Delta-V Audio’s massively popular iOS app now arrives on desktop as part of Tracktion Presents initiative. Two granular engines provide instant gratification and encourage creative flow with features like grain frequency/length control, sample position LFO, stereo reverb/filter and pitch/ring modulation.
Mark Watt, developer of Spacecraft plugin, shared more about its origins and what sets it apart as a unique approach to granular synthesis.
MIDI & MPE
SpaceCraft is fully compatible with existing MIDI controllers, providing full support for Polyphonic Expression (MPE). MPE extends standard MIDI control messages by sending independent timbre, pitch bend and pressure data for each note – meaning vertical slide or aftertouch on one key does not impact another; and that MPE control messages such as CC74 may be used to change parameters such as filter cutoff frequency, vibrato speed or amplitude decay per note.
Developer Mark Watt has designed an engaging and user-friendly interface for manipulating two separate sample engines to produce organic rhythms and melodies. While its simple appearance may make the app appear user-friendly, its depth of features allow users to unleash their creative side with endless expressive potential.
Arpeggios
Spacecraft provides a great feature to generate rhythms from samples by playing them like instruments with its arpeggiator. This can add additional movement and texture to a track.
This app could easily double as the control panel from a sci fi movie, making the whole experience very engaging and immersive. Furthermore, the application supports both MIDI and MPE so it can be used with any controller of your choosing.
This app is ideal for exploring granular synthesis and familiarizing yourself with its controls, though less sophisticated than industry staples like The Mangle and Granite. However, it offers unique sculpting features which are fun to explore – it would also work perfectly if you have source samples from an acoustic instrument that you wish to transform into drone-like ambiences.
Samples
With Spacecraft’s selection of high quality audio samples – or your own* – you can create textures, soundscapes and arpeggiated rhythms of all kinds. Unlike some granular synths which tend to produce glitchy-sounding synthesizer sounds by default, Spacecraft boasts an overall musical character.
Spacecraft Granular Synth was specifically created for iOS finger play, featuring an elegant single page layout and two parallel granular engines with frequency/length control, sample position LFO, stereo reverb, pitch modulation and pitch shift capabilities. An innovative grain sequencer grid as well as MIDI/MPE support add further layers of performance and expression.
A great granular processing effect takes the sound of your source and transforms it into something entirely different. Logic users have access to Alchemy for this, while Reason and AU plugins such as Kilohearts Phase Plant and Arturia Pigments offer similar capabilities. Eurorack users will likely recognize Mutable Instruments Beads or Make Noise Morphagene; for modular systems W.A Prodcution’s Venom offers even greater depths of granular processing potential.
Controls
Granular synthesis offers musicians another powerful synthesis technique to understand and implement into their musical arsenal: turning any sound into an entirely new musical instrument! As such, granular synthesis should be considered an integral component of musical education and practice.
Spacecraft Granular Synth App provides an effortless way to create otherworldly sounds from any audio. Simply record using your device microphone or upload from iCloud, Dropbox or Audioshare (*) files – play around with turning everyday sounds such as your voice or ambient noise into unfamiliar instruments that make a statement about themselves!
The interface of this plugin is clear and user-friendly, making it simple to grasp the basics of granular synthesis. From its main page, you can easily control everything from grain frequency and length controls to sample position LFO, sample position LFO reverb/filter pitch/ring modulation as well as an onboard diffusion effect providing glitchy metallic crunch to canyon-like reverb – not forgetting root note detection/quantization used post modulation to tune notes to any scale!