Klavis Grainity Granular VCF User Manual (PDF)
As a eurorack musician, the Klavis Grainity offers unique tools to sculpt intensely modulated, analog-filtered sounds. With its dual-section (granular and multimode VCF) architecture, myriad CV inputs, and granular structure concepts, it’s a goldmine for percussive distortion, seething basslines, and eerie atmospheres. Here’s how to get the most out of it for these applications:
Core Strategy:
Leverage the Grainity’s cycling detection with chaotic sources and unusual structure/division settings to impose broken, glitchy, or razor-sharp flavor on drums and noise.
Result: The granular filter cycles step on each hit or at a rhythmic subdivision, "slicing" the effect differently for every hit.
Structures & Division:
Div pot fully clockwise or CV modulated). Try random structures (r bank) for unpredictable filter movement across drum transients.
Phase/Track Modulation:
CV the Φ/Frq pot with an LFO, envelope, or stepped random to add phase-shifting and flanging on the attack.
Multimode Blend:
Use the Mix output and voltage control it, automating the blend between G.VCF and M.VCF for rapid timbral changes per hit.
Resonance Abuse:
Percussion is fragmented, reshaped into lo-fi digital grit, or undergoes stuttering filter jumps reminiscent of old breakcore/digital glitches, but with a wholly analog snap.
Core Strategy:
Use the granular engine’s frequency tracking, structure cycling, and external CV to create the hyper-complex, modulated basses common in modern bass music.
Route a harmonically rich, detuned saw/sub heavy oscillator or two (e.g., through a wavefolder) into the main input.
Power Move: Sync Tracking to Pitch
Patch your melody-line V/Oct to both the VCO(s) and the Grainity V/Oct input. This ensures filter movement tracks every note change, making modulation tightly musical.
Activate Track Mode:
Sweep the Track knob with an envelope for each bass note for quick, talking filter movement.
Structure & Division:
Automate Division with random/modulated CV for “wobble” or syncopated filter changes in time to your bass rhythm.
FM Input:
Patch an LFO, envelope, or audio-rate oscillator into the FM input, and tweak the FM knob for classic dubstep growl—or go negative for reverse-mod dynamics.
Q Modulation:
Patch a sharp envelope to Q for punchy, roaring resonance on each note.
Phase Inversion:
Create gnarled, metallic, or vowel-like basses that move dynamically with your performance, with formant and subharmonic content impossible with conventional VCFs.
Core Strategy:
Exploit slow, evolving granulation cycles, random structures, gentle phase sweeps, and subtle blend of analog filter paths for ethereal movement.
Use a soft, sustained pad (layered VCOs, chords, or audio snippets).
Granular Structures:
r) for evolving, shifting spectral content.Use high Division settings (e.g., b, c, d) to slow down the progression, washing the filtering over long stretches.
Detect Input Options:
Experiment with LFOs, noise, or external random clocks in the Detect input, causing slow, unpredictable filter shifts independent of the original pad’s timing.
Phase Modulation:
Modulate with a slewed random or sample-and-hold for organic, tape-warbly movement.
Q and FM:
Subtly modulate FM with a slow, gently-moving CV source for extra shimmer.
Stereo Potential:
Pads billow and morph, with ghostly formants and moving harmonics, perfect for ambient, cinematic, or horror soundscapes.
Explore, experiment, and abuse the CV-modulatable parameters on the Klavis Grainity—especially Structure, Division, FM, Q, and Phase/Track modes—using classic eurorack tools (LFOs, S&H, random voltages, gates, switches) for totally novel, musical results.