Bastl Instruments MICROGRANNY MONOLITH

Description

Granny’s back with a brand new lid: our classic desktop granular sampler gets a facelift, bringing her into the modern age with enough usability upgrades to last another lifetime, rehomed in sleek black PCB-material to help it look the part amongst the latest in the Bastl range.

The Microgranny 2.0 that you know and love is still there under the facelift: lo-fi sound full of character packed into a hands-on monophonic desktop sampler that is a joy to experiment with. Plug in your microSD card loaded with 8-bit samples, or record them live through the in-built mic or line input, and jump into play with 6 samples right under your fingers, or instantly recall up to 60 saved presets.

Playability is paramount

The two-tier menu lets you dart between editing grain size or warping the playback speed, and the new-look tactile knobs grant better control than the previous model. The hazy plastic case is gone, and the PCB case’s sharper text makes the modes under the new and improved buttons more enticing – delve into Randomized mode, Legato playback, or the Instant Loop function to extend the virtually limitless possibilities of the surface controls yet further.

MIDI Control? Yep: play specific grains with keys, control the CC values remotely, even clock-sync loops and grains. Take your Granny for a walk in the park with the battery power, or run it through a wired 9V supply.

Granny comes with gifts

To celebrate the revival of one of our most loved instruments, we pestered Rephlex Records regular and modern-day Synthfluencer Bogdan Raczynski for a custom sample pack full of his trademark weird and wonderful sounds. Granny Reloaded comes with it pre-installed, giving you a fun and formidable toolset from the moment you power up.

Additional samples by: David Herzig, Oliver Torr feat. Margaret Unknown, Patrik F. Veltruský.

Features

• monophonic mono sampler
• microSD card (storing + recording samples, storing presets)
• 6 sounds with full adjustments storable in a preset at once
• 60 presets in 10 banks (6 preset per bank), stored as .txt files on the microSD card
• wav sample playback from microSD card (mono, 22050 Hz, 8 or 16 bit, two letter file name)
• 8-bit 22050Hz wav recording via line input or onboard microphone
• hold button
• sample rate (tuned or free run)
• crush
• start, end position with repeat, instant loop
• granular settings: grain size and shift speed (positive or negative)
• amplitude envelope attack and release
• MIDI Input – responds to note, cc, and clock (synchronize loop and grains)
• MIDI sidechain envelope restart
• copy, paste
• input & output volume knob
• power switch – plug/battery
• hackable – arduino based

Technical details

• dimensions: 141 x 76 x 45 mm
• powered by 9V battery, 9V DC center positive power supply
• user manual pdf
• 日本 (nihon) manual pdf

Downloads

• MG Monolith sample bank (by Bogdan Raczynski et al.) drive
• press kit (hi-res pictures, videos, texts etc.) drive
• old sample banks V2.0, V2.3, V2.5 drive
• MIDI implementation chart
• Microgranny is based on WaveRP library – its modified version on gitHub + HW library for Arduino (all in one folder)
• source code gitHub repository

DIY kit

You can still build your own Microgranny with our Laguna DIY kit (blue acrylic case). Go through the complete assembly guide below and make sure that you understand all the steps.

• BUY DIY KIT
• complete assembly guide pdf v2.1b pdf v2.1
• schematics top board pdf bottom board pdf – it needs a bit of cosmetics though
• board pdf

Credits

• made by Bastl Instruments
• design – graphic layout – Anymade Studio
• code uses hacked version of WaveRP and SDFat library for Arduino
• PCB design partly derived from Adafruit Wave Shield
• MG Monolith sample bank artists:
  Bogdan Raczynski
  David Herzig
  Oliver Torr feat. Margaret Unknown
  Patrik F. Veltruský

Audio

Video