SpaceCraft Granular Synth available now on desktop (Win/Mac VST2/VST3/AU)

[Watchful]

Sorry for the length, but there's a lot to be said for Spacecraft. I've broken this up into sections thinking that somehow this would be helpful for you.

Load time is about 5 seconds in my DAW (Waveform 10, but Spacecraft is DAWgnostic).

Processor went from 1% to 12% with default settings, so keep an eye on how many instances you load.

The Interface

Basically, you're looking at two waveforms loaded at once--one above the other. The upper and lower halves are about the same in appearance. Basically, it's two sounds layered together.

Each sample's waveform loads across the width of the pane, and you can drag back and forth in here to select how much or how little of the sample you want to play with.

In the upper left of either pane is the "grain control," which shows how fast the playback will cycle through the grains, and how long or short each grain is. Dragging in the window up or down changes these like an X-Y axis, and the effects are immediate and obvious.

The LFO is the next window, and looks like a wave undulating back and forth. That indicates the direction of playback and its speed; if you think of this like modulation depth and modulate rate, you have an idea of how this works. But this is misleading at first if you think of the LFO as being your tremolo or vibrato. It doesn't work that way at all, but it IS an LFO, and making the mental switch is quite easy. Again, drag around in here like an X-Y axis, and you can hear immediate results and you'll realize this is NOT your subtractive synth's LFO by any means. It's much more interesting.

There are two other square windows: one for the filter/reverb and one for the pitch/ring mod. Again, these are X-Y windows you drag around in; they do exactly what you think they do.

Actually, if that's all this synth did, it would be pretty impressive. But there are two other tricks at your disposal: the larger window to the right lets you drive around your waveform, playing grains in any order, and in any speed you like. And it's recordable: you can save your on-the-fly creations by recording on your DAW while you do it. It's like an Ensoniq FIZMO, except it works. And makes more sense.

The other trick it has is the lower left corner of each of the two panes: a sequencer! You can program it or not, making it run though note sequences or using it like an arpeggiator. The presets will give you a quick idea of how it works.

Some of these windows change in context, but you'll quickly get the hang of some of Spacecraft's other features, too.

Also, like any good granular synth, you can play with the envelope of each grain, adding a little more release time or truncating them for choppier effects. It's all there, and very easily laid out. In all, I think it's superb design that every feature you need is right there, cleanly laid out and symbolically represented.

Presets

At first, I was a bit disappointed to see there were so few presets: about 18 unique ones. And since you can load one into the upper window and one into the lower window, you might start to run out of options quickly. But the presets are only there to give you a couple ideas of how the interface works.

In fact, you want to stop using the presets as soon as possible. Because Spacecraft lets you load your own samples in--or record them right in on the fly--you will find your best expressive work and most creative combinations come from using your samples. I tried using speech, musical note samples from acoustic instruments, pads from hardware synths, and got spectacular results. It's weird how much fun you have with a simple bell "ding" when you're driving around the grains and hearing these inharmonic pads develop out of it.

So my wish list doesn't include more presets--but it does include a wish for an empty INIT preset. In other words, some starting point where you can start from scratch without a lot of swirling and tinkling noises happening. The presets have an INIT patch, but it's not empty: it's a very complicated sample that continues to play when you load it.

Sampling

Clicking on the INPUT button in either the upper or lower pane gives you a popup with two choices: "Record audio input" and "Load audio file." The first immediately takes in whatever input is active and, well, records it right into Spacecraft. Not very complicated, and you can get to work immediately.

Second wish list item: there should be a way to delete silence at the start of the recorded waveform without having to edit the file with some other utility. Maybe a radio check box, letting you optionally delete silence at the start of the audio clip? And, now that I say it, the end?

The second button lets you load in an audio file. Clicking it brings up your operating system's file utility, and you just click on any sample you have. This loads it into the pane you selected, and off you go. Click, drag, wiggle, and grind your mouse around and listen to the amazing universe hidden inside a microsecond of sample.

As a gag, I loaded up a sample taken off an Ensoniq FIZMO, and it's sublime. It's playing now, and I wish you could hear it. I turned off the other other pane by sliding an arrow down on the far right of the pane--that's the volume control for the other waveform (yes, you can mute the upper pane using an arrow to its right, too).

Hardware

No problems, here. Using a Yamaha Montage, there was no set up: the DAW forwards your note events right to Spacecraft. Pressing keys on the keyboard produces results in Spacecraft: play a chord, and Spacecraft plays a chord via the sample you have loaded. If pads are your thing, this is a great way to fatten the sounds and find all sorts of rich harmonics. Of course, that cool sample you loaded becomes even more wow-ful when you hear the different harmonics produced by different pitches.

MPE

Also no problems. I used a Roli Seaboard Rise, and instantly found that the sound responds in yet another way. The different controls on the Rise are pre-mapped to the filter, the grain control window, and so on, letting you have a lot of live fun.

Studio and Live Play

And, again, this is all recordable data. Those neat swoops, dives, and unfolding sounds can be saved forever.

In fact, the biggest challenge is going to be the number of takes you're going to try: since no two playing sessions will be the same without recording first, your second attempt might be better than the first. Or worse. Or the third... and so on.

I doubt this will be much comfort to live performers. This probably isn't going to be an instrument you want to solo with unless you're brave or confident. What sounded great ten seconds ago could be totally different just based on how you moved a single muscle (especially if your grains are big enough). So think through whether you want to risk playing Spacecraft on stage before a quizzical audience. You might hit it out of the park. Or you might get hit.

What's Next?

Three thoughts in closing here: first, other than a blank INIT sound and an option to delete silence at the start or end of a sample, I'm not sure there's a need for a 2.0. Where do you go? This is a pretty complete package, with a great interface, that's super-easy to learn.

Although you WILL WANT THE MANUAL. Trying to figure this out with it is bizarre, and the manual makes it easier by spades. The online help "?" is useful only AFTER you've browsed the short manual (available at tracktion.com).

Second, I'm really eager to see what Mark Watt at Delta V Audio is going to cook up next. Spacecraft is great. Really great. I haven't spent too much time with granular synths, but have messed around with hardware-based near-enoughs like the Wavestation, the Ensoniq VFX (not very granular, I admit) and the aforementioned FIZMO. If Spacecraft is indicative of Delta V Audio's future, I'm in line to see what's coming up.

Finally, Spacecraft is sold via Tracktion but isn't a Tracktion product per se; it's available through Tracktion via the "Tracktion Presents" initiative, to give small but creative indie programmers a shot at the big leagues. I have to hope that this is a sign of things to come, and that Tracktion will be offering other unique and slick, low-cost tools for us.

Should You Get It?

Tough call. If you're a composer, sound designer, or just like to mess with sound, this is probably a safe yes. If you're a live performer, gigger, or aren't into writing and arranging, I honestly don't know what you'd use this for.

Here's the easy thing: watch a couple of the videos on Spacecraft, and go to Tracktion and download the manual. If you're interested in granular synthesis, by the way, go get the manual and save it as a free reference for yourself: it's a perfect encapsulation of some very difficult topics in easy-to-digest format, and perfect if you have students.

If after the watching the videos and poking around the back of the menu haven't made you shrug, then download the free demo. I predict you'll know within 15 minutes whether you need it, want it, like it, or can go without it.

I have no idea what I'm going to use Spacecraft for. And that's the best part for me. It's going to be an interesting discovery process.

[starflakeprj]

You shouldn't appologize for writing, possibly, the best text review I have ever read on this forum.

[martinjuenke]

Yes, a very good review of a very good product.

[Whywhy]

Yes, a very good review of a very good product.

+1

[raiderpdog]

Have to echo the others here------Thank you Watchful, for that excellent and well written review for us.

Especially for a fairly new soft synth/vst/daw/etc guy like me, to be able to read stuff like this is really helpful. Thanks again!

[deltavaudio]

Sorry for the length, but there's a lot to be said for Spacecraft. I've broken this up into sections thinking that somehow this would be helpful for you.

Wow this is a great review/tutorial man, this really made my day!

Good idea regarding a more basic init preset. That would essentially be the existing init preset but with the LFO set all the way to the left (in the meantime you could manually do this on the existing init preset). There is no way to simplify it further than that really. I’ll include just this in the next update , why not?

Also, nice suggestion about automatically removing the silence at the start and end of audio. I guess I haven’t come across this issue as my audio tends not to have these silent regions. However, I would need to be really careful with such a feature as it could potentially mess up playhead positions when reloading the sample in a preset. I’ll have a think to see if there’s a safe/feasible way to do this.

I know what you mean about the live performance aspect being a bit unpredictable sometimes. I find that this is predominantly when you have the grain control set in the bottom right (lower frequency longer duration grains). This can get quite crazy as the grains can play simultaneously through huge regions of the sample which can lead to some surprising results, especially if there is a lot of variation through the sample in pitch etc. However, if you stick to the other regions of the grain panel (for example, top right), the results can tend to be more repeatable/deterministic. There are some examples of this in the patch demo video where I performed some examples using midi controllers, essentially playing it as a synth (some of the samples in Factory Audio C are notes played on my Moog Grandmother!).

https://youtu.be/cntm2YA6rMs

Thanks again for the review man!

PS. Not sure if it’s widely known but an alternative way to get samples in is also just to drag and drop them straight into the GUI (without having to use the ‘input’ button).

[fortycoats]

Great review Watchful. Spacecraft isn’t exactly easy to explain in text format but you managed it!

The built in samples are well chosen but will echo what others have said about using your own sounds inside this!

[enCiphered]

What is the current price for Spacecraft? I think I might have missed the intro price but I´m not sure?

[deltavaudio]

What is the current price for Spacecraft? I think I might have missed the intro price but I´m not sure?

Tracktion have a site wide discount until 3rd sept. Use code SUMMER2019 for 50% off.

[enCiphered]

What is the current price for Spacecraft? I think I might have missed the intro price but I´m not sure?

Tracktion have a site wide discount until 3rd sept. Use code SUMMER2019 for 50% off.

Thanks mate

[RPH]

iOS version:
- It would be nice if we could record perfect loops: E.g.,4/8/16/32 beat length. I make a lot of loops to process on my desktop.
- The app doesn't remember the last MIC recording, so when I close the app and reopen. The last saved sample is back. I always have to remember to save everything, else it's gone.
- Easy export of recorded samples, I now have to save a preset first. Then export the sample.
- Add BPM to the recorded filename please.

VSTi version:
- When I save a project (Renoise DAW), and reopen the project (and Spacecraft window hasn't been opened yet) I get a different sound then what I set when pressing play. After opening the Spacecraft window it's back what it's supposed to be.

[Biome_Digital]

The gui looks very cool!

[deltavaudio]

VSTi version:
- When I save a project (Renoise DAW), and reopen the project (and Spacecraft window hasn't been opened yet) I get a different sound then what I set when pressing play. After opening the Spacecraft window it's back what it's supposed to be.

Ah yes, this bug has been fixed and is currently in the beta version v1.0.38 which you can find on the Tracktion website under downloads-->betas

In fact, this fix is the only thing that is in that beta version.

[enCiphered]

Nice little instrument, I like what it does with my samples.

There is no undo / redo button which imho is very important for this kind of plugins.
I find the two input slots to be very limiting as there is no way to layer sounds. I would like to kindly request the option to add a custom nr. of sound input slots.
Everytime I want to change the scale I have to click on prefs and a new window pops up. The same with all the other adjustments. This is not very convenient. It would be cool if we could activate / deactivate a side panel with all the preferences.
And I miss the option to freeze the sound or the sequence if I want to.

[Caine123]

really love the simple layout but i cannot really justify the 99 bucks price tag? i know it is on sale but there are no sync options for example? i love to sync lfos in granular mode a lot. i dont see much it offers than others? no downtalking just trying to see the point of this product on the granular market?



minus the reverb it is so basic, no ADSR, no sync options, just 3 lfos? make me want to have it ! i love granular stuff and am always checking out for new products but this one doesnt seem to be really anything special/new? and too basic? if so why is it so expensive? again no offense guys and at the great dev who is VERY RESPONSIVE! maybe there is a nice video which shows some cool examples?