PLAYDATE Granular Explorations On A Rainy Day

video upload by Perplex On

"I've recently finally received my playdate after more than 2 years of waiting. Besides the nice retro games, there are also a few audiovisual apps already out there, which makes the device way more exciting. First stop here is an app called Granular by Orllewin, inspired by an old Reaktor instrument called Travelizer. It is an experimental granular sampler which splits a sample (recorded via its internal mic, via external mic with trrs splitter on the headphone jack or in this case, an imported custom sample) into 5 tracks with various granular controls and separate fx.

This and more cool apps by the dev:
https://orllewin.itch.io/"

"Granular is an experimental 'grain sampler' for Playdate that plays subsamples from a recorded parent sample, it's inspired by the old Reaktor 'Travelizer' instrument. Granular includes various modifiable parameters and effects to change the sound which produces beautiful glitchy ambience that can be used on its own or as a background for other instruments.

You really need headphones or to connect to a speaker - this will not sound good through the Playdate's tiny built-in speaker.

You don't have rigid control over the playback, most options not related to effects/filters increase or decrease the probability of something happening, either a change in playback rate, or how regular the samples are triggered, it's all fairly random.

Generally 'A' selects and navigates, 'B' closes and pops the stack back to the previous location, everything should be intuitive with a little exploration. Granular operates on probabilities; when you select 'jump' or 'rev.' (reverse) or other parameters you're telling the underlying engine to allow the possibility of that happening each cycle."