The GR-2 is a granular synth, transformative sampler, and a portable sound design tool. It's ideally suited to stand-alone use. It can drone, you can use the touchscreen to play it like a live instrument. Attach MIDI gear or computer to use it like a traditional synth.

Samples

Samples want to be heard, but also seen, touched, and transformed. That's what the GR-2 delivers. Triggers, and manipulation are immediate. There's no setup, and there's visual feedback for everything. 

Easy to use

The 7" touch screen, and high contrast GUI make life easy. There are spatially associated encoders along the the edges of the display. The most important settings are always visible, and they're big. 

The most important settings are available from Quick Access (QA) menu buttons at the top. Using a touch gesture you can make them full screen. Deeper menus are accessible via the menu button. And rest assured, you're never more than 1 level deep + all GUI widgets are big and high contrast.    

Power

The GR-2 is compact, no more than 25x19x7 cm, but it's powerful. While the touchscreen plays a large role, the knobs and fader are essential to the tactile, immediate, and precise nature of this synth. 

Transformation is key. Load or record a sample, then mangle it through one of the many engines and effects. Long field recordings, transients, tonal material, the GR-2 eats them all. Make them unrecognizable, emphasize their inherent character, or add your own accents. Make them scatter in the granular engine, add subtle stutters, let it smoothly sustain forever, or make it whistle and bubble in the spectral engine. Using the many knobs and up-front menus, this quickly becomes like a second nature.  

Polyphonic, multi-timbral, multi-engine, MPE capable, a dozen high quality effects, macros, and a deep polyphonic modulation matrix with over 120 destinations and 24 sources. Of course touch X,Y are mod sources. Our granular engine is the best you'll find in any hardware synth. A claim we dare make with ease. You can leverage the power of a touch screen, and play multiple notes and chords, along with gestural modulation accross 4 timbres. You can even record and transform touch gestures for modulation.

Firmware

The GR-2 runs a touchscreen-optimized version of the GR-MEGA firmware. This firmware was first released mid-2024, and receives large updates roughly every season. In other words: it's complete, and it's stable. 

The new "tile menu" makes it easy for beginners to navigate, the top bar always shows where you are, and it ensures that you're never more than 1 level deep. 

The menus are largely the same as on the GR-MEGA, but split up into easy to chunks that are easy to grasp, and with large touchscreen-friendly buttons.

Specifications

• 16 voices polyphony (per layer)
• 4 layers
• 128 grains per voice (up to 4000 grains system wide)
• 1/4" stereo inputs, and 1/4" stereo outputs 
• 1024x600 7" true color display.
• 4 engines:
  • granular
  • sampler
  • tape
  • spectral
• Play button for audition and droning.
• Touchscreen voices with hold mode.
• Fully polyphonic voices with 4 envelopes, and 1 multimode SVF per voice.
• MIDI firmware
  • supports multiple MIDI sources at the same time
  • MPE mode
  • full MIDI stack including keytracking, assignable mod wheel, polyphonic aftertouch
  • all parameters have 14 bit CC (NRPN) support
• Granular engine
  • 2 window types, one with AM, and another that is better for smooth attack and release. 
  • grain size 5ms .. 5s
  • stereo or mono
  • fwd/rev bias grains
  • granularization of live recordings
  • several modes to lock rate and grain size, and scan control ratios, but also the possibility to go 100% free.
  • Spray, and Pan Spray built-in macro controls
  • pitch per grain, or per voice
  • panning
  • sync with divisions
  • key triggering
  • clock retriggering per voice 
  • slice mode 
• Spectral engine
  • 256..8192 window size
  • polyphonic (3 voices max)
  • chord mode to extend polyphony up to 36 notes
  • spectral effects like phase smear ("Paulstretch") amp smear (make it less tonal), reducer (create MPx like artefacts)
• Sampler engine
  • traditional sampler like oldschool AKAI S
• Tape engine
  • Sampler engine that uses tape-like scratching
• "Orthogonal" design: each engine utilizes the same controls: Scan, chord mode, spray, forward/reverse direction.
   
• Mod matrix:
  • polyphonic
  • 24 sources: 4 LFO's, 2xCV, 4x random, MPE 5 dimensions, MIDI: mod wheel, key tracking, aux env, pos, env follower
  • 120+ destinations (including macros)
  • curve
  • (uni/bi) polarity
  • Draw and replay your own X/Y modulation
• Effects:
  • Chorus
  • Compressor
  • Delays: normal and pingpong
  • Distortions: cubic and tanh
  • Flanger
  • Parametric 5 band EQ
  • Reducer
  • Reverb (large and normal)
  • Ring modulator
  • Vibrato
• Full MIDI control : 
  • DIN MIDI IN, 
  • DIN MIDI OUT/THRU
  • 2x USB3.0 A
  • 1x USB C (DAW)
• 2x 1/4" input, unbalanced
• 2x 1/4" output, unbalanced
   
• 2x USB-A 3.0 to connect MIDI controllers, USB sticks, audio interfaces, and hard disks.  
• Firmware updates via USB stick, or USB C connection to PC/Mac.
• Sample file formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, SFZ (multi sample)
• Max sampling time: 5 minutes 49 seconds.
• Max loaded sample time: 60 minutes.
• USB C audio: 8 channels in, 10 channels out -> DAW. 
• Headphone output with dedicated volume knob. 
• Power supply: 2.1 mm barrel jack, center positive, 12V, 2A. 
• Power button for soft shutdown and startup.  
• Dimensions: 25x19x7 cm