Baby Audio Grainferno: Everything you need to know about the plugin promising to “redefine granular synthesis”Baby Audio has unveiled Grainferno, its most “advanced synthesizer to date” with an expansive feature set which seeks to “redefine granular synthesis”.
Joining the brand’s growing collection of creative effects and virtual instruments, Grainferno is built on a new granular processing engine capable of breaking samples apart and rebuilding them in completely new textures.

What is Grainferno, and how is it different from other granular synthesizers?
Granular synthesis is a method of sound design in which an audio sample is broken up into tiny fragments called ‘grains’. These fragments – which are often only 1 to 100ms long – can be played together to create new textures and soundscapes.
Like other granular synthesizers, Grainferno allows producers to chop up and play with audio files at a granular level, turning them into rich textures for sound design. But it also comes with a selection of features that position it as a new frontrunner in software granular synthesis, including the ability to generate grains from two independent source files, and morph them together in real time.
Credit: Baby Audio
Additionally, Grainferno is able to generate grains at speeds fast enough to “cross into the audio range” which, as Baby Audio explains, means they stop behaving like textures and more like oscillators, allowing any audio file to be transformed into a playable synthesizer with the “sonic fingerprint of the original audio”.

Grainferno also sports a drag-and-drop modulation system, with nearly every parameter available for modulation. There are three envelopes, three LFOs and three random generators to play with, offering “deep control over the evolving behaviour” of your sound. The drag-and-drop workflow is designed for an intuitive routing experience, even with the ability to cross-modulate between modulators.
The plugin is also loaded with 325 custom presets from top producers and sound designers including Virtual Riot, dnksaus and Francis Preve, with per-preset Macro controls, a rich factory sample library and six quickstart templates so you can dive right in. 
Grainferno also features a number of onboard effects to further shape sound, including ambient delay and reverb, analogue-inspired modulation, and multimode saturation. 
Pricing & availability
Grainferno is available in VST, VST3, AU and AAX formats, and is compatible with all major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One, Bitwig, Reaper and Reason. A standalone version is also available for non-DAW use.
Sample formats compatible with Grainferno include WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis.
Price-wise, Grainferno is available now at an introductory price of £59 / $79. After the intro period, the instrument will be priced at £99 / $129.
Learn more at Baby Audio.
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