Tasty Chips Electronics Intros GR-1 Hardware Polyphonic Granular Synthesizer

Tasty Chips Electronics has introduced the GR-1 Hardware Polyphonic Granular Synthesizer.

The company says that the GR-1 ‘is great for drones, sound design, film scoring, beat making and composing.’

Features:

  • Hardware, polyphonic synthesizer with high quality (32 bit, 44.1kHz) audio
  • Internal and external memory (USB) offers huge storage capacity.
  • Intuitive interface.
  • The GR-1 can be controlled via MIDI (USB/DIN) or be used standalone.
  • Update firmware, load samples or save (and load) patches/performances to your USB disk or internal memory.
  • CV and gate options to connect easily with your (eurorack) modular setup.
  • 4 banks of 8 overwritable preset buttons, within a performance. This means you can save 32 presets, each with different samples, in a single performance. You can save as many performances as your USB disk can store.

Audio Demos:

Pricing and Availability

Tasty Chips Electronics has not released full details on the GR-1 yet, but says that they are planning a Kickstarter project to fund production, and that it will be priced around US $945.  See their site for more info.

33 thoughts on “Tasty Chips Electronics Intros GR-1 Hardware Polyphonic Granular Synthesizer

    1. 945 bucks, too much IMHO, it’s purely digital and can easily reproduced via a VST+laptop, both of which I can get for that price.

  1. Lovely machine and I’d happily have one in my studio.

    The problem is that an iPad can do the same, only with a touch screen interface.
    And it’s upgradeable, probably has a lot more CPU power, and the software will cost $10.

    This is a tough world to compete in!

    1. I’ll gladly pay to have a hardware version as described with a ‘real’ interface, even if there was an iPad version of the exact same thing.
      Following the iPad logic we might as well kill ourselves as family and friends could just have virtual versions of us on their iPad…

      1. I think this was referring to how the software is updatable, and newer, more powerful versions of the iPad itself are released annually; which allows the software to run more comfortably within higher CPU limitations.

        1. the iPad with software can be controlled with an external piece of gear… with knobs and sliders and any other controller you wish to assign to it

  2. I’d like to see something like this but with a robust analog filter. I think at that point, you’d be hard pressed to argue iPad vs Standalone device. They already make a hybrid synth workstation, both analog and digital, so my hopes are this will follow that same path.

  3. OMG! This looks amazing ! Like a hard ware version of granulator ….
    I’m 1000% interested.
    Yes an iPad can do this with a $10 app but there are still those of us who are willing to pay for hardware.

    That screen looks nice. It would be cool if it was a touchscreen but for a granular workflow a knob actually is prob better.

    Also. I agree with above poster. ….. put an analog filter or maybe a drive circuit to really give an edge over software

    I really hope this happens.

  4. Yeah! I use an iPad paired with Analog Heat for a very powerful compact set up but this thing still looks and sounds awesome! It wasn’t average sounding or lacking in charm and detail in my headphones. I hope it comes out and runs well and sells well. It’s fun to see something this different in a hardware unit and I’m wondering if it has a sequencer too ..

  5. Doesnt make much sense without audio input for realtime sampling. Afterall, we all have a computer (granular synths are common?) and a midi controller

  6. About time we see some new innovation in HARDWARE that isn’t eurorack. I couldn’t give a toss what an iPad can and can’t do. iPads are software are temporary.

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