Grainsmith Field

Grainsmith Field is a granular instrument for iPad and iPhone. Load a sound or record one live, then pull it apart into grains. Stretch and scatter it until it stops sounding like the source, or pitch it and play it like an instrument.

It shares its granular engine with our desktop Grainsmith plugin, but it's rebuilt for touch. Field is a single multitouch screen: four XY pads control paired parameters (Density and Size, Jitter and Spread, Pitch and Reverse, Cutoff and Resonance), and a Morph control sweeps several at once.

THREE PLAYHEADS

Run up to three independent grain streams from one sample at the same time. Each head has its own position, speed, pitch, level, pan, grain size, and spread. Grab a playhead line on the waveform to move it independently, or move them as a group. Double-tap to gather them. Set a second head a fifth or an octave away and the streams blend into a single granular texture.

MODULATION

Six modulation slots drive the controls: LFOs and Euclidean patterns with per-route depth, assigned by long-pressing a knob. The MOVE dial sets the Morph macro itself in motion, and each destination drifts on its own phase. Rates sync to tempo, in the app or from the host clock.

RECORD AND MANGLE

Capture audio from your hardware input and granulate it as it comes in, or loop a phrase and let the engine chew on it. Scrub the waveform directly. Freeze the grain cloud to hold a sound for as long as you want. Run the stereo delay to smear the grain tails into echoes; it syncs to tempo too. Export captures as WAV to the Files app.

RECORD YOUR PERFORMANCE

Start a recording from the presets menu and everything you play is captured to a WAV file. Keep playing through app switches and screen locks; a Lock Screen Live Activity shows while recording runs. Recordings save to the Files app and share straight from Field.

PLAY IT AS AN INSTRUMENT

Switch to Instrument mode and play the grain engine from a MIDI keyboard: four-voice polyphony, an attack/release envelope, and a root-note control. The pitch ribbon snaps to musical intervals: Free, Chromatic, Scale, Octaves, or Oct+5ths, with twelve scale options and a probability control. Works with hardware MIDI in the standalone app and with host MIDI in AUv3.

USE IT IN YOUR HOST

The AUv3 music effect loads in AUM, Logic for iPad, and other AUv3 hosts. Parameters are exposed for host automation and MIDI learn. Your patch saves and restores with the session, including head count, every per-head control, the modulation slots, and pitch snap mode.

ALSO IN THE BOX

- Ten factory presets grouped by character, with a browser and a Favorites section for your own

- Background audio: the standalone keeps playing when you switch apps

- Reverb, stereo delay with tempo sync, filter, grain-shape windows, pitch randomization

- Runs on iPhone with a compact layout

No account and no subscription. Field collects no data.