Grains in order. Or not.
Asimut is a granular synthesizer for iPad, iPhone and Mac. Five players turn one sound into a cloud of grains, and one control moves each of them from a strict pulse through a Fibonacci rhythm and a golden-ratio cloud to pure chance. Play it on its own or as an AUv3 instrument in your host app.
Hear first when Asimut lands on the App Store · iPadOS/iOS 17+ · macOS 14+
Hear what order does to a sound.
Most granular instruments leave the timing of their grains to chance. In Asimut it is a control. Hold COMPARE and every player switches to random timing at the same density - let go, and you hear exactly what the order adds.
Grains start at a fixed rate. You hear a pitch at the grain rate.
Two gap lengths in a Fibonacci order. A clear rhythm, but no regular pulse.
Golden-ratio timing. Even density with no pattern and no clumps.
Random timing. Grains bunch and leave gaps, for a rough texture.
One player, four orders
A small sketch of the idea in your browser: one player, nine grains a second, the same pitches in every zone. Switch the zone and listen to the order change. Hold COMPARE to hear the same density at random.
CRYSTAL - Two gap lengths in a Fibonacci order. A clear rhythm, but no regular pulse.
Everything a grain cloud needs
The order of the grains is a sound of its own.
Every player has one control that sets how its grains are placed in time. Turn it and the same source moves from a strict pulse, through a Fibonacci rhythm and a golden-ratio cloud, to pure chance - at the same density, so what you hear change is the order itself.
- PULSE: periodic, it rings at the grain rate
- CRYSTAL: a Fibonacci chain, discrete but never quite repeating
- CLOUD: spread by the golden ratio, even and without clumps
- GRIT: pure chance
- A live histogram of the last 256 intervals shows the order you are hearing
Five voices from one source.
Up to five players take grains from the same sound, each with its own timing, grain length, place in the source, pitch, band and filter. Together they make one cloud. HARMONY voices them against each other, and the die rolls a new sound or, held, varies the one you have.
- Rate free or synced to the tempo, grain length from clicks to audible source
- POS, SPREAD, scan speed and direction through the source
- Pitch quantised to four tunings: equal temperament, golden ratio, Bohlen–Pierce and Carlos Alpha
- A band and one of seven filters per player, level, pan, mute and solo
- FUSE shapes each grain, from separate clicks to one continuous body
See where every player sits.
Each player has a seed on the grain field. Move it left or right to place the player in the stereo image, up for a brighter sound and down for a darker one. The field draws the grains as they sound: as a golden-angle spiral in 2D, or as a sphere you can turn in 3D.
- Drag a seed to move its player
- 2D spiral and 3D sphere
- Full-screen field for playing
Draw a gesture. It keeps moving.
Switch the field to ORBITS and every finger becomes an orb. Touch a cloud to take hold of its player - left and right move its position, up and down set ORDEN - or touch empty space to play three macros. Let go and the orb loops, orbits, holds or returns, slowed down as far as you like, and in time with the tempo if you want it.
- Four release modes: LOOP, ORBIT, HOLD and RETURN
- Loops snap to 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 or 13 beats
- Three macros, each assignable to twelve targets, from delay feedback to morph
- Double-tap an orb to remove it
Granulate anything.
Start from a synthesised source, a recording of hardware synthesizers and keys, a colour of noise or your own samples. Load a second source and MORPH between the two. The waveform shows where every player is reading.
- Twelve synthesised sources: pads, strings, organ, choirs, bells, glass and air
- Eleven recordings of analog and digital synths and keys
- Five colours of noise
- Import your own audio, up to three minutes
A chain built for clouds.
Five stages after the players, in signal order: modulation, character, delay, reverb and a compressor, with a performance filter and low cut on the master. Character runs from tape and vinyl to 12-bit and cassette.
- Chorus, flanger and phaser
- Six character models
- Stereo or ping-pong delay synced to the tempo
- Four reverbs: room, plate, spring and hall
Thirty-four sounds to start from.
Ten classic presets and twenty-four sounds in seven groups, from pads and drones to bells, motion and air. Save your own, store four scenes and move between them, and undo any change.
- Pads, Textures, Drones, Bells & Metal, Rhythmic, Noise & Air and Motion
- Four scenes per sound
- Undo and redo for every change
The same instrument, in your pocket.
On iPhone, Asimut turns sideways and gets a layout of its own: the players on a rail, the grain field in the middle and the selected player's main controls beside it. The full inspector slides in as a sheet and the performance controls as a drawer, and the field stays playable underneath both.
One engine. Standalone or hosted.
Play it from your keys. Load it in your host.
Asimut is also an AUv3 instrument with the same screen as the standalone app, listed in your host as VAAG Fabrikat: Asimut. In a host it follows the host's tempo, the host records, and every control can be automated. Standalone, keyboards and controllers connect over USB or Bluetooth, and the audio keeps playing with the screen locked.
- MIDI learn: teach any knob to move one of 25 controls, with soft takeover
- Pitch bend up to 24 semitones, sustain pedal, all notes off
- Record and export WAV 24-bit, WAV 32-bit float or AAC
Every control, documented
Every screen and every control in one PDF - generated from the app itself, so it matches the build it is versioned against.
User manual
Players, ORDEN, the source, effects, the grain field and orbits, presets and scenes, recording, MIDI, settings and the AUv3 - on iPad, iPhone and Mac.
Version 1.0 · 27 pages · PDF, 12 MB
Questions
Coming to the App Store
Asimut is in beta testing. Leave your email, click the confirmation link we send, and you hear first when it lands on the App Store for iPad, iPhone and Mac.