SpaceCraft Granular Synth App Reviews

This app... it’s so 💥 very powerful!. I thought it’s like a simple sounding synth at first. But after watching some YouTube on it got curious and bought it.. wow it just sounds beautiful and versatile (and very simple to use which is usually not come together). You pick/record a sound and search through it or rather play through it for various sounds, most of which sound very interesting and organic. It’s a pre-release so the price is low and some features aren’t there. But it’s all coming soon. Really happy I got it!

It's a playground. The best granular tool I've used in my 20 years of sound design. A+

Stand Alone Won’t Play In Background. Still!! Deleted for the last time. There’s too many better granular apps!

Worth it.. I love granular synthesis, the way you can pick up tiny things in a sound that you’d never find otherwise. Having most of the others, I was hesitant to buy this one, but it’s probably my favorite granular synthesis implementation on iOS. The only improvements I’d suggest would be with the lfo... maybe he ability to choose what to route it to, as well as it going slower and having more waveforms. And a built in (pre-reverb) delay wouldn’t hurt, but is totally unnecessary. Worth your money for sure, if you’re in to more experimental sounds.

Incredible synth. Fun and intuitive synth. Highly recommend

Addictive. A fantastic app that is well suited for formal projects or for just hours of noodling. This should cost a lot more. Recommended!

Sounds great! Can't save or import anything on iOS 9 or 10.. I like this simpler-than-iDensity granular synth quite a lot. It is more immediately intuitive than Tardigrain without losing the wonderful unpredictability of granular synthesis in producing interesting, beautiful, arresting, terrifying sounds. The interface is one of the better distillations of granular parameters that I have seen so far on the App Store. Unfortunately, Spacecraft does not truly support Audioshare; it supports Apple's Files app, leaving users on iOS 9 and 10 with only iCloud for sound import/export. Nor does it store presets internally. Those have to go on iCloud as well. I don't use iCloud, and don't see much point in uploading my samples there to redownload them into a single app when Audioshare has everything already here on my iPad. So for now, Spacecraft is a demo on my iOS 9-running mini. A really nice demo--I hope to be able to make better use of it soon.

Love it, but. Could you please integrate some compatibility with AudioShare? I have had a bit of a headache getting my sounds in and out of this program and that would help a lot.

Was great until last update. Now theres no audio in the daws.

Granular Synth that is very musical. Granular synthesis can be complex, this app makes it very musical and a joy to use!

My favorite app to date. Incredibly flexible, intuitive, and musical app that offers great textural and timbral variety. If you make sample-based sound I’m guessing you’ll love this app!

The sound quality is beautifully odd. Very creative sound design possibilities. My ear seeks out odd delays such as the Korg sdd-3300 or old tape delays and various ring modulators and samples of car springs being tapped etc. This app keeps the sound very alive, to my ear— yet adds otherworldly hues.

Yay!. After one minute, I'll testify this thing sounds and feels great. I have lots of granular apps, along with many other things. This puts a big grin on my face right from the start, and even after typing for a minute or more I cannot stop smiling. Beautiful.

Unhappy. Just bought it for garageband absolute junk does not work in garageband if your buying for garageband go flush your money down a toilet you’ll be happier will be getting my money back

The Balance of Life. Thank you! Thank you for this incredible app of Pleasure and Pain. Soaring heights....to deep down lows. It’s one of my go to apps. If anyone is contemplating this purchase..stop wasting time....buy it and lose yourself .

Very promising. This app is very promising, and a welcome addition. It’s well-designed for live use, very playable. I look forward to the addition of state-saving, file management, and the ability to change the default colors.

Cool app. Love the sound and the look but weird glitch where I hadn’t opened the app in about a week and all of a sudden it started droning while my iPad was off and locked at 3 in the morning, gave me a bit of a spook

Special app here. Really top app to make atmospheric sounds

Lives up to the hype. First, the interface lives up to the name. The user friendly xy pads and visual feedback make you feel like you’re piloting a spacecraft into new sonic territories, of which there are many you will find. Loading audio files is a breeze and you can load pretty long ones. I haven’t reached the limit. This leaves you with many many sonic possibilities within just one file. Very musical sounds, cool arpeggiator type thing to add even more rhythm to the sound. Honestly it’s hard to describe, but in the end, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to use and sounds great. The interface is such that there’s nothing to do but dive in and go crazy. Good times. Get it.

Thanks for the awesome update for the new year. Absolutely fabulous synth! Happy New Year! Can’t wait to see what’s next!

A No-Brainer Buy. I cannot believe all you get for less than a fancy cup of coffee. Spacecraft is Unbelievable. So much fun. Easy to use and understand. And it sounds great!!! It is excellent for soundscapes. Using the app as an AU in an effect slot is not a problem; It works fine there. And I had no problem importing sounds from within the program using icloud or audioshare. (It seems like you can’t send a sound from within audioshare; you have to start from within Spacecraft. No big deal.) Great app. Watch a video on it. If you like what you hear, buy it. And then have hours of fun! It’s great!

Its pretty good, but.... There are lots of grain synthesis aps out now so this one has some competition. How does it stand up? Pretty well. Like most of the grain synthesis aps, the audio quality is quite good. It has the usual features but adds a kind of “playability” that is hard to describe but easy to recognize once you get your hands on it. The new version’s ability to use LARGE audio files (something like 20 minutes long) sets Spacecraft apart as very unique and can be quite useful. So on these points it competes pretty well. However, its integration into the Audio Units world is rather odd. You must use it as an EFFECT in AUM, for example, while it is clearly a source (an actual synthesizer capable of originating its own sounds). When used as an AU, only one of the two channels is available in any one slot. Being an AU, you should be able to launch more than one instance of Spacecraft. But sadly, that will not work. Doing so results in crashing both instances. The other major problem at this point in its history is that the ap will not save your work; it has no ability to save presets. However, the developer assures us that this feature is coming in a future release. If these things were fixed, my personal opinion of Spacecraft would go up to rate it at least at four stars because I could actually use it and really exploit its otherwise very good capabilities.

Wow.. Just wow. Perfect. Granular Samplr This will be a legendary app for iOS music. Well done.

Very cool but buggy. Awesome concept, great GUI, really cool results. But I can't load any files from Dropbox, I am only given access to iCloud for my own files. Bit of a let down there. Also, the app stopped working upon opening it a second time. : /

Gnarly. I love it. In future updates I’d like to see patch saving, BPM Lfo Rate sync as well as scanning from 0-100 no matter the sample length. Keep it up!!

Update iPhone 13 Pro. Issue has been fixed concerning the AudioShare not being available for access through SpaceCraft, thanks!

Fun with grains. A very fun and approachable instrument for sound designers and audio manglers of any skill level. Just discovered from a user on the AB Forum...thanks CracklePot for the insight...that SpaceCraft shows up as an AU Effect in AUM and ApeMatrix...so it really expands on what you can manipulate on iOS. Great job on this nice piece of granular joy👊🏼🤓🤪

Just amazing. Please build out the area where you can pick the grain a bit wider. I love this app. Brilliant.

Very slick granular synth!. Great work by a new developer. Cool and very intuitive user interface, and the sounds you can make with this are very interesting. I look forward to seeing some of the functionalities mature and will be watching this space carefully. Thanks for giving me hours of fun with this!

Nice for the price. Really nice app for dabbling into granulated sound. A couple of things I feel would be useful. Copy Osc/wave1 to Osc/wav2 and all settings or visa versa. link playback of both so when we play 1 the other mimics the same. Cross fade: when we reduce volume on one the other is increased.(this could also be done through linking) Could do with an amplitude envelope on each wave BUG: v1.0.1 There is a noticeable delay when touching wave and hearing sound and screen update.

Easy to get amazing sounds. I love granular synthesis and find this to be the best on iOS in terms of live performance. I can load a sample or two into this and “play” them for an hour. I also just find it to be one of the most musical of the granular synth apps I’ve tried.

Really fun, but.... I love using this to make and record impromptu sounds, but I can only seem to record 1 minute of audio using iPhone app before it cuts me off and makes me save it. Everywhere I read it claims to be able to record up to 20 minutes and I was excited about that. Do you need the iPad app to record the 20 minutes? I can’t seem to find any contact information or info online to find my answer.

My favorite app and I have a ton of music apps. Much thanks to the developer for such a unique and musical granular synth. I know there is a version 2 on the way and am looking forward to it. Is there any way we could see another new app based on granular synthesis in the future? Granular is my preferred method of creating and there are only a couple apps out there. But you are the master Mark and wonder what else you could create. Thanks and please consider

My Go-To Granular. After a rocky start years ago with the Wooji Juice abandonware granulars (great UIs, less great UX) I was spooked by ios granular synths for a while, thinking they’d all be hampered by limited real estate on an iPhone. Then came Spacecraft. It’s just fun to play with from the get-go. Plug in any old sound and take a bath in the shimmery glissandos, dance down dreamy arps… need a drone or ambience? No problem. Play it with a key controller and prepare for hyperspace rhapsodies! Few apps are totally perfect, and I think file import & management could probably be streamlined a bit; these are relatively minor though, especially using Audioshare in conjunction with the general workflow. But i use this app quite a lot for adding interest to tracks in the zone between a melodic element and a background fill kinda way. Also plays nice with downstream processing like gates and automated filter curves. 😘 Love it!

Audio Share support MISSING!. This is actually a cool granular synth app. Like most apps of this style, access to your audio files is critical for the complete enjoyment of this instrument. The controls are really nice. The addition of a sequencer really make this granular synth standout, making live performance that much easier. So why only 3 stars? True IAA support is MISSING. My audiobus 3 and Beatmaker 3 do not see it an instrument, and sorry but effect “only” IAA is not good enough. Not when you can make some amazing stuff now but can not use it in your AB3 and Beatmaker 3. But the biggest infraction: NO AUDIOSHARE SUPPORT! ((Where is it?)) This is a granular synth and the first thing you should be programing in is an option to go directly to your audioshare and grab your waves. This should be a rule for EVERY programmer when it comes to developing user sample/wave dependent synths like granulars: get your audioshare protocols handled FIRST. Get that done and out of the way before you even look at posting into the app store. Roll out the next update with direct to audioshare and I’ll change the rating to 4 stars. Audioshare and true IAA support so my Audiobus 3 and Beatmaker 3 can use this as an instrument gets you all 5 stars. Make this happen asap, please, you got a good app here.

Thanks for adding MPE!. It is so much more expressive and fun to play now that the app utilizes MPE. I am using the Sensel Morph MPE keyboard and it works very well with SpaceCraft.

Does not support Audio Share. The app does not support audio share. The description is very misleading. Will be requesting a refund.

No IAA input??. Great app but I really don’t understand how it’s possible that the IAA input is not implemented. The manual states “ AUv3 Instruments do not have the capability to receive audio input.”, which is not true, I can name many AUv3 apps that can do it, Tardigrain is one of them. Yes, you can do it is SC when it’s in effects slot but the whole integration with Audiobus is rather clunky, this could be a problem with Audiobus actually, but that is the very reason the app should not rely on other apps and have the IAA input implemented in a standard way. The Live Sampling mode is either not well explained, not intuitive or acts inconsistently. When you press record the crosshairs automatically are placed to the most right of the Performance Panel. You’d expect that at this point you’d hear the incoming audio with the effect of granularization happening instantly, but that is not the case. The reason is the horizontal axis of the crosshairs is set at the minimum level (meaning it is muted), as soon as you touch the crosshairs to adjust it they begin to move and you are no longer at the right most position in the Performance Panel. I figured out that you can first set the position of the crosshairs, THEN hit record, but then still the sound is not heard UNTIL the growing red rectangle range seen in the range selector reaches the play head/crosshairs (represented by the red line in the range selector). This is NOT intuitive, furthermore, the time it will take for that expanding red rectangle range to reach the red mark depends on the length of the previous audio sample already loaded. For whatever reason, sometimes the red mark ends up being outside of the range (the red rectangle range stops expanding just short of reaching the red playhead mark). Even when it finally produces sound, there’s latency. This is bad for an effect application, especially in a live performance setting as you’d expect instant result of the app. This combined with the fact that it’s difficult to set exact points within the windows (all windows are too small for setting precise crosshairs positions) makes it difficult to have a true control of this app. The use of the app as an effect is poorly documented in the included manual. The manual also does not provide much needed suggestions about how the app should be used as an effect in the most commonly used hosts such as AUM and Audiobus. I also have to say that generally speaking, the granular synthesis is actually only a small part of this app. I think it’s more of a delay / looper app rather than a true granular synth - nothing wrong with that, it’s all about making music after all and it does not matter what the actual process behind it is. All I’m saying is that this app is not using its potential, the range of adjustments in the x/y grains window is not broad enough (and once again, the small windows limit ability to create subtle variations to the sound). Having said all this, I do think it’s a very cool app, somewhat contrary to what I said above, I think the layout of the interface is very well thought out, with a good ratio of functionality vs complexity. Excellent “keyboard” idea, it fits surprisingly many notes into a small window. Tiny but mighty envelopes. Good save/import/export implementation. The LFO is very intuitive and additionally represented in the Performance Panel. Last but not least, this app sounds great! There are no clicks, pops. The app is pretty transparent in the sense that it does not impose its own sound signature on everything it creates (something that is a bit of a problem with other granular synthesizers). *****A killer feature would be an ability to feed the output of one synth to the other (meaning, feeding synth B to synth A and vice versa in real time) and either use as a starting point or use the sound to modulate one of the parameters . **** I will thoroughly test the app and revise this review, but for now 3 starts is all I can afford, especially that the app is no longer $3...

Buy it now. This is the best three bucks a synthesist can spend on the App Store. I've never been a fan of granular synthesis until now. This is truly a new musical instrument that encourages improvisation and takes iPad live performance to a new level. Yep - I love it!!

YUP!. Ppl spend $400-$500 for pedals that try to do what this does. HOF app.

Artistic, Musical, a Classic. Kudos to the developer, a work of art. A fantastic sound palette just mix your own colors..

Future. This app is the best. It's instantly approachable but allows for extremely deep creations. Unlike almost every other iOS app it is actually usable live on an iPhone, with all the controls on 1 screen and no tiny fiddly buttons. Feature want: the ability to enter rest notes into the sequencer, maybe via a quick double-tap. The ability to create pauses would be sublime.

Actively Making It Better!!. The developer is adding great features and I appreciate that. This app has tons of potential and is already really fun to use and sound quality is good. I hope the developer keeps the great updates coming!!! Thanks for your hard work!

Amazing. I’ve been doing sound design for years and this is one of the most impressive granulars. Sound quality and UI are solid. Buuuuut... would change the game with full Audiobus and DAW compatibility. Also think about recordable parameter automation. That would make it insane. Well done!!

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Just about there!. This is an exciting app. One of the easiest granular synths to work with. It just needs a bit of CC automation and maybe some kind of save on the session. Nice work Mark I look forward to the new updates!

Excellent. This is just so fun to mess about with and always produces nice results. Definitely worth the pennies.

❤️. favourite ipad synth

Invaluable app!. This is an incredible granular tool that has essentially led to me rethinking my whole creative process - simply amazing!

Stunning granular synth. A fantastic synth. You’d be hard pushed not to interesting textures and soundscapes from this app.

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Awesome!. Lots of fun to play with!

Crossed the line. This latest update crossed the app into stardom. A lot of developers do the minimum to sell an app and instead of making it better they create a new app so they can make more moolah. This guy did the right thing and wants his app to be the best it can be. Thanks a lot Mark. Great app. It is now part of my short list of greatness. Ok who cares about my short list? I do, so show some trust and assume I have good taste. If you do, you will have more fun because my main goal in life is to have fun and try to arrange for others to have fun too. I can’t do much more than be honest about what I think is great. Have fun.

Great potential. I like this app. Don’t stop developing it. It already sounds great!

A sound creation community favorite for 2018!. Created by a Rocket Scientist, cherished by iOS musicians.

Value and adventure. I have this and iDensity, use this one way more but both are great gran synths. Price is crazy good and interface is fun. Clear, brief instructions.

Génial!. 👍🏼🤗❤️

On the path to greatness!. The dev is cool, open to feedback and committed to getting all of the potential out of this already amazing app.

Quite impressed so far, nice work on this one.. I’ve been using MacPod on my Mac for many years for my granular needs and haven’t found any apps that I liked as much until I downloaded yours. I’ve had an easy time loading in my own sounds using Dropbox. Thanks for making it work on my iPhone and iPad for one price. Very good value at this price. I think that most people who are into granular synthesis are going to like this.

One of my favourite music making apps. In my top 5 music making apps I’ve got over the past 6-7 years! Instantly rewarding and so much fun throwing different samples in or recording them yourself. New update is great! Worth 3 times the price. Surely a contender for music app of the year..

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