Features

Granular Engine

Angels continuously records incoming audio into a buffer (8, 16, or 32 seconds). The granular engine reads fragments (grains) from this buffer and plays them back.

Core Controls

TIME: Where in the buffer to read grains from. All the way left is NOW (the most recent audio), all the way right is PAST (the oldest audio in the buffer).
SIZE: How long each grain lasts (approximately 30ms to 4 seconds). Below 50%, grains play in reverse.
DENSITY: How many grains overlap. A dead zone from 45-55% produces silence. Below 45%, grains trigger at a constant rate. Above 55%, grain timing has random jitter.
TEXTURE: The shape of each grain's amplitude envelope. The knob blends through five shapes:
- Rectangular (hard attack and release)
- Snappy AD (fast attack, exponential decay)
- Triangle (symmetric fade in/out)
- Smooth Bell (Hann window - slow attack and release)
- Reversed (slow attack, fast release)
TRANSPOSE: Pitch shift from -24 to +24 semitones. Grains are pitch-shifted without time-stretching.

Freeze

The FREEZE button stops recording new audio into the buffer. The current buffer contents are locked, and you can explore that frozen moment by moving the TIME knob.

The small knob next to FREEZE adds random freeze toggling when used with the Deja Vu system.

Mix & Blend

BLEND: Crossfade between dry input (left) and granular output (right).
PREVERB: Reverb applied to the audio before it enters the granular engine.
POSTVERB: Reverb applied after the granular engine.
FEEDBACK: Routes the granular output back into the input. High values can self-oscillate.
STEREO: Randomizes the pan position of each grain. At 100%, grains are randomly panned anywhere between hard left and hard right. At 0%, all grains are panned center.

Scale Quantization

Angels can quantize grain pitches to musical scales.

Scale Selection

Choose from 72 scales across 16 categories:

Western Modes: Major, Minor, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Locrian, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor
Pentatonic & Blues: Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic, Blues, Blues Major
Jazz & Bebop: Bebop Dominant, Bebop Major, Bebop Minor, Altered, Lydian Dominant
Symmetrical: Chromatic, Whole Tone, Octatonic (H-W), Octatonic (W-H), Augmented, Tritone
Hungarian & Balkan: Hungarian Minor, Hungarian Major, Hungarian Gypsy, Romanian Minor
Spanish/Flamenco: Double Harmonic, Por Arriba, Por Medio
Middle Eastern: Hijaz, Hijaz Kar, Arabic, Saba, Persian
Jewish: Mi Sheberach, Adonai Malakh
Indian Ragas: Marwa, Poorvi, Todi, Desh, Darbari
Japanese: In, Hirajoshi, Iwato, Kumoi, Akebono
Chinese: Shang, Jue, Zhi
Ethiopian: Tezeta Major, Tezeta Minor, Anchihoye, Bati Major
African: Saharan, Pygmy
Indonesian & Thai: Pelog Bem, Pelog Barang, Slendro, Thai Pentatonic, Thai Heptatonic
Celtic/Scottish: Scottish Pentatonic, Celtic Minor, Mixolydian b6
Exotic: Neapolitan Major, Neapolitan Minor, Oriental, Algerian, Enigmatic, Leading Whole Tone, Prometheus

The BLOOM knob controls how strictly pitches are quantized. At 0%, only the root note passes through. As you increase bloom, more scale degrees are allowed. At 100%, all notes in the scale are available.

Sparkle

The SPARKLE knob adds random upward pitch shifts (+7, +12, +19, +24, +31, or +36 semitones) to grains, which are then re-quantized to the active scale.

Deja Vu Randomization

Inspired by Mutable Instruments Marbles, the Deja Vu system creates controlled randomness that can repeat, evolve, or stay locked.

The Deja Vu Knob

Left (Random): Fresh random values every trigger
Center (Locked): Random values freeze in place
Right (Shuffled): Random values are accessed from a stored buffer in randomized order

Global Settings

SPREAD: Width of the random distribution. Low spread clusters values near the center; high spread allows the full range.
BIAS: Center point of the distribution. Bias left for lower values, right for higher values.
SMOOTH: Interpolation between random values. At 0%, values step discretely. At 100%, values glide smoothly.
POLARITY: Whether random values go positive only (+), negative only (−), or both ways (±).
STEPS: Length of the Deja Vu loop (1-16 steps).
CLOCK: How fast the random values update. Can be free-running or synced to note divisions.

Per-Parameter Randomization

Each core parameter has a small randomization knob:

TIME, SIZE, DENSITY, TEXTURE, PITCH, FREEZE

Turn these up to add random modulation to that parameter. The amount and character of randomization is shaped by the global Deja Vu settings.

Loop Toggles

Each parameter has a loop toggle button. When enabled, that parameter uses the Deja Vu loop. When disabled, it gets fresh random values every trigger regardless of the Deja Vu position.

Tape Machine

Angels includes a tape processor. The tape processing is split 50/50 before and after the granular engine.

Tape Controls

IN / OUT: Input and output gain (-12 to +12 dB).
DRIVE: Tape saturation amount. Includes head bump at 80Hz and high-frequency rolloff.
WOBBLE: Slow pitch modulation (0.5-2 Hz).
FLUTTER: Fast pitch modulation (5-15 Hz).
NOISE: Tape hiss level. Applied only to the output (post-granular).

Character Modes

The CHARACTER selector sets baseline wobble/flutter values:

Clean Digital: 0% wobble, 0% flutter baseline.
Vintage Tape: 15% wobble, 8% flutter baseline.
Lo-Fi Crunch: 35% wobble, 25% flutter baseline.

The WOBBLE and FLUTTER knobs add to these baselines.

Tempo Sync

Three parameters can sync to your DAW's tempo:

SYNC POSITION: Locks TIME movement to note divisions
SIZE SYNC: Locks grain size to note divisions
DENSITY SYNC: Locks grain trigger rate to note divisions

Options: Free, 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, plus triplet variants (1/2T, 1/4T, etc.)

MIDI Triggers

Angels can respond to MIDI notes for grain triggering.

Trigger Modes

Off: MIDI ignored, grains trigger continuously
Triggered: Each MIDI note fires a burst of grains.
Gated: Grains only generate while a MIDI note is held. Note off stops generation.