Grainstorm

The Secret Laboratory

In-app purchases

About this app

Use as/for:
• Tool for Sound Design
• Experimental Musical Instrument
• Fun

Key Features:
• Fast and lightweight
• Four tracks
• Stereo Mode
• Loads sound files of up to seven minutes length in any audio format
• Effects like Convolution Reverb, Channel Vocoder, Phase Vocoder

First use instructions:
1. Press POWER. Upper right power button turns on audio engine which is TURNED OFF on startup to save battery.
2. Press EJECT. Load a sound file.
3. Press PLAY.

A manual can be found here: https://grainstorm.rocks.me/instructions.html

There is an In-App-Purchase which among other things lets you record the output. Please consider the free version as a demo version.

Ratings and reviews

This app is an unpolished gem. Lots of great ideas and easy to get good sounds out of. Several of its time seek controls (speed + grain position) lead to very metallic sounds, indicating DSP issues. The rotary controls are unintuitive, not following the de facto standard most music software has landed on for vertical scrubbing. Output gain is too easy to slam. Aside from several issues like this it's one of the better granular synths available here, and definitely worth a try.

This app is essential for any ambient/noise musician. I've been using the pro version for over 1 year and it has allowed me to make some serious tracks while travelling/not in the studio. It can turn anything into an endlessly evolving ethereal dream or your worst nightmare. EDIT: The new update has heavily limited the types of audio files you can import, putting a wrench in the workflow/capabilities. I reached out to them about and am awaiting response.

This app is a ton of fun for creating experimental tonality. Don't expect anything that's going to be easily loopable but do you expect to have a great time making noise. I'm anxious to plug it in and do some recording! I would love to have a version of this that I can pay for it that's a little bit more expansive with features (easy MIDI looping, a sequencer, etc. .) but I'm excited to have a new toy to play with. If the developers would like any feedback I would love to make some suggestions...

What's new

- Bugfixes
- Various UI enhancements like smoother scrolling of lists, faster direct parameter input, etc.
- Enhanced performance, less xruns with higher load
- LFOs now can have multiple targets
- Smoother effect loading/unloading
- Effect order can now be changed from Active Effects screen by drag and drop
- Four slots for saving/restoring state of the sequencer
Upgrade:
- Saving/Restoring of the whole project
- Modal as mono effect
- 3-Band Compressor