FRCTL Audio sells GRN as a real-time granular effect and GRNi as a separate sample-based instrument built from the same grain engine. The shared engine makes them look closer than they feel once a session is moving.
GRN begins with audio that already exists on a track. Put it after a vocal, drum loop, pad, guitar, or resampled bus. It granulates the signal passing through, with Freeze available when you want to hold a captured moment instead of following the input.
GRNi reverses the job. You load a sample, choose the section you want, then play the result over MIDI as an instrument. FRCTL Audio’s GRNi granular sampler fits better when the source itself needs to become a playable patch rather than remain a track being processed.
A singer can deliver a new phrase, a synth can change chords, or a drum bus can drop to half-time, and GRN still works on whatever arrives. Freeze changes the behavior by locking material in the buffer, but the basic relationship stays intact because GRN lives as an effect in the signal chain.
GRNi expects a more deliberate source choice. It accepts a file, lets you select a region, and can hold two sample layers with independent selections, level, pan, and tuning. Its Blend control then chooses the source of each new grain.
The distinction becomes useful when you want one recording to behave like an instrument rather than a stream of audio. A field recording, vocal syllable, percussion hit, or short texture can sit under your fingers. Each sounding note gets its own grain stream instead of simply asking an insert effect to reinterpret the same passing signal.
GRNi also keeps the loaded sample, selection, layer levels, and blend position in place while you browse presets. For sound design, that changes auditioning practically because you can cycle through engine settings against the same source instead of losing the material you chose.
The source architecture still separates them. GRN continues to process audio already on its track. MIDI Pitch Mode changes how those grains are pitched while the incoming or frozen buffer remains the material being transformed.
On macOS, FRCTL even provides a separate GRN MIDI Audio Unit entry for hosts that need note input, while the ordinary GRN Audio Unit remains the everyday effect. It is a small implementation detail, but it exposes the real workflow split more clearly than the feature lists do.
GRNi was built around note input from the beginning. Poly mode reaches 16 voices, and each sounding note can read its own window from the selected sample. MPE can bend individual notes while pressure controls level and slide moves each note’s read position through the source.
Those behaviors make GRNi stronger when the performance itself should decide where and how the sample speaks. GRN remains stronger when the track is the source and MIDI is an extra way to steer the processing rather than the reason the plugin exists.
Choose GRNi when you already have a sample worth turning into a keyboard part. Its two layers, per-note grain streams, selection-based playback, portamento, on-screen keyboard, and MPE handling all point toward building a performance from stored source material. The source is not merely audio already moving through the session.
Owning GRN does not automatically make GRNi redundant, and GRNi does not replace the reason to keep GRN on an effects chain. FRCTL sells them with separate serials and also offers them together. The arrangement fits the actual division of labor better than treating GRNi as a larger update to GRN.
A producer can reasonably use both in the same session without duplicating the job. GRNi can turn a recorded scrape into a playable chordal texture, while GRN can sit later on that rendered part or another bus and granulate what the arrangement is doing in real time.
GRN begins with audio that already exists on a track. Put it after a vocal, drum loop, pad, guitar, or resampled bus. It granulates the signal passing through, with Freeze available when you want to hold a captured moment instead of following the input.
GRNi reverses the job. You load a sample, choose the section you want, then play the result over MIDI as an instrument. FRCTL Audio’s GRNi granular sampler fits better when the source itself needs to become a playable patch rather than remain a track being processed.
GRN starts with track audio, while GRNi starts with a sample
The difference matters most before you touch grain size, density, pitch, or any modulation control. With GRN, a changing input keeps feeding the granular engine. Edits made upstream can alter what the effect receives without rebuilding the patch.A singer can deliver a new phrase, a synth can change chords, or a drum bus can drop to half-time, and GRN still works on whatever arrives. Freeze changes the behavior by locking material in the buffer, but the basic relationship stays intact because GRN lives as an effect in the signal chain.
GRNi expects a more deliberate source choice. It accepts a file, lets you select a region, and can hold two sample layers with independent selections, level, pan, and tuning. Its Blend control then chooses the source of each new grain.
The distinction becomes useful when you want one recording to behave like an instrument rather than a stream of audio. A field recording, vocal syllable, percussion hit, or short texture can sit under your fingers. Each sounding note gets its own grain stream instead of simply asking an insert effect to reinterpret the same passing signal.
GRNi also keeps the loaded sample, selection, layer levels, and blend position in place while you browse presets. For sound design, that changes auditioning practically because you can cycle through engine settings against the same source instead of losing the material you chose.
MIDI makes GRN playable without turning it into GRNi
GRN 3.2.0 complicates the comparison because its MIDI Pitch Mode lets you hold notes and retune grains polyphonically. It adds a per-note envelope, velocity response, and a root setting. The old shortcut of calling GRN “the effect” and GRNi “the playable one” is no longer precise enough.The source architecture still separates them. GRN continues to process audio already on its track. MIDI Pitch Mode changes how those grains are pitched while the incoming or frozen buffer remains the material being transformed.
On macOS, FRCTL even provides a separate GRN MIDI Audio Unit entry for hosts that need note input, while the ordinary GRN Audio Unit remains the everyday effect. It is a small implementation detail, but it exposes the real workflow split more clearly than the feature lists do.
GRNi was built around note input from the beginning. Poly mode reaches 16 voices, and each sounding note can read its own window from the selected sample. MPE can bend individual notes while pressure controls level and slide moves each note’s read position through the source.
Those behaviors make GRNi stronger when the performance itself should decide where and how the sample speaks. GRN remains stronger when the track is the source and MIDI is an extra way to steer the processing rather than the reason the plugin exists.
The better choice appears before the grain controls
Choose GRN when you want live granular processing shaped around an existing track. It suits buses, recorded parts, evolving synth lines, vocals, or any signal where the interesting part is hearing the material change as it passes through the effect.Choose GRNi when you already have a sample worth turning into a keyboard part. Its two layers, per-note grain streams, selection-based playback, portamento, on-screen keyboard, and MPE handling all point toward building a performance from stored source material. The source is not merely audio already moving through the session.
Owning GRN does not automatically make GRNi redundant, and GRNi does not replace the reason to keep GRN on an effects chain. FRCTL sells them with separate serials and also offers them together. The arrangement fits the actual division of labor better than treating GRNi as a larger update to GRN.
A producer can reasonably use both in the same session without duplicating the job. GRNi can turn a recorded scrape into a playable chordal texture, while GRN can sit later on that rendered part or another bus and granulate what the arrangement is doing in real time.
