Tasty Chips GR-1 Granular Synthesizer

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

New GR-1 Firmware 2.0 Tutorial & 2019 Teaser

Tasty Chips GR-1 Teaser 2019 Published on Mar 19, 2019 Tasty Chips

"A new product teaser for our GR-1 granular synthesizer, featuring some lovely close-up shots."

Published on Mar 19, 2019 Tasty Chips

"Showcases some of the new firmware 2.0 features in detail, along with some of the older, yet deeper functions.

Some of our customers requested a tutorial video with a voice-over in a calm pace. So, here it is, along with some good looking close-up shots!

Covered are: firmware update, multi-timbrality, sample tuning, audition mode, recording aux lfo waveforms, scan loop and loop modes, and keyboard split basics."

via Tasty Chips

"The last 2 months we’ve been busy with a large rewrite of the GR-1 firmware. The new version 2.0 makes it multitimbral, and adds many new features and improvements. The new engine allows you to stack up to four patches, assign patches to MIDI channels and/or to play mode, record audio to one patch in real-time and play chords and solos with the others.

Get the upgrade, and the new manual, from our GR-1 downloads page. Credits and thanks to the beta testers who worked to quickly track down the bugs!

In a few weeks we’ll start a new video campaign on Youtube. Of course we’ll cover all the new features.

The GRC-1 MIDI controller is still in heavy development, and we hope to have the first model ready in autumn. As said before, the GRC-1 will offer hands-on controls for everything to do with multitimbral and more. The GR-1 at this moment only offers multitimbral controls via GUI menu’s and secondary button functions.

Production: at one point production was going so well we were almost 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Then problems with component stock and a mistake with PCB assembly hit us.. and now we’re delayed a week again. In any case, you can keep track of the progress in our GR-1 production schedule. We try to update it weekly."

Tasty Chips GR1 Granular Synthesizer - Latest Details & Kickstarter Campaign Launch

GR-1 Demo: Creative sounds (HDMI screen captures)

Published on Sep 3, 2017 Tasty Chips

GR-1 demo: Stand-alone "play mode"


You might remember the Tasty Chips GR1 from previous posts here. The following are the details and pics via the Kickstarter campaign.

"The GR-1 is a hardware polyphonic granular synthesizer in a class of its own. The GR-1 is capable of creating textures, characteristic sounds, drones, soundscapes, pads etc. with the help of your creativity! A sample and a few knob tweaks is enough to create something beautiful!

A truly high-end device

CLICK FOR MORE »

TASTY CHIPS GR-1 - Scratching the Surface

Part 1 (ambient) video upload by Megan Leber

"This is the first part of a little series I'll record with the Tasty Chips Electronics GR-1. I loooove granular synthesis and this machine is a beast! I'm just scratching the surface here, so I'll definitely record some more videos in the future where I'll be using more complex settings (and the modular of course!). Enjooooy!"

TASTY CHIPS GR-1 - Scratching the surface - Part 2 (techno)


"The long awaited part 2! Jamming with the Tasty Chips GR-1 (not MIDI synced) and playing with the LFO's. Later I recorded an improvised piece with my Roland TR-8S to give it some context. Enjoy!"

Ambient jam with the Tasty Chips GR-1, Sequential Take 5, and Strymon NightSky

video upload by Jay Hosking

"Please support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jayhosking
A live, semi-improvised track performed entirely on hardware.

There are few options for granular synthesis in the hardware world. The Tasty Chips GR-1 has the right level of control, via its knobs and faders, and visual feedback, via its generous screen, to make granular synthesis fast, fun, and hands-on. Plus it's got 11-voice polyphony, four different timbres to play all at once, a dedicated filter on each timbre, and some effects for in a pinch. Not only can you create granular synth sounds, but you can also play looped "clouds" of the sample, or just straight sample playback at different rates, pitches, and directions. In short, the GR-1 overcomes all my issues with using software granular on (for example) my iPad, and makes the process just as fun as using subtractive synthesis.

Speaking of subtractive synths, the Take 5 continues to be a gem. Considering it's an introductory synth in the Sequential line-up, it is an amazing sounding synth with an excellent design, a nice keybed, and useable effects. It's rare to find a polysynth with a strong low end, but the Take 5 really can fill out the spectrum. I love it.

This track is the result of my Patreon's holiday collaboration, in which we all sent samples to a recipient, and received samples from a "secret syntha", and made songs from these samples. It culminated in a listening party on New Year's Eve and was a ton of fun. Thanks so much to Som Shankhar (pad sample) and jean-louis proust (drum sample) for the inspiration and the loops here!

Tasty Chips GR-1 - Three granular loops (piano, pad, sparkle) and one playback loop (drums)
Strymon NightSky - Reverb for the GR-1
Sequential Take 5 - Main synth pad

Performed and recorded live, with EQ, compression, and limiting on the master."

Tasty Chips Electronics GR-1 -- preliminary noodlings

Published on Feb 12, 2018 Nice and Synths

"Hello! Thanks for watching this video, or at least considering watching. This is yet another noodling video with a new toy. The Tasty Chips GR-1 granular synthesizer. A granular synthesizer breaks an audio file into tiny pieces of wheat, or on occasion barley. All audio is direct from the GR-1 into a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6 with no additional processing (other than normalization.) My GR-1 was on firmware version 1.1.8 for this video.

I thought it might be useful to hear the original sample before the GR-1 patch that uses it, so I included them in the video. Hope its not too annoying.

The GR-1 *can* process live audio, but I need to get a suitable USB audio interface to try it. Another feature of the GR-1 I have yet to try are the two CV inputs. This could open up some fun control possibilities with modular gear.

A nice thing is that every parameter on the GR-1 is controllable via MIDI CC. This is shown at 7:15 where the sample position and filter cutoff are controlled with the Casio XW-P1's step sequencer control tracks. Not that you can really tell, it's not a good example of MIDI control really with the arpeggiator happening. I should've made a clearer example of that.

Apologies if the audio and video don't align exactly, I tried my best to line them up. :)"

ESK - Tasty Chips GR 1 Synth Sounds 2

Published on Aug 15, 2018 Metunar

"ESK - Tasty Chips GR-1 Synth Sounds 2

Tasty Chips Electronics GR-1 Granular Synthesizer Demo of my presets/patches/performance.
You can get this sounds 'MetunarSynthSounds' on the Tasty Chips website as download.
https://www.tastychips.nl/?page_id=2233

Audio is directly recorded from the GR-1 without external effects.

On all sounds the "Resample Anti-aliasing" is deactivated to get a more row digital sound.
The modulation deep of the 2 LFOs is normally set on zero. I use them like a kind of modulationwheels for extra modulation.
With the modulationwheel you can open the filter on many patches.
On the last sound i play with the internal delay which is good for looping effects.

http://www.metunar.ch"

Tasty Chips GR-1 Granular Synthesizer

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"The Tasty Chips GR-1 offers perhaps the first truly intuitive, approachable interface for granular synthesis in hardware format. With dedicated controls for all common granular synthesis parameters and a crisp display with clever and clear visual feedback, the GR-1 makes in-depth granular synthesis easy.

Offering 16 voices of polyphony with a maximum of 128 grains per voice, the GR-1 is equally at home in context as a source of sonorous ambience, glitched-out gestural textures, cinematic sound design, and far more. Latching "play" buttons for four independent voices as well as MIDI input offer multiple modes of interaction, while built-in LFOs and control voltage inputs allow extensive automation of internal parameters. Dedicated controls for grain position, density, size, pitch, scan rate, window shape, position randomization, and panning randomization make deep granular manipulation easily accessible. A 7" display makes the implications of all controls visible, making the otherwise obtuse methods of granular synthesis far more obvious than any previous hardware.

It seems strange to say that granular synthesis can be intuitive—but Tasty Chips Electronics has made it possible. The GR-1 might be the best hardware granular synthesizer to date."

Tasty Chips GR-2 Incoming

via Tasty Chips:

"There was the GR-1, then there was the bigger brother to extend the family, the GR-MEGA, and now there’s the GR-2.

The GR-2 is the direct successor of the GR-1. Similar size, similar price, but with a large touch screen, and many of the GR-MEGA’s abilities. As loyal readers of our mailing list, you are the first to know. We offer a limited amount of early bird units at 100 euro discount. We chose Kickstarter to reach a large audience and gauge interest, and you guys are the first the learn about it.

Visit us at Superbooth this weekend for a GR-2 demo, and of course you can also play around with all our other synths and effects.

For GR-MEGA owners: the GR-2 is like a little brother of the GR-MEGA. Both can run the same patches, and have largely the same abilities. The GR-2 has somewhat lower polyphony, lacks the amount of function-specific knobs and buttons, and lacks luxury interfaces like HDMI and balanced audio. The GR-2 firmware has the same “root” as the GR-MEGA’s. This means the GR-2 hitches a piggyback ride on the mature GR-MEGA for a great start.. and after a while the GR-MEGA will benefit from large amounts of sold GR-2’s: more user feedback, leading to more features, higher quality, and a large patch library.

If you want the best granular synthesizer and sound design tool out there, please support us.. and yourself. 🙂 Thank you! 🙏"

Additional details via Kickstarter.

The GR-2 is a granular synth, transformative sampler, and a portable sound design tool. It's ideally suited to stand-alone use. It can drone, you can use the touchscreen to play it like a live instrument. Attach MIDI gear or computer to use it like a traditional synth. Samples Samples want to be heard, but also seen, touched, and transformed. That's what the GR-2 delivers. Triggers, and manipulation are immediate. There's no setup, and there's visual feedback for everything.

Easy to use

The 7" touch screen, and high contrast GUI make life easy. There are spatially associated encoders along the the edges of the display. The most important settings are always visible, and they're big.

The most important settings are available from Quick Access (QA) menu buttons at the top. Using a touch gesture you can make them full screen. Deeper menus are accessible via the menu button. And rest assured, you're never more than 1 level deep + all GUI widgets are big and high contrast.

Power

The GR-2 is compact, no more than 25x19x7 cm, but it's powerful. While the touchscreen plays a large role, the knobs and fader are essential to the tactile, immediate, and precise nature of this synth.

Transformation is key. Load or record a sample, then mangle it through one of the many engines and effects. Long field recordings, transients, tonal material, the GR-2 eats them all. Make them unrecognizable, emphasize their inherent character, or add your own accents. Make them scatter in the granular engine, add subtle stutters, let it smoothly sustain forever, or make it whistle and bubble in the spectral engine. Using the many knobs and up-front menus, this quickly becomes like a second nature.

Polyphonic, multi-timbral, multi-engine, MPE capable, a dozen high quality effects, macros, and a deep polyphonic modulation matrix with over 120 destinations and 24 sources. Of course touch X,Y are mod sources. Our granular engine is the best you'll find in any hardware synth. A claim we dare make with ease. You can leverage the power of a touch screen, and play multiple notes and chords, along with gestural modulation accross 4 timbres. You can even record and transform touch gestures for modulation."

Ambient jam with the Dreadbox Nymphes, Tasty Chips GR-1, Strymon NightSky, and Empress Reverb

video upload by Jay Hosking

"A live, semi-improvised track performed entirely on hardware.

Dreadbox was kind enough to send along the Nymphes a little early to me, and I couldn't have been more excited. While I have the Abyss, I've been hoping for a new Dreadbox polysynth that's more widely available for a long time.

And the Nymphes doesn't disappoint. It's unbelievably small but with a super sturdy build and great fader throw lengths. It has a lot of secondary functions but it's dead easy to navigate, and still feels more hands-on than the Dreadbox Typhon (another great small synth). And most importantly of all, it has a beautiful sound with tons of character and some great particular nooks and crannies in its timbres. A warm analog polysynth the size of a paperback book? I love it.

I've also got lots to say on the Tasty Chips GR-1, but I'm planning to do a video with it in the near future, so more then. Suffice it to say for now that I love it and that it's a perfect companion for ambient work.

Dreadbox Nymphes through Strymon NightSky — Main synth
Tasty Chips GR-1 through Empress Reverb — Ambient granular goodness
Arturia Keystep — MIDI controller for the Nymphes

Performed and recorded live, with EQ, compression, and limiting on the master."

Tasty Chips GR-1 Live Performance

Published on Sep 30, 2017 Tasty Chips

"The GR-1 prototype being used in a live performance by Erwin Tuijl of Pocket Knife Army. Drums were done on the Elektron Analog Rytm. All synth sounds done on the GR-1 :100% dry, no FX processing.

Please help us reach the last GR-1 stretch goals! Thank you!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/844778849/gr-1-granular-synthesizer"

A Path Opens in the Bloom | Tasty Chips GR-1, Oto Bam, Marantz Cassette

Published on Jan 15, 2020 r beny

"Hello and Happy New Year.

Lately I've been getting into using granular sampling/synthesis to re-contextualize various sound sources. The human voice has been my favorite sound source of late. The Tasty Chips GR-1 is perfect for this, not just for its granular capabilities, but also because of its 11-voice polyphony/4-part multi-timbrality. I initially bought it on a whim, just because it was available, but it has become an important part of my studio for this type of stuff.

Here I have a recording of my own voice (trying to hold a C, I cannot sing) loaded into GR-1. I'm playing it back polyphonically via the Keystep through the Squarp Hermod. I use the Hermod essentially as a MIDI looper (you can see the initial loop recording queued up in the beginning of the video). GR-1 is running through a Marantz PMD-221 with the output set to monitor the tape just after it's been recorded to in real-time. I'm using a cassette loop for extra sound degradation. The Marantz is running through the OTO Bam for some extra stereo goodness/light to heavy reverberation.

Just a simple little piece for proof of concept.

As always, thank you for listening."

Great Granular Gear Gadgets - Waldorf Iridium vs Tasty Chips GR-1

video upload by TJontheRoad

"Here's a video comparison between the Waldorf Iridium and Tasty Chips GR-1. Comparing the synth engines and modulation possibilities with examples.

Note, there is no paid promotion in this video.

00:00 Intro
00:27 Kitchen Sink vs Specialized
01:40 Granular Basics
03:10 Sample Granular Manipulation
03:42 Features
05:57 Iridium Deep Dive
09:42 GR-1 Deep Dive
16:01 Iridium Sample
21:09 GR-1 Sample
24:43 Recap
25:37 Outro"

ESK - Tasty Chips GR-1 Synth Sounds

Published on Jun 26, 2018 Metunar

"Tasty Chips Electronics GR-1 Granular Synthesizer Demo.
I show some synth sounds i made with the GR-1 in this Video.
Audio is directly recorded from the GR-1 without external effects."

ESK - Tasty Chips GR 1 Drones and Textures

Published on Jun 27, 2018 Metunar

"Tasty Chips Electronics GR-1 Granular Synthesizer Demo.
In this second video i show some drones and textures i made with the GR-1.
Audio is directly recorded from the GR-1 without external effects."

Ambient jam with Dreadbox Nymphes, Tasty Chips GR-1, Walrus Slöer, Meris LVX

video upload by Jay Hosking

"Please support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jayhosking
A live, semi-improvised synthesizer jam performed entirely on hardware.

In my previous video, I tried the Walrus Slöer reverb pedal with a few fun synths. During that session, I stumbled into a chord progression on the Nymphes that sounded really lovely with the Slöer, and this track was born from it.

I knew it needed some accompaniment that matched the feeling, so I brought out the GR-1, my favourite granular hardware. With its four-layer timbrality, I could both create textures, and also use a timbre to double the Nymphes for some building/progression. I'm really happy with how hardware explorations can quickly lead to finished songs, and this is no exception.

Dreadbox Nymphes into Walrus Slöer - Pad
Tasty Chips GR-1 into Meris LVX - Four granular synth sounds
Arturia Keystep 37 - MIDI controller
Kenton MIDI Thru (not seen) - MIDI Thru

Performed and recorded live, with EQ, compression, and limiting on the master.

Thanks for listening.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com"

Fervour - Live Industrial Jungle Doom - Ableton Push 3 Standalone, Perkons HD-01, Tasty Chips GR-1

video upload by Abre Ojos

"134bpm Industrial Psychedelic Jungle Doom

Live hardware jam with Ableton Push 3 Standalone, Perkons HD-01 and Tasty Chips GR-1 Granular Synth.

Perkons & GR-1 fed into the Push with some Roar and Hybrid Reverb.

Video processed live through Resolume

Shot with GH5 MKII

Dark ambient audiovisual stuff: https://abreojos.net
Noisy layered drone techno: https://dronskot.net"

Reductive - Live psy-glitch doombient - Push 3 Standalone, Perkons HD-01, Tasty Chips GR-1

video upload by Abre Ojos

"113bpm psy-glitch doombient

Live hardware jam with Ableton Push 3 Standalone, Perkons HD-01 and Tasty Chips GR-1 Granular Synth.

Perkons & GR-1 fed into the Push with some Roar and Hybrid Reverb.

Video processed live through Resolume

Shot with GH5 MKII

Dark ambient audiovisual stuff: https://abreojos.net"

Tasty Chips GR-1 Hardware Granular Synthesizer

Published on Apr 25, 2018 Perfect Circuit Audio

"This video shows a few of the many things that could be done with the Tasty Chips GR-1 which is one of the few standalone hardware granular synthesizers. The GR-1 has intuitive controls for the parameters of its granular algorithm and a large screen that displays the grains being played. It is also polyphonic and has cv inputs.

Available here: https://www.perfectcircuitaudio.com/t..."

---
Supporters of MATRIXSYNTH get %10 off at Perfect Circuit Audio!

Displace - Live Beat-laced Psy-Synthnoise - Push 3 Standalone, Perkons HD-01, Tasty Chips GR-1

video upload by Abre Ojos

"92bpm Beat-laced Psy-Synthnoise

Live hardware jam with Ableton Push 3 Standalone, Perkons HD-01 and Tasty Chips GR-1 Granular Synth.

Perkons & GR-1 fed into the Push with some Roar and Hybrid Reverb.

Video processed live through Resolume

Shot with GH5 MKII

Dark ambient audiovisual stuff: https://abreojos.net
Noisy layered drone techno: https://dronskot.net"