You’ve gotta give kudos to Klavis for Grainity, their granular VCF, which combines a selectable multi-mode filter with a granular filter, all digitally controlled with an all-analog signal path. It's a unique idea, and Grainity brings forth new sounds, while still offering traditional filter qualities.
Grainity’s signal path starts with the input going through Frequency and Q (resonance) controls (sliders, in this case), before that signal gets separated into the multi-mode and granular filter sections. There are separate outputs for each section, but you can also mix to taste, and CV that mix as well. The multi-mode section has seven options: 2-pole Low Pass, 4-pole Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, Band Rejection (notch), and In (unfiltered input). There are CV inputs and attenuverters for modulation of FM, Q, V/Oct, and Phase/Frequency.
The granular section sports a large Structure control, and a smaller Division control, with CV inputs for both, a Detect input for the input of audio or trigger/gates, and a numerical display, which gives all the granular section information.
Grainity can be used as a sound source, and with the V/Oct input, it does a nice job at this once the filter starts resonating. But let’s be honest, we’re not here for the regular filter qualities, we’re here for the granular ones. Most granular synths sample/record a snippet and then use that snippet as a sound source. Grainity doesn’t do that, instead using preset sequences of filtering options called “structures,” that can be controlled by their loop length and variation. Unlike a traditional filter, the end result is that this doesn’t subtract from the sound, but rather adds all sorts of harmonics to it. Damn if we aren’t all addicted to harmonics. What is distortion, saturation, “warmth,” etc., but harmonics? Bring on the harmonics! Well, Grainity does just that and really operates kind of like a wavetable with switching/cycling through the various structures. I can’t say that I fully understand 100% how it operates, but ultimately the sound matters more than the theory, so on to knob twisting and slider sliding!
While I messed with the filter-only output quite a bit, it was kind of in a utilitarian way, just to see how far it would stretch as a typical filter. I found it very usable in every mode, and it operated as a well-designed filter should in each. It was the granular aspect that I really wanted to explore and understand further, however.
The way this works is that you’re able to add harmonics to create chords from single notes if you use a VCO as your input, but what about if you use audio? Singing into a mic, then going through Grainity? Playing back samples? Drums?
Patching in a sawtooth waveform from a VCO into the Input with the G.VCF (the granular only output) and comparing the original waveform with the output from Grainity, and there’s no end to the indescribable shapes and sounds that come out, from distorted, yet recognizable from the original, to anything but. Tweaking the Structure and Division controls, going through the filter presets and divisions available, and altering the Frequency and Q, with the Q up high so that the filter was resonating, I got what amounted to quickly stepping filter sweeps with a hint of formants. Switching to some sort of curved triangle wave thing with sloping steps on the rising edge and the feel completely changed from the sawtooth, a welcomed surprise. I love the fact that Grainity isn’t taking over the sound or input, but reacting to it, and I was initially concerned that no matter what you called it, Grainity would not be adding harmonics so much as acting like a hyper-fuzz pedal that obscures your guitar’s tone. This wasn’t the case, and patching in a sequence first to my VCO, and then to Grainity, it was pretty interesting to compare the differences between the before and after signals. Multing that same sequence patching into both V/Oct inputs on the VCO and Grainity brought another level of complexity, and even more so when I would invert either of the signals. Sometimes I would change the Division and Structure settings and the sound would go from distorted to warbly, almost like a two-stage phaser, which was pretty cool. Add modulation of any sort to cycle through Division and Structure, and all bets are off. In one patch, I had the same sequence running through my source VCO, Grainity’s V/Oct input, and the same for the CV input on a resonating 24dB filter that I was using as my FM source on Grainity. Granted, I normally don’t like this level of uncontrolled modulation on one source as it does obscure so much, but it was a fun exercise and switching to the Mix output to mix in some of the multi-mode filter, and tweaking the mix amount delivered a lot of sweet spots. Grainity never got too out of control, and never did it get so distorted as to be nasty; you could still hear the source signal coming through.
My next task was to see how Grainity did with samples and a little bit of crooning. With a microphone patched into Joranalogue’s RX2 to get my voice into the modular realm, I then made several multiples of that signal—some attenuverted—and patched those into the V/Oct, Input, Structure, and Division CV inputs. There was an interesting proximity effect happening, in that the closer I sang into the microphone, the stronger the signal, and the more that Grainity was pushed. I’ve never sounded so harsh! Some of it reminded me of a toy megaphone that I used to have (and annoy people with) that had a “robot” setting. Glitchy, digital, and broken. I found that the lighter my touch, the subtler, the granularity of it all was, and I really appreciated the dynamic control of it all. A lot of what resulted was less than pleasant, but I must put more of the blame on my singing than Grainity.
Patching a drum track from Winter Plankton’s ZAPS into Grainity, and I was able to destroy the drums just so. I really wanted to hide the incoming drums to see how Grainity could color it, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was able to find what I was looking for, using setting 3L4 to get a blotchy, digitized—but a still in time—rhythm track. This was with an inverted multed drum track and a PWM’d VCO both going into the FM input on Grainity, and it was impressive and reminded me of a scene in the original Star Wars where they’re listening to robots or Jawas or something talk over the radio. Self-patching was totally worthwhile, such as taking the M.VCF (multi-mode only) output and patching that into the Structure CV input. Initiating the Track heightened the glitchiness, but surprisingly, patched to the hilt, the original drum sound was still present. I realized that I had the Q pretty cranked, and when I brought that down, I was able to suffocate the drums a bit. Setting it on RL1 and each kick drum hit turned into a distorted blast.
Grainity is a really fun sculpting tool. The concept is interesting enough, but more impressive are the results and scope of grainy buzzy digitized sounds you can get. Not to mention just using it as a really versatile multi-mode filter that sounds great. I really enjoyed modulating the granular parameters and multing signals and patching them into various inputs and CV ins, with inverted copies of original signals flying around. Even more so, just patching a sound source into the Input and seeing what I could get, keeping it simple, but altering the original signal, brought great results. Like I said, kudos to Klavis for the idea of Grainity, but even more kudos for turning this idea into a great module. Loads of fun here.

Price: $324

klavis.com