SaltyGrain
Product overview
(VAT incl. in price
where applicable)
A demo version is
available so you can
try before you buy!
SaltyGrain is a real-time granular audio effect plugin.
It can create a large variety of different sound types, and is ideal for creating strange or spooky effects in movie productions, vocal effects, weird background sounds, lush pad sounds, rhythmic distortions, live sound modifications, etc...
Incoming sound is fed into a delay line from which small pieces of various durations and at different moments in the past are selected. Each of these pieces is then amplified, panned, transposed, filtered and enveloped to form a "grain". Sound can be frozen in time, the grain stream can be fed back into the delay line and the mix is sent out to a stereo output stream.
A valuable granular synthesis sound effect tool for musicians, sound designers, (film) music composers and producers!
Features
- per-grain filtering for adding an "organic" feel to the sound
- delay line freezing for live sampling and sound modifications
- feedback of granulated output back into the delay line for dense and shifting structures
- up to max. 40 simultaneous grains
- plugin parameters controllable via MIDI
- play melodies with captured sound fragments
- density control by number of grains and grain duration
- additional grain stealing option
- grain envelope control
- split pitch option for restricting the transposition to only the min or max value
- typical granular slow motion effect by freezing and gradually moving through the delay line (forwards and backwards)
- 74 presets to get started (including presets by Richard Devine and Matias Monteagudo)
Specifications
This plugin is currently available in the following formats:
- Windows 10 - 11 (Intel): VST2 (32/64-bit) and AAX Native (32/64-bit)
- macOS 10.9 - 14.6: VST2 (64-bit), AU (64-bit) and AAX Native (64-bit) (*)
You can try the demo to see if the plugin works fine in your host on your system.
(*) The macOS versions are built as Universal 2 binaries, which means that they can run natively on Intel-based Macs and on Apple silicon-based Macs. Pro Tools 2023.3 and beyond launch in native mode by default on Apple Silicon-based Macs, so the AAX version of the plugin will automatically run natively as ARM. You can also still run the plugin as Intel under Rosetta 2, if you prefer that for some reason or if you have a slightly older Pro Tools version (see Avid's documentation).
Artist quotes
"SaltyGrain is one of my most used granular plugs. You can do anything from subtle scrambling to crazy effects with ease. Finally it’s available as an AAX version as well, so now it’s time to put the plug into overtime use!" - Charles Deenen computer/video game audio director, music composer, sound designer, and mixer (and half of legendary C64 audio production pioneers Maniacs of Noise!)
"TimeFreezer and SampleSumo's SaltyGrain = Not conventional instrument plugins, these both act as audio effects but are unusual, weird, and can be applied directly to audio tracks. SaltyGrain gets more use over here. Capable of really wild stuff." - Charlie Clouser, keyboardist, film and TV music composer, record producer, remixer and former Nine Inch Nails member
"In the few weeks I've been using SaltyGrain, I've found it extremely intuitive, easy to use and powerful." - Mike Raznick, award-winning composer/producer
"It stayed on my basic selection of bus strips for the entire film!" - award-winning film music composer Henry Jackman on using SaltyGrain in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
"Best non-free granular fx on PC and Mac: Crusher-X by @accSone and SaltyGrain by @SampleSumo" - Felix Petrescu aka Waka X of Makunouchi Bento
"Then I've got SaltyGrain by SampleSumo, which I've used for years, and that is just a really good granular cloud maker. So it gives you that kind of crystal shimmer effect, if you wanted to. Or it can kind of, you know, iteratively feedback into these kinds of weird atonal clouds of noise, which is horrifying and I love doing." - Beardyman mad genius of live electronic music improvisation, using SaltyGrain as part of his setup (see here for more)
"SaltyGrain is really cool, it will inspire you. I was looking for a granular manipulator that could give me immediate results, especially on my guitar tracks, and SaltyGrain does that and more." - Rod Abernethy composer of RAGE, TERA, Alpha Protocol, Star Trek and The Hobbit, Bafta Award winner/Dead Space
"It's perfect for the nano bots I'm designing." - James Fonnyadt, award-winning sound designer for movies & TV series (Child's Play, Every Breath You Take, Phil, Snowpiercer (Netflix series), ...)
"Your plugin has been used extensively on literally hundreds of tracks, it's a real creative go to of mine now - so thank you for designing an amazingly inspiring tool." - Tom McCarthy, co-founder / ex creative director at Ultraphonic, composer, sound designer and music producer Ultraphonic - concepts 01-20
Audio examples
Award-winning composer and musician Rod Abernethy (creator of music scores for visual media including video games, advertising and television) sent us the following track, where SaltyGrain is mainly used on the acoustic guitar: Longs Lane
Below are several examples of what you can do with the plugin. Some of these simply use one of the many presets that come with the plugin, others were made by tweaking and/or automating the parameters:
| Info | Original | Processed |
|---|---|---|
| Seasonal greetings: a single spoken sentence, male voice. | clean | various effects |
| Solo drums processed in various ways. | clean | effect 1 effect 2 effect 3 effect 4 effect 5 |
| Evil laugh recording. Shows how the effect can be used in cartoons/movies/games for processing voices. Sample by Bulbastre. | clean | "bad guy" "chipmunk" "crazy times" "deranged android" "double bad" "multiple split personality" "split personality" "stereo bad" "tubed crazy" |
| Examples by atmospheric ambient/drone music composer Red Fog, all featuring the new per-grain filtering (100% SaltyGrain, no other effects used). 1) acoustic drum 🠚 growling drone engine 2) analog synth 🠚 electronic melting liquid 3) cooking pot 🠚 liquid pouring on metal surface 4) amp plug in/out disconnection 🠚 windy synthetic drone 5) cello 🠚 haunting bubbling drone |
clean1 clean2 clean3 clean4 clean5 |
processed1 processed2 processed3 processed4 processed5 |
| Piece for processed bottle and piano by Zach Fichter. | clean | processed |
| Two examples by ambient/drone music composer/creator and game audio director Jason Corder / offthesky. | clean1 clean2 | processed1 processed2 |
| Demo by Jonathan Snipes who writes: "a recording of some wineglasses clinking together, with a little EQ, compression, and reverb, and a lot of SaltyGrain and automation". | clean | processed |
| "Dropping daemon" preset applied to male and female voices. Sound 1 is by ckvoiceover, sound 2 by michellelindemann1. |
clean1 clean2 | processed1 processed2 |
This video by award-winning sound designer and electronic music composer Richard Devine demonstrates some of SaltyGrain's audio processing capabilities (in release 1.1, we added the presets used in this video to the already available presets, so you can now apply Richard's settings to your own sounds):
Demo version
The demo version allows you to try out the plugin on your own system, so you can experience how it works and hear what it can do before you buy it.
Note that this demo version has the following limitations:
- saving presets is disabled and the plugin's state will not be stored when you save a project in your host
- after the plugin has been in use for a while, noise at an increasing sound level will be added to the sound output, and after some more time, short beeps will also be added to the sound at irregular intervals
If you like the plugin and want the full version without these limitations, please support our company and buy the product using the buy now button above.
Full version
If you own a SaltyGrain license, you can download the full version here.
Make sure you are logged in with your username and password, as this is a protected download section only accessible to our paying customers.
Return and refund policy
Please see our return and refund policy page.
Other info
Pricing will be converted to your local currency using the current exchange rates according to BlueSnap, our online payments facilitator.
Delivery of the software is via download only (there is no physical shipping).
Updates (minor version number changes, such as 1.1 to 1.2) are always free.
Upgrades (major version number changes, such as 1.5 to 2.0) may require a small upgrade fee.
For more information regarding our sales and product activation process, please check the sales and activation FAQs and information page or contact us.
Support
For support questions, please see the contact page.