Audio Damage Introduces Descent Granulator

via Audio Damage

"Descent is a granular delay and reverb effect that transforms your audio into evolving, otherworldly textures. At its core, Descent captures incoming audio and breaks it into tiny grains—anywhere from a handful to dozens at once—then scatters them across time and pitch to create everything from subtle thickening and rhythmic delays to vast, frozen soundscapes and shimmering pitch-shifted clouds. With independent control over grain count, duration, overlap, and direction (forward, reverse, or random), combined with extensive randomization for pitch, pan, position, amplitude, and timing, Descent turns any sound source into a living, breathing texture. Whether you're adding shimmer to guitars, creating infinite sustain on synth pads, or designing abstract sonic environments, Descent delivers studio-quality granular processing with an intuitive interface and real-time FFT visualization.

Features

Granular engine with adjustable grain count (1–50 simultaneous grains), duration, overlap, and envelope shape for precise texture control.
Pitch shifting from -24 to +24 semitones with pitch quantization—lock transpositions to specific intervals for harmonically-correct shimmer, fifths, octaves, or any chromatic combination.
Six-axis randomization: independently randomize pitch, pan, position, amplitude, duration, and grain count for everything from subtle movement to complete chaos.
Direction control plays grains forward, reverse, or randomly mixed—perfect for tape-style effects, reverse swells, and glitchy textures.
High-feedback mode with diffusion control transforms delays into lush, reverb-like washes that never get harsh or out of control.
Tempo-sync or free-running modes let you lock grain timing to your session or let textures evolve organically.
Real-time FFT visualization shows your granular cloud evolving, making sound design intuitive and immediate.
35 factory presets covering shimmers, delays, reverbs, pitch effects, and experimental sound design to get you started instantly.
Cross-platform preset manager with XML-based presets compatible across all plugin formats and operating systems.


Sound Design Ideas

Add subtle depth with a few long grains and minimal randomization. Create rhythmic delays with short, quantized grains at high feedback. Build infinite sustain pads by freezing audio with high grain count and overlap. Design glitchy textures with extreme randomization and reverse grains. Craft shimmer effects by quantizing pitch shifts to octaves and fifths. Transform vocals into ethereal textures with diffusion and wide panning."