Welcome to GranSample

The home screen is a single 4×4 grid — 16 pads — plus the surfaces that surround it. From top to bottom you get the recorder bar, the pad grid, the step sequencer, and a per-pad toolbar, with a navigation bar across the top.

The top bar holds the buttons that take you between the app's main areas:

• The project name sits in the center. Tap it to open the Library, where the factory Kits and your saved Projects live.
• On the left, the Mixer button (sliders icon) opens the Mixer, and the Master FX button (stacked-squares icon) opens the master effects chain.
• On the right, the gear button opens Settings.

Each pad plays one sample. Tap a pad to select it; how you tap sets the velocity. The grid is also where Chromatic Mode turns the pads into a playable keyboard. See The Pad Grid for the full rundown.

In the free tier, pads 1–8 are unlocked with the complete granular engine, effects, sequencer, mixer, and MIDI. Pads 9–16 show a lock icon and require GranSample Pro.

The recorder bar carries transport, tempo (BPM), and the metronome. The step sequencer is always visible below the grid and edits the selected pad's pattern. The per-pad toolbar at the bottom holds the CHROM and GRAN toggles plus Edit, FX, Load, and Rec actions for the selected pad.

On iPhone the four zones stack vertically in one column. On iPad you get more room: in portrait, the pad grid sits on the left with a Pad Properties panel on the right. In landscape, the recorder bar, properties panel, and pad toolbar move into a dedicated right column beside a larger pad grid, so nothing has to stack.

You have two quick paths to a pad that makes noise:

1. Load a Kit. Tap the project name to open the Library and pick one of the factory Kits — every pad arrives wired with a sample and granular settings. See First Launch & Factory Kits.
2. Record onto a pad. Select an empty pad, tap Rec in the bottom toolbar, and capture up to 60 seconds from the mic with a live waveform. See Recording from the Mic.

Either way, tap a pad to hear it. To turn a pattern into a loop, paint steps in the step sequencer and hit play.

Right after you pick a starter Kit, GranSample walks you around the main screen in 13 short stops. The tour shows you what each part is and where it sits. Here are the same stops in the same order, each with the chapter that explains how it works and why.

To take the tour again, open Settings → Help → Replay App Tour.

• New to granular synthesis? Start with What is granular synthesis?
• Bring in your own audio with Importing Audio or trim it in the Sample Editor.
• Slice a loop across the pads with Chopping a Sample (Pro).
• Add movement with the Modulation Matrix (Pro) and its LFO.
• Running it in a DAW? See GranSample as an AUv3 Plugin.