A little guidance goes a long way. Get //grains running, make something musical, and keep the creative moment moving.
01 / Install & open.
Choose the installer for your computer. Close your DAW before installing, and check the system requirements supplied with your download.
Windows
Open the Windows installer and follow the included installation instructions.
Reopen your DAW and enable or rescan VST3 plugins in its plugin settings if needed.
Find //grains in your DAW’s instrument list and //grains FX in its audio effects list.
The standard system-wide VST3 folder is C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. Use the location specified by the installer.
macOS
Open the Mac installer and follow the included installation instructions.
Reopen a DAW that supports VST3. Enable VST3 plugins in its plugin settings, then rescan if needed.
Find //grains in your DAW’s instrument list and //grains FX in its audio effects list.
Standard VST3 locations are /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 for all users and ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 for your account. In Finder, use Go → Go to Folder to inspect the location specified by your installer.
Open your first instance
Load //grains on an instrument or MIDI track to play samples with notes. Load //grains FX as an insert on an audio track to process that track’s sound. Track names and plugin-scan menus vary between DAWs.
Follow the activation instructions supplied with your release. Your storefront account and your DAW are different systems; signing into the shop alone does not activate the plugin.
02 / Start with one sound.
Select Layer 1. Press LOAD and choose a WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG or MP3 file. You can also drag a sample onto the plugin.
Choose CLOUD and play a MIDI note. Make sure your instrument track is receiving MIDI and its audio output is routed to your speakers.
Move the layer’s blob to explore the sample position and scatter. Adjust level and Grains gently, then add another layer when you like what you hear.
Select the image to inspect the controls ↗︎
Dragging multiple audio files loads them into successive layers, starting from the selected layer, up to four total.
03 / Make a cloud evolve.
Cloud turns small moments of your source into an overlapping texture. Explore position, size, scatter and pitch; add layers for contrast rather than turning everything up at once.
A fast starting point
With a source loaded, TEXTURE builds a four-layer cinematic Cloud setup from the selected source. It replaces the four layers’ sounds and settings while preserving the global key, scale and master level. Save anything you want to keep first.
FREEZE holds the source position in Cloud. MUTATE varies the selected layer’s settings without replacing its sample. Factory Atmospheres replace all four layers, so save your current idea before choosing another.
04 / A voice becomes a rhythm.
Load a clean, isolated vocal and switch the selected layer to CHOP.
Set the global root and scale to match the track. For the storefront vocal demo, choose G / Minor and enable scale lock.
Use SEQ to advance through slices, RND for variation, or RPT to repeat the slice at the current position. Choose BPM timing for clocked patterns.
Adjust Gate for shorter or longer hits. Blend a second layer at an octave, then add shimmer and reverb carefully.
Play the slices yourself
Choose KEY for MIDI-triggered slices: MIDI note 36 starts the slice mapping. In this mode, notes—not the grain clock—trigger slices, so the layer clock-rate controls are intentionally inactive. The shared BPM/HZ toggle remains available. LEGATO is available in Chop + Key mode and sustains held slices; MIDI note 60 is its zero-transposition reference.
Formant changes the vocal’s color independently of Pitch. Start at zero and make small moves. Freeze is inactive in Key mode because your notes control slice timing.
05 / Give it a musical home.
Choose the root, select Minor, Major or another available scale, and turn on scale lock. This global setting applies across all four layers in Cloud and Chop.
Scale lock is a musical guide, not a promise to separate every note in a mixed recording. Clean monophonic sources give pitch detection the clearest information. Listen against your track, especially with chords, noise, wide pitch modulation or heavily processed sources.
Tempo, without the guesswork
BPM/HZ switches the timing mode globally while each layer retains its own rate. BPM subdivisions follow the host tempo in clocked modes. Use 1/8 or 1/16 as a rhythmic starting point; choose HZ for free-running motion. Start your DAW transport when using host-synchronized patterns.
06 / Warmth, depth, and shimmer.
Grain Drive adds soft saturation to individual grains in the selected layer. Begin low, then bring it up until the texture gains presence. Watch the master level as layers and effects accumulate.
Shimmer and reverb extend the sound into space. Keep enough dry definition to hear the vocal rhythm; use wetter layers around it for an airy background.
Let //grains make the sound, then let //grains FX process it. Connect them through your DAW’s audio routing.
//grains instrumentMIDI notes become sound
//grains FXProcesses the instrument’s audio
Mixer / main outputHear the result
Start with an insert effect
Load //grains on an instrument or MIDI track. Choose a factory sound or load a sample, then play a note or a MIDI clip. Confirm you can hear the instrument first.
Add //grains FX to the audio effects chain receiving that instrument’s output. Place it after the instrument. In DAWs with a separate mixer, use the instrument’s assigned mixer channel.
Keep your MIDI notes routed to the instrument. The FX instance receives the resulting audio; you do not need a second copy of the MIDI clip for this setup.
Play your loop and raise the FX MIX gradually. Around 20–30% is a useful starting point for subtle processing; adjust by ear.
Use the DAW’s effect bypass to compare the original and processed sound. Adjust the FX output level so the comparison is at a similar loudness and the main output does not clip.
Save your DAW project with both plugin instances and their routing. An instrument patch alone does not save a separate FX instance.
Ableton Live+
Drag the //grains VST3 instrument onto a MIDI track. Load a sound and play a MIDI clip, or arm the track to play from your keyboard with monitoring enabled.
Open that track’s Device View. Drag //grains FX to the right of //grains. Audio flows from left to right through the devices.
Keep the track routed to the main output. Play the instrument and adjust the FX MIX control.
Load //grains as an instrument in the Channel Rack and add notes in its Piano roll.
Use the instrument channel’s Mixer track routing selector to assign it to a free Mixer insert. Open that insert and play the pattern; its meter should move.
Add //grains FX to an effect slot on that same Mixer insert. Keep the insert routed to the Master. Your notes stay in the instrument’s Piano roll.
On an insert, the FX MIX control balances dry audio—the original instrument—and wet audio—the processed result. Start low for extra space, then raise it for a stronger transformation. Change one control at a time while a short phrase loops.
Optional: use a send / return
For parallel processing, put //grains FX on a return or auxiliary channel and send some of the instrument’s audio to it. Set the FX MIX to 100% wet, keep the instrument’s dry channel audible, and use the send or return level to blend in the effect. Route the return to the main output. Keep the return from sending back into itself.
If the effect is silent or hard to hear
No sound at all? Bypass FX first. If the instrument is also silent, check its sample, MIDI input, track monitoring and output routing.
The instrument plays, but FX does nothing? Check that FX is enabled, sits after the instrument on the correct audio path, and has MIX above zero. On a return, also raise the send level.
The result is too loud or washed out? Lower MIX or the return level, reduce feedback and shimmer, and check the output meter.
08 / Keep the good accidents.
Press SAVE to write a .grains-patch file. Use LOAD to reopen it. Save your DAW session as well.
Patches reference the original sample paths; they do not embed your audio. Keep source files in a stable project folder. Moving or deleting them can prevent a patch from loading. Keep backups of both the patch and its samples. Windows and macOS use different file paths; when moving a project between computers, copy its samples too and check that each layer can find its source.
RESET clears the four loaded samples and resets controls. It does not delete the original audio files, but save your current patch before using it.
09 / Back to making music.
The plugin is missing from my DAW.+
Check that you installed the version for your operating system, your DAW supports VST3, and VST3 scanning is enabled. Restart the DAW and run its plugin scan. Use the Windows or macOS installation steps to check the folder. If scanning reports an error, send support the exact message and your DAW and operating-system versions.
I loaded a sample, but hear nothing.+
For the instrument, play a MIDI note and check track monitoring, routing, layer level and master level. For FX, confirm audio is reaching the insert and the track is playing. Check the selected layer has a loaded source.
Why is a timing control inactive?+
Chop + Key is MIDI-triggered. The layer clock-rate controls and Freeze are inactive there by design; the shared BPM/HZ toggle remains available. Switch to SEQ, RND or RPT to use the grain clock. LEGATO is specific to Chop + Key.
The vocal does not sit in key.+
Confirm the track’s actual root and scale, enable global scale lock, and start with an isolated vocal. Reduce pitch modulation and check each layer individually. Layering a full chord recording can preserve conflicting pitches the detector cannot separate.
My CPU meter is high or audio crackles.+
Reduce Grains and the number of active layers. Ease back long overlaps and heavy effects, increase the DAW audio buffer where latency allows, or render finished textures to audio. Save first, then compare one layer at a time.
I need help with an order or activation.+
Contact support with your order number, DAW, operating system and version, and the exact error. Do not include your password or full payment details.
Before you purchase.
Windows + macOS · VST3 · 64-bit. Use a 64-bit DAW with VST3 support and the installer for your operating system. Check the release’s published system requirements for supported operating-system versions and processors before buying. A DAW must support the supplied plugin format to load //grains.
Performance depends on the sample, grain count, active layers, effects, buffer size and host. No specific CPU or memory usage is guaranteed.
