Bastl Microgranny Monolith review: Vintage sampling grit in a portable package

The one factor that hasn’t modified, that I actually want would have, is how you place batteries within the Microgranny. Bastl is a small firm that makes devices for weirdos, so I attempt to lower it some slack. However changing the batteries on this factor is aggravating. You must unscrew the underside plate and take it off, which inevitably causes the perimeters of the instrument to additionally come off. Then, while you’re carried out shoving a 9v battery in there, you need to fastidiously realign all of the items and hope every part stays in place when you screw it again collectively.

Combating with the battery is basically solely a difficulty if you wish to take the Microgranny out of the home with you. In any other case you need to use a regular 9V AC adapter, just like the one most guitar pedals use. Fortunately, I occur to have loads of these laying round. Clearly, this considerably negates the portability issue, however as I’ll get to in a bit, that turned out to be much less of a lure to me than anticipated. It’s additionally value noting that the output is a little bit noisy when turned all the best way up, so positively cease at about 75 % in case you’re not into low fixed whines.

Granular

What units the Microgranny aside in a sea of moveable and inexpensive music gear is that it’s a granular sampler. Now, Bastl is cautious to not use the phrases “granular synthesizer” in most of its advertising supplies. And that’s good. As a result of in case you’re coming right here anticipating the luxurious, alien and infrequently ambient soundscapes often related to granular synthesis you’ll be sorely disillusioned.

For one, as talked about earlier, the Microgranny is monophonic. Meaning you may’t play chords on it until you’re sampling one. And two, the sound engine can solely playback a single “grain” at a time. On one thing just like the 1010music Lemondrop, for example, you may stand up to 16 bits of an audio file operating concurrently, creating complicated and infrequently unpredictable textures from the supply materials. The Microgranny, properly, is extra like a playable CD skip. However when you embrace that unabashed lofi nature, that’s when you may actually join with it.

Utilizing the controls on the entrance, you may change the scale of the grains, however you’ll by no means get clean single cycle waveforms even on the smallest finish. As an alternative the sound is damaged and glitchy, like a corrupted MP3 you downloaded from Kazaa in 2002. You may management the pace and path the playhead travels by means of your pattern utilizing the shift pace knob. It’s virtually like very rudimentary time stretching. It doesn’t change the pitch of the pattern you are taking part in again, however it may drag it out in an unnatural and artifact-riddled manner.

Then there may be pattern charge, which modifications each the pitch and pace of a sound, just like an old style sampler. And crush – a completely unforgiving bit-crusher — that takes the already crusty character of the Microgranny to full meltdown even at decrease settings. When cranked, crush turns any pattern into what can solely be described as an Atari 2600 attempting to approximate the thunderous strategy of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse.

There are additionally knobs for controlling the beginning and finish factors of a pattern, in addition to the assault and launch. They’re staple items that you simply’ll want, however don’t impart a lot character. The opposite vital controls are all shift capabilities discovered beneath the massive buttons. Maintain down FN and press these to activate legato, set a pattern to repeat, sync grain playback to a MIDI clock sign and randomly shift the playback head.

Then there are two different choices – RNDMZR – which does what you’d anticipate: randomize all of the parameters for the final performed pattern. That is the quickest method to full aural chaos. And “tuned,” which has two totally different results. For one it locks the pattern charge choices to semitones, as an alternative of clean pitch shifting. And two, while you join a MIDI keyboard it’ll transpose the pattern for melodic playback. When that is inactive, a keyboard will play again particular person grains as an alternative. The latter sounds nice in idea, however I’ve truthfully had a tough time discovering a sensible use for it.

In use

Initially I used to be excited concerning the concept of the Microgranny as a go-everywhere, granular noise maker. Clearly everybody’s tastes and use circumstances are totally different, however I’ve discovered that it’s simply not ideally suited for me in that position. For one, the restrictions of the monophonic granular engine imply that it’s type of arduous to create one thing full and musical by merely snatching samples round me.

There’s no sequencer, so I can’t save a enjoyable found-sound drum sample for later use again in my house studio. I’ve to recollect what I performed and depend on my admittedly lackluster sense of rhythm. And the microphone simply isn’t significantly delicate. Even with the enter cranked the supply must be very loud. I turned my telephone up all the best way, positioned the speaker lower than half an inch away from the mic, and it was nonetheless fairly quiet. Your higher guess is utilizing the enter jack instantly related to a different audio supply, like a synth or exterior mic.

Whereas the granular engine is certainly enjoyable for getting glitchy stuttering sounds, I discover it’s greatest deployed carefully. Treating the Microgranny as a extra conventional (if exceptionally lofi) sampler, although, delivers extraordinarily satisfying outcomes. Since there’s no method to play a pattern chromatically in actual time on the machine itself, that does imply you’d must pattern particular person notes or chords to create one thing melodic with out the help of a MIDI keyboard. Or, you can take one pattern, copy and paste it throughout the six massive buttons and regulate the pattern charge of every to create a scale.

This isn’t to say that the Microgranny isn’t a enjoyable or melodic instrument. It’s simply that it feels extra helpful within the studio than out. I adore it for creating rhythmic loops that I can import into my DAW or processing samples to get a pleasant digital patina on them. And with a MIDI keyboard hooked up you will get that crispy pitched sound that makes the Casio SK sequence of keyboards so wanted (and insanely costly) even 28 years later.

It’s not the simplest factor to do, however you may even chop up samples on the Microgranny by copying and pasting the identical sound throughout a number of buttons and altering the start line. It may be a little bit fiddly because you’re coping with a very primary seven-segment LED show. However it may be carried out. This was truthfully among the most enjoyable I had jamming with the Microgranny by itself. Load up some disco or home tracks and you’ll simply flip them into some lofi Daft Punk-type beats. Max out that crush knob and properly, you’ve simply created the best soundtrack for a rave on the finish of the world.

Wrap-up

I feel I most likely gave up on the Microgranny too rapidly the primary time, since I used to be too centered on the cell and granular elements. Once I couldn’t create otherworldly clouds of atmospherics or sketch out a music with a number of tracks, I went straight again to my PO-33 with out digging any deeper. I failed to actually discover its potential as a extra studio-bound instrument.

At $246 it’s not costly, nevertheless it’s expensive and quirky sufficient that it’ll solely attraction to a selected area of interest that wishes essentially the most genuine lofi sampling they will get. Clearly you may change the pattern and bit charge of a file in your pc. However – and that is my opinion – the Microgranny simply imparts extra character. And it’s the type of character that’s arduous to get with out springing for a classic sampler that may not be in excellent working order. So, in case your most well-liked taste of lofi grit is extra low cost 80s digital than growing older tape deck, the Bastl Devices Microgranny Monolith is certainly value trying out.