Grainferno is Baby Audio's most advanced instrument, a granular synthesizer built around a simple but powerful idea: any sample can become a playable oscillator. Its grain engine fragments source audio into microscopic pieces and, crucially, can generate them fast enough to cross into the audio range, where the grains fuse into a continuous pitched tone that still carries the spectral fingerprint of the original sound.
What sets it apart from granular effects is that it is a full instrument. Two independent sample slots morph between each other in real time with seven modes, per-grain processors (G-Filter, G-Comp and G-Blur) shape sound at the moment each grain is born, and nearly every parameter is a drag-and-drop modulation target fed by three envelopes, three LFOs and three random generators. A sample pre-processing stage auto-pitches audio so patches stay in tune with your project.
At $129, with 1.5 GB of presets and curated samples, Grainferno is aimed at producers and sound designers who build their own material and want textures nobody else has, because they come from their own audio. For a granular effect you run audio through instead, see Output Portal; for the full written review, read our Baby Audio Grainferno review.