Buy Audio Damage VST Plugins, Audio Damage Instruments and Effects, Audio Damage Inc, based in Boulder, Colorado, has been making edgy music software for creative people since 2002.
In granulation, audio is broken down into small pieces called “grains” that are in the range of 1 to 100 ms in length. Several grains played in order to give us back the original sample. In music production, individual grains can be edited in many ways.
Think of it like an animation movie, which is made by taking many frames of action and playing them back to back at a specific speed to result in a “moving picture”. Grains can be layered, removed, looped, have their playing order changed, and so on. After manipulating and arranging the grains according to requirements, the next step is to blend the grains together. This is done through a process known as “smoothing”, whereby volume cross-fades are applied to help blend the grains. The resulting tone and sound highly depend on the shape and length of those crossfades.
Granular Synthesis allows users to edit the formant characteristics, pitch, and speed of samples individually and in real-time. It’s a primary technology used in modern-day pitch-shifting and time-warping techniques. However, its usage extends beyond that to create various unique soundscapes.
Granular synthesis is a tremendously powerful system for audio manipulation and sound design. Additionally, granular synthesis can also be used to create new shifting sounds by a very simple approach.
Granulizer plugin is a plugin that uses granular synthesis. The source material for a granulizer plugin is an audio wave sample that the user loads into the plugin. This audio sample is then chopped up into several grains and is then edited independently.
To attain different tonal effects, the length and spacing of the grains are adjusted.
The second alternative how to use the granulizer plugin is to open your favorite instrument in your DAW and put the granulizer effect to it, and then simply adjust the parameters in your granular plugin. This method doesn’t require audio samples.
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Performing as exciting as it looks, Portal by Output is a remarkable granular synthesis plugin and is arguably the best on this list.
Portal is a multi-effect granular synthesis plugin with a focus on in-depth grain manipulation and modulation. Much like the rest of Output plugins, Portal comes equipped with a stunning looking user interface which makes its usage much more enjoyable. Its effects section which is the main section is made up of 2 processors in series located between the granulator and the master bus. The processors are used to affect both the dry/original signal and the granulated signal.
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This plugin requires Windows 7 or higher for PC and OS X 10.9 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats and supports both 32 and 64-bit devices.Check Output PORTAL on Pluginboutique.
Overall, the Portal plugin by Output is a highly powerful plugin and is one of the most successful demonstrations of granular synthesis, and we highly recommend it as a long term use plugin. It’s pretty expensive that is a major setback for many users, but it’s worth it when you realize how this plugin sounds and looks.
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Audio Damage is well known for their range of colorful and unruly effects. Quanta is their fourth virtual instrument and hybrid plugin, offering granular synthesis with an analog feel.
Quanta has a unique workflow that aims to simplify the notoriously complex concept of granular synthesis. However, it does not compromise on its synth controls and versatility for advanced sound designers who specialize in pads, ambiences, drones, and other sounds that are related to granular synthesis.
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This plugin requires Windows 8.1 or higher for PC and OS X 10.9 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats with support for both 32 and 64 bits for Windows but only 64 bits for Mac devices. Get more info on Pluginboutique – check details here.
Overall, Quanta by Audio Damage is a magnificent granular synthesis plugin that is packed with features. It serves as an alternative to the Portal by Output plugin due to its cheaper price and a similar sound. You would have to try it out for yourself through their free trial and compare them.
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Following the previous Granulizer plugin, Inertia Sound Systems has decided to do major refining and reshaping of one of their iconic plugins, and come up with the fresh and “icy” Granulizer 2.
On top of everything that the previous plugin had to offer, Granulizer 2 now allows users to have control over the grain size, speed, pitch, envelope shape, and timing randomization.
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In short, Granulizer 2 is a more refined and sharper plugin than the original Granulizer. It offers all the features required for granular synthesis and sound design. Unfortunately, it is priced a bit too high relatively as it does not really offer any unique features when compared to other plugins discussed on this list.
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The Mangle is one of the few granulizers out there that allows the user to view the stream of grains in real-time.
Developed by Sound Guru, The Mangle is a granulizer tool developed with the main aim of “playing” with the grain stream musically and expressively. This led to The Mangle having a unique set of features.
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This plugin works well for Windows 7 or higher for PC and OS X 10.6 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/AU/AAX formats with support for both 32 and 64-bit devices. The Mangle comes at a price of £19.99 or $26 from Sound Guru’s website.
All in all, The Mangle by Sound Guru is the perfect plugin for users who like to view the grain stream and its manipulation in real-time. It also does not fail to execute the usual granulation duties excellently.
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Melda is a well-known plugin developer and we have previously discussed some of its other plugins. Their attempt on granulizers through the MGranularMB is another successful one that falls in line with the rest of Melda plugins.
MGranularMB is a resynthesis effect plugin that is able to introduce various granular modulations to audio tracks. Resynthesis is the process of taking an audio sample and synthesizing it by using sinusoidal tones. This is a multiband plugin meaning that the user has total control over the texture of extracted grains over 20 layers as well as band controls and many modulation settings.
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The MGranularMB works on Windows 7 or higher for PC and Mac OS 10.7 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats and supports both 32 and 64-bit devices. For more information about the plugin,check this link for more information.
Overall, the MGranularMB is another spectacular plugin by MeldaProductions that offers a complex, yet easy to use tool for granulation synthesis.
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Stream was designed to be an easy to use, CPU friendly granular synthesis plugin by the Ohio based company Delta Sound Labs.
From grainy polyphonic pad-like sounds and drones to tempo-synced textural delays, this plugin does it all. The way it works is by recording audio first into a buffer and then selecting portions of it to be used as grains.
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Delta Sound Labs Stream works on Windows 10 for PC and MacOS 10.14 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats and only supports 64-bit devices. View more onDelta Labs’s website.
Overall, Stream is an impressive plugin that does almost everything that granulizer plugins are capable of doing. At $49, this plugin is priced reasonably when comparing its capabilities to other plugins in this list. Obviously, its support for higher-end computers means that it is not available for every user, but it is highly recommended if you have a device that supports this plugin.
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Able to create dramatic textures from any sound, Litote by Inear Display earns itself a solid placement on this list.Litote is made up of a mix of granulizers, diffusion delays, and resonators. Unlike the other granulizer plugins, Litote does not give the user the option to edit those settings but instead uses what the developers call a “smart randomizer”. Smart randomizer aims to eliminate any bad sounding effects that beginner users tend to often create.
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According to Inear Display’s official website, this plugin works on Windows 7 or higher for PC and MacOS 10.7 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/AU formats only and supports both 32 and 64-bit devices. Get more information about Litote.
Inear Display Litote is a solid plugin overall. It is designed to be as straightforward and easy to use as possible. However, don’t let its simplicity fool you. Litote has in-depth sonic possibilities behind its clean and simple interface, making it a vital tool for sound designers and producers.
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Next on the list is the SaltyGrain plugin by SampleSumo which is has a lot to offer considering that it’s a real-time granulizer.
SaltyGrain is perfect for creating horror movie effects, live sound modifications, lush pad sounds, weird background sounds, vocal effects, etc. The way it functions is by feeding incoming sound into a delay line, then choosing small bits of audio from different moments and applying envelope and transpose them to create grains. Grains are panned randomly in this plugin and are then sent to a stereo output.
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This plugin works on Windows 7 or higher for PC and Mac OS 10.7 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/AU/AAX formats and supports both 32 and 64-bit devices. View details on SampleSumo’s official website.
SaltyGrain by SampleSumo is one of the most useful granular modulation plugins that is straightforward and does exactly what is required by the user.
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Remnant by Creative Intent has 2 delay lines. A granular engine takes bits of audio from the 2 delay lines and processes them in many different ways to generate a ton of exciting and interesting sounds.
Both the delay lines are designed to emulate analog tapes. The amount of pitch modulation can be adjusted using the Warp Knob. Through the feedback control, the signal path resends some of the output to the input. A Crosstalk knob is present to send some of the grain delay signal to the other delay line.
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This plugin works on Windows 8.1 or higher for PC and MacOS 10.9 or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats but only supports 64-bit devices. Check for more details on Creative Intent’s official site.
Overall, this plugin is capable of producing some very unique sounds by focusing on utilizing granular synthesis on delay effects. This makes the Remnant plugin quite powerful and an important placement on this list.
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Despite being a free plugin, Hvoya Audio Ribs is very complex and offers a huge amount of control to the user.
The complexity of this plugin is both its advantage and disadvantage. Users will have to spend some time to familiarize themselves with this plugin and to learn how it functions, but once the learning is done, users will come to realize that this plugin is incredibly powerful and full of potential.
Ribs require MIDI input to fill up at least one of its 32 buffers. This is quite difficult for usage on some DAWs like Sonar One, Pro Tools, etc where inputting MIDI notes is a bit more frustrating.
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Hvoya Audio Ribs By Eugene Yakshin works on Windows 7 or higher for PC and OS Catalina or higher for Mac. It comes in VST/AU formats and supports 32 and 64-bit devices.
In conclusion, the Ribs plugin is an impressively powerful and very “in-depth” plugin which is surprising given the fact that it is a free plugin. However, this plugin is definitely not for beginners as it has a steep learning curve which is complex even for some experienced users.
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Argotlunar byMichael Ourednik is free to use multi-fx, delay, filter, time-stretcher, and a granulizer plugin.Argotlunar is designed specifically as a real-time delay-line granulator. It does an interesting job of creating an exciting sound design from an audio stream. In this granulizer, the user has the option of controlling the duration, panning, delay, amplitude, glissando, pitch, envelope, and filter of the grains. The grains are then mixed together and sent for output.
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This plugin works for Windows 7 or higher for PC and OS X 10.7 or higher for Mac. It also has support for Linux devices. It comes in VST/AU formats and supports both 32 and 64 bit systems. Get Argotlunar here.
Overall, the Argotlunar plugin is a pretty decent granulizer tool that a good number of settings for grains and is especially impressive considering its a free plugin

Fruity Granulizer is widely popular and one of the earliest releases among granulizer plugins mentioned in this review. It does not make the main list due to its unavailability in the market as it comes exclusively with FL Studio.
Fruity Granulizer is well able to exceptionally execute all the functions that other plugins do like time-stretching, pitch shifting, modulation, and so on.
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Fruity Granulizer is compatible with any system that supports FL Studio i.e. Windows 7 or higher for PC and macOS 10.13 or higher for Mac. It only comes in VST format and supports both 32 and 64-bit devices.
Granular synthesis seems to be a very complex concept to comprehend and fully grasp for many users. The mechanics and the endless possibilities of sound design are overwhelming for a big population of producers and sound designers. On the bright side, there are many books and tutorials to help you fully understand granular synthesis.
This article aims to provide users with a review of some of the most efficient and popular granulizer plugins both free and paid. The wide choice and the unique set of features that each plugin offers makes the market for granulizers an exciting one.