one per layer, each with position cursor, active-grain dots, loop markers, and freeze. Layer 2's display also carries the layer-link toggle for switching between shared and independent buffers. See Waveform Display for the full treatment.