Grain Science

The outstanding hybrid synth for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch!

• Palm Sounds App of the Week (Christmas 2011) • iDesignSound App of the Week (January 2012) • “I ----ing love this thing!” — Discchord video review •


Grain Science is a beautiful synthesiser for iOS. Designed for musicians, soundscape artists and SFX engineers who want to go beyond our Sylo Synthesiser, Grain Science is built on similar principles of granular synthesis, but is vastly more powerful. Unlike many “experimental” granular apps, Grain Science mixes it up with traditional synthesis techniques to bring you an exciting hybrid synthesiser.

Use the built-in waveforms, or record or import your own — then use the sophisticated grain engine to create something completely new from them! Grain Science is easy to get to grips with, but offers lots of depth to explore: instead of offering one or two LFOs, almost any parameter in the system can be programmed to vary over time in complex ways.

Using careful optimisation techniques we provide two grain units per voice, which you can combine for morphing or complex modulated sounds, then send through a configurable FX chain. Pick any 4 from the collection of FX units (including various types of distortion, high- and low-pass filters, phaser, flanger, chorus, resonance and echo), and connect them up in any order. Other audio tweaks include soft loop, reverb, glide and supercharger controls, and the ability to affect granular synthesis in realtime (live grainbending).

Also featured are an arpeggiator with both chord and step-sequence modes; Core MIDI support, including Virtual MIDI, background audio, and “tap & twist” learning for setting up controls; and a customisable performance screen with a collection of XY Pads and wheels.

Rounding it off, Grain Science plays nicely with others: Dropbox, Twitter and email integration are all included, for sharing or exporting your waveforms, recordings of your performances, and instrument (patch) designs. And now featuring Audiobus support to stream your performance live to other compatible apps!

Hear Grain Science in action at http://soundcloud.com/wooji-juice