Playback engine 3 of 15

Grains

Grains launches overlapping, windowed readers from a moving, frozen, random, or sliced source position. It can also reorder equal source regions from quietest to loudest. Keyboard notes transpose the grains while Speed moves the source trajectory independently.

Controls edit the focused instrument. Instrument mode sets its lane and voice budget: eight voices in Single, four per part in either dual mode, or two per part in Quad. Quad omits stack controls because each part has one lane.

Good for: freezes, clouds, independent time/pitch motion, stereo spray, regular or scattered textures, rhythmic doublets, stutters, shrinking grain trains, and energy-ordered phrases.

Pages and navigation

Set Algorithm to Grains. Up first opens the shared Pads & Scale and Amp Envelope pages, followed by Stack Path, Grains Main, Grains Cloud, and Grains Process. Choose DRAW to add the editable Path Editor.

Shared Stack Path parameter page — Stack Path shapes the moving lane blend captured by each new grain.

Grains Main parameter page with two reserved positions — Main defines grain source mode, size, density, pitch, window, and spread.

Grains Cloud parameter page — Cloud distributes grain position, pitch, direction, duration, level, and timing.

Grains Process parameter page with two reserved positions — Process introduces event patterns and manages source advance and quality.

The controls common to every playback engine are documented in the shared Engine page table. The sections below cover Grains-specific controls.

Grains Main — every parameter

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	MODE	Scan / Freeze / Cloud / Slice	Scan follows source phase; Freeze starts at Field center; Cloud chooses a random point in Field; Slice starts at the center of an equal region selected by source phase.
2	SIZE	8–1000 ms	Nominal grain duration before Size Variation or Shrink processing.
3	DENS	1–96 Hz	Requested grain launches per second. Large grains or a lower Quality setting can reduce the density that is heard.
4	PIT	0.25–4.00×	Base playback ratio inside each grain. Every played note multiplies this value relative to Root, while Speed controls only source-origin movement.
5	WIN	6 choices	Envelope table: Parzen, Sine, Hann, Triangle, Gaussian, or Bell. Sharper shapes expose more grain rhythm; rounder shapes overlap more smoothly.
6	SPRD	0.00–1.00	Random constant-power stereo pan range. 0 centers every grain; 1 uses the full left/right field.
7–8	Reserved	—	Inactive positions available for future Grains Main controls. Position and Field remain on Engine.

Grains Cloud — every parameter

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	SPRY	0.00–1.00	Random displacement from the mode-selected origin, up to half the Field width at 1.00.
2	BIAS	Behind / Around / Ahead	Constrains Position Spray behind the origin, on both sides, or ahead of it.
3	PSPR	0–24 st	Applies a random pitch offset inside ± the selected semitone range to each grain.
4	REV%	0–100%	Probability that a new grain reads backward.
5	SVAR	0.00–1.00	Random grain-duration range. At 1.00, duration can vary by approximately ±90% before process shaping.
6	LVAR	0.00–1.00	Random attenuation only: 0 keeps nominal level; 1 ranges from nearly silent to nominal.
7	TIME	Regular / Scatter	Regular uses an even density clock. Scatter randomizes each interval using Time Scatter.
8	TSC	0.00–1.00	Scatter amount. At 1.00, intervals vary by up to roughly ±90%; Regular ignores it.

Grains Process — every parameter

Knob	Display	Range	Detail
1	PROC	Ordinary / Stutter / Shrink / Doublets / Sorter	Ordinary leaves events unchanged. Stutter groups grains at one source anchor. Shrink shortens successive grains in an eight-event cycle. Doublets alternates close and long launch gaps. Sorter visits equal regions from quietest to loudest according to their sampled stereo energy.
2	PAMT	0.00–1.00	Process strength: up to 16-grain Stutter groups, 85% Shrink depth, increasingly close Doublet pairs, or a blend from the ordinary origin to the energy-sorted region.
3	ESKW	−1.00–1.00	Moves the envelope peak in time. Negative values peak earlier; positive values peak later.
4	REGN	1–64	Number of equal source regions used by Grain Mode Slice and Process Sorter. Sorter measures the dominant lane for the current blend and updates when the lane, region count, or Field changes.
5	ADVN	Scan / Per Grain	Scan advances source phase continuously. Per Grain advances the origin only when a grain launches; paired Doublets share an origin.
6	QUAL	4 / 8 / 16 voices	Maximum simultaneous grains inside each playback voice. More slots permit denser long grains but increase Move CPU cost.
7–8	Reserved	—	Inactive positions available for future Grains Process controls. Path is on Stack Path; Scan Rate is on Engine.

Move performance: start with Quality 8. If System Report shows increasing Deadline Misses, reduce Quality to 4, reduce Density, shorten Size, or release some playback voices. Use Quality 16 when Deadline Misses stays at zero.