Intellijel MultiGrain |The Grainmakers Playlist | Episode 14

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I did not expect this playlist to grow with yet another grainmaker. I am quite happy with the ones I already have and my Intellijel stealth case is already completely full. So when you already have plenty of options and no room, what better excuse is there to just get it? So here we are.

I can't just objectively use MultiGrain on its own, without considering the alternatives and Arbhar as a reference module. Is it even fair to compare it with what's already around? I think so. Objectively, MultiGrain covers a lot of ground. It's versatile and musical, but it can also do microsound adventures. However, I had to go back and forth between manual and module to find out how typical granular techniques are implemented. For instance, there's no spray, no panning, no dubbing, etc, etc. Well, it's there, but it's implemented in a completely different way. If you're familiar with granular synthesis, MultiGrain is simply not intuitive to use, even though the user interface is amazing. If you want a spray, you'll need to randomize start and length. If you want panning, you'll need to randomize level and tone. Need a threshold to start your recording? You'll need to go to the advanced sampling page which complements the main and ALT pages.

Still, MultiGrain is in my favorite top 3, but Arbhar and Morphagene are 1 and 2 respectively. I think Arbhar is more suited for musical adventures, and the Morph still wins when it comes down to splicing virtual tape and making weird sounds. MultiGrain provides a lot of both, but it will take time and patience to find what you're looking for.

I hope Intellijel will listen to their end users and work on firmware updates to streamline the experience. It would be great to splice a drum loop over the eight sounds using transient detection. It would be great if two or more sounds could play together, and it should be able to dub over a sound to make layers. MultiGrain has the potential to become the best granular module in eurorack, but not today. Not yet."