OscillateAudio
Granular effect · AU · VST®3 · macOS · $19

GRUS takes the track apart and puts it back as grains.

Granular that stays in time and in key. The grains fall on the host grid, 1/4 down to 1/32 with triplets, and take their pitch from a chord instead of a random range. Since 0.2 the delay, the grain length, the scatter and the read head lock to that same grid — and a REPEAT section holds a slice and plays it again.

For producers who want to take apart what is already on the track. Not a synth — GRUS makes nothing on its own, it needs something to chew on.

Buy · $19 Hear it first One payment, every update · 14 days money back
The GRUS interface: the grain field across the top with the captured waveform behind it, the read window and the write head, three panels of knobs for GRAIN, SHAPE and SPACE, the rate grid with FREEZE, four modulation knobs, and the five scene chips along the bottom.
Rendered by the plugin itself · scene CLOUD, five seconds of a 120 BPM loop through it · every dot in the field is one grain the engine started — 2407 of them in those five seconds · not photographed in a DAW
What it does

Grains that land on the beat

New in 0.2

Everything on the tempo, not just the trigger

Locking only the grain trigger gets you halfway. The echo still drifts, the grains are still whatever length the knob says, and the scatter still reads from wherever it lands — which is exactly why granular turns a beat into a wash. Every one of those can now sit on the host grid, each with its own switch, because a pad wants the scatter free and a drum loop does not.

Grain trigger1/4 down to 1/32 with triplets, on the count and by probability in between. This was already there; it now sits with the rest.
Delay1/2 down to 1/32 including dotted values. On the grid both sides run the same length, so the crossed feedback answers on the other side — ping-pong in time. Off the grid the right side stays 1.347× longer, which is where the width came from.
Grain lengthThe grain is exactly one note value long instead of the knob's milliseconds. Free, the length scatters ±30 % so the cloud breathes; on the grid it does not scatter at all, because that would be the opposite of the point.
ScatterSPRAY jumps in whole grid steps. A displaced grain reads exactly one count earlier rather than somewhere near it — the difference between a cloud and a beat that comes back offset.
Read headTIME stops sliding and stands on whole steps: stretching becomes stuttering that lands on the count.
PitchGrain pitch snaps to whole semitones instead of landing 1.6 of one away.
RepeatA slice is captured on a grid step and played again, two to eight times, 1/2 down to 1/32. It sits before the delay, so the echo falls on the repeats and not the other way round. A probability knob decides how often — at 0.25 it hits roughly every fourth step, which is a fill, not a gimmick.

Six presets ship on the grid — Sixteenth Lock, Beat Repeat, Triplet Spill, Quarter Stutter, Gated Choir and Machine Fill. The other fifty are untouched, note for note.

Before and after

Same loop, same level

All of it comes out of the same engine the plugin runs, driven by the same 120 BPM loop — kick, hats, chord stabs and bass. Nothing was sweetened afterwards: no reverb, no mastering, no edit. Switch between dry and processed while it plays.

CLOUD · free, then 1/8, then 1/8 with chord degrees
The same grains, scattered, then in time, then in key
CLOUD · MORPH 0 to 1 across the full 46 seconds
One knob from tame to broken, nothing else touched
All five scenes, four seconds dry first
SPARSE, CLOUD, CHAOS, FROZEN, BRUTAL — eight seconds each
FROZEN · FREEZE engaged after six seconds
The input moves on, GRUS does not
The numbers

Measured, not asserted

5/5scenes audible, finite and below 0 dBFS
0.710peak with MORPH at the stop
0.419peak with FEEDBACK at the stop — it does not run away
2407grain events in five seconds, drawn by the plugin itself
18grid measurements on every build — the build stops if one is off
0.2 mshow far the grid delay sat from the note value when measured
0.0000drift of the read head against the grid — exact to the sample
56presets, six of them on the grid, fifty unchanged
The licence

A serial, not a leash

Offlineno account, no activation server, no dongle
Every machinestudio, laptop, the one at the venue
Foreverit keeps working if this label stops existing
Freeevery update, for as long as there are updates

The serial is a calculation over your email address, not a key on a server — so nothing has to be switched on for the device to run, and nothing can be switched off. The full rule, including why prices here never drop after launch, is on one page.

Pricing policy
All of it

GRUS on its own is $19. All six are $49.

That is $17.99 less than the four paid devices bought separately — and under the same rules as this page: a serial calculated from your email address, no account, no server to ask.

CAIRN$9.99 SCREE$19 GRUS$19 DREAMS$19 TARNfree CUEfree

DREAMS is $19 of the $66.99 and is not finished — today $47.99 of the bundle is downloadable. The arithmetic in full.

$49one payment
See the bundle
Get it

Nineteen dollars, once

No trial clock. At this price a demo costs you more time than the plugin costs money, so instead: four recordings from the shipping engine with the dry loop beside them, the interface at full resolution, the measurements in public — and if it turns out not to be for you, Paddle refunds you within fourteen days, no reason needed.

FreeTARN · try this label first

If you have never used anything of ours, start here. TARN is a complete reverb for Ableton, costs an email address, and holds nothing back — same build, same measurements, same licence rules as the device on the right.

Get TARN free
  • Max for Live · Ableton Live 10, 11, 12
  • Thirty-six presets, plus room for your own
  • No expiry, no nag screen, nothing held back
  • One click to leave the list again
$19GRUS · one payment, every update

Download link and serial arrive in the same email, and stay available under My licenses for as long as this label exists.

Sales tax or VAT added at checkout for your country.

  • macOS, Apple silicon + Intel, AU and VST3
  • Bound to your email, valid on every computer you use
  • Offline — no account, no licence server
  • Every update included, for as long as there are updates
  • Fourteen days money back, handled by Paddle

Five scenes, no other presets, and no manual yet. Windows is not built.