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, transposed and enveloped to form a "grain". Each grain is also randomly panned and the whole 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!
NEW: AAX Native support
We have added AAX Native plugin support on Windows (32/64-bit) and MacOS (64-bit), so SaltyGrain can now be used in Pro Tools again. It can also function as an AudioSuite plugin.
If you still have old Pro Tools projects that used the old (now unsupported) RTAS version of SaltyGrain, your projects should open just fine and the RTAS instances should be substituted by the AAX version, while retaining your plugin state and automation.
Features
- 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
- typical granular slow motion effect by freezing and gradually moving through the delay line (forwards and backwards)
- 70 presets to get started (including presets by Richard Devine and Matias Monteagudo)
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!)
"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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atViS0jukHw&t=1354s 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
"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
Specifications
This plugin is currently available under the following formats:
- Windows 7 - 10: VST (32/64-bit) and AAX Native (32/64-bit)
- MacOS 10.7 - 11.6 (Intel (*), 64-bit): VST (64-bit), AU (64-bit) and AAX Native (64-bit)
(*) We have confirmations from users running the plugin just fine in GarageBand on the newer Apple silicon M1-based Macs with Rosetta 2 in Big Sur. The plugin will eventually get rebuilt as a universal binary with native Intel and Apple silicon support.
You can try the demo to see if the plugin works fine in your host on your system.
Note: an old (but no longer supported) 1.1.1 version is also still available for download, in case someone still needs a 32-bit VST or AU version for MacOS, or an RTAS version for Windows/MacOS.
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 a few examples using the presets that come with the plugin. Much more is possible by tweaking the parameters of course:
| Info | Original | Processed |
|---|---|---|
| Seasonal greetings: a single spoken sentence, male voice. | clean | various effects |
| Solo drums | clean | effect 1 effect 2 effect 3 effect 4 effect 5 |
| Showing off SaltyGrain's cool effects on an evil laugh. The potential for use in cartoon/movie effects become quite clear... Evil laugh courtesy of Bulbastre | clean | "bad guy" "chipmunk" "crazy times" "deranged android" "double bad" "multiple split personality" "split personality" "stereo bad" "tubed crazy" |
| 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 |
| Jonathan Snipes created this demo, and writes: "a recording of some wineglasses clinking together, with a little EQ, compression, and reverb, and a lot of SaltyGrain and automation" | clean | processed |
And here is a video by electronic musician and sound designer Richard Devine demonstrating 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 are now able to 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, beeps will be added to the sound at irregular intervals, and after some more time, noise at an increasing sound level will be added to the sound output
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.
Other info
Pricing will be converted to your local currency using the current exchange rates according to BlueSnap, our online reseller who handles the sales and payment process.
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 detailed information regarding our sales and product activation process, please check the sales and activation FAQs and information or contact us.
Support
For support questions, please see the contact page.