Granular Synth Alternative: The Mangle

[Psuper]

Been looking for an alternative for a week or so, and my tests, trials and demos have settled on The Mangle.

http://sound-guru.com/software/mangle/

Only £20. Easy to work with, tons of options, crazy good on CPU.

This one is far better than most of the "top" granular stuff I've used and seen for my workflow.

[madmacman]

Tried it a few months ago on my Mac. Found it way too buggy (quits unexpecedly, especially when loading audio files) and after a little investigation it seems the dev has moved on to new projects.

Since I will buy R10 update sooner or later anyway, I can wait until then to get my fingers on Grain.

[Psuper]

Tried it a few months ago on my Mac. Found it way too buggy (quits unexpecedly, especially when loading audio files) and after a little investigation it seems the dev has moved on to new projects.

Since I will buy R10 update sooner or later anyway, I can wait until then to get my fingers on Grain.

PC here, Mangle has been stellar not a single issue. Bought it instead of R10.

[madmacman]

PC here, Mangle has been stellar not a single issue.

*sigh* Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That's the way life goes...

[mataya]

Best VST that does granular, if you ask my ears is Steinberg's Padshop Pro.
But does it have to be a VST? Don't forget Proton RE. This beast can do so much in terms of granular synthesis. Owning Proton and Expanse are one of many reasons I wont be upgrading to 10.
I also own Synchronous so...
I'll just have to survive without that Kalimba somehow.

M

[Zac]

Tried it a few months ago on my Mac. Found it way too buggy (quits unexpecedly, especially when loading audio files) and after a little investigation it seems the dev has moved on to new projects.

Since I will buy R10 update sooner or later anyway, I can wait until then to get my fingers on Grain.

PC here, Mangle has been stellar not a single issue. Bought it instead of R10.

Massively unreliable here on windows 10. Crashes like funk.

[dvdrtldg]

The Mangle works OK for me on OS Sierra, very occasionally crashes but not too often

[Psuper]

Had a hiccup last night with it in Reason, got the "White screen" vst wrapper interface problem where I saw nothing but a white interface -- the app was still working just couldn't see it's graphics.

No issues like that in Reaper.

[miscend]

I own this but don't use it. It's quite buggy and it looks like the creator has moved on to working on his other synth without sorting out any of the issues. I've never used Mangle in Reason but with Logic X it was always buggy.

[EnochLight]

Been looking for an alternative for a week or so, and my tests, trials and demos have settled on The Mangle.

http://sound-guru.com/software/mangle/

Only £20. Easy to work with, tons of options, crazy good on CPU.

This one is far better than most of the "top" granular stuff I've used and seen for my workflow.

You're brave. This seems like abandonware, as the dev has been absent for some time. I tried it about a year ago but couldn't get it to stop crashing in Studio One. Good to hear it's working great for you, though!

I always thought the vectorized interface was cool. Presets were "ok", IMHO.

[Psuper]

Been looking for an alternative for a week or so, and my tests, trials and demos have settled on The Mangle.

http://sound-guru.com/software/mangle/

Only £20. Easy to work with, tons of options, crazy good on CPU.

This one is far better than most of the "top" granular stuff I've used and seen for my workflow.

You're brave. This seems like abandonware, as the dev has been absent for some time. I tried it about a year ago but couldn't get it to stop crashing in Studio One. Good to hear it's working great for you, though!

I always thought the vectorized interface was cool. Presets were "ok", IMHO.

True, however most software is abandoned unless it has new "revisions", especially when we're talking a few years back being released: couple bug-fix patches, then on to other things for most developers.

Try just installing "Padshop pro", what an absolute mess of a nightmare -- worst software install, implementation, and backend of every other trial I demo'd, and this from Steinberg.

Regardless I know what you mean, Mangle could have been a powerhouse VST today, but seems to give hit-or-miss stability results then and now. What it can do when it works however is far better than everything I personally tried by miles, and appeared to have more depth and functionality for pure granular stuff than the apps I didnt try (absynth, halion, omnisphere).

[EnochLight]

I've spent $23 USD on far worse things, that's for sure!

[danc]

I was in email communication with the developer Tom back in June.

Tom was adamant that he would be sorting out known bugs and also dealing with compatibility issues with all the latest DAW revisions. However, he also made clear that he was not planning on adding new features.

[Psuper]

Would be nice with Reason, tho it could be Reasons fault too who knows.

Hasn't had a single hiccup in Reaper.

[dvdrtldg]

I was in email communication with the developer Tom back in June.

Tom was adamant that he would be sorting out known bugs and also dealing with compatibility issues with all the latest DAW revisions. However, he also made clear that he was not planning on adding new features.

That's good news

[EnochLight]

I was in email communication with the developer Tom back in June.

Tom was adamant that he would be sorting out known bugs and also dealing with compatibility issues with all the latest DAW revisions. However, he also made clear that he was not planning on adding new features.

That's good to know - he's not an easy person to get a response from. It's been 5 months - has he mentioned when he'll be ironing out the bugs? :/

Would be nice with Reason, tho it could be Reasons fault too who knows.

Hasn't had a single hiccup in Reaper.

Nope - it acts buggy in Studio One as well.

[danc]

I was in email communication with the developer Tom back in June.

Tom was adamant that he would be sorting out known bugs and also dealing with compatibility issues with all the latest DAW revisions. However, he also made clear that he was not planning on adding new features.

That's good to know - he's not an easy person to get a response from. It's been 5 months - has he mentioned when he'll be ironing out the bugs? :/

Tom wrote...

Hi Dan,

I haven't made updates to The Mangle in about a year. I have booked some time off work next week to work on it bit - mostly I'll be bug-fixing and doing compatibility for new OSes. I may grab Reason and check if it works there too. So the answer is, I am trying to keep Mangle working well, because many people like it, but I'm not currently adding new features. All the best,

Tom

[EnochLight]

That's good to know - he's not an easy person to get a response from. It's been 5 months - has he mentioned when he'll be ironing out the bugs? :/

Tom wrote...

Hi Dan,

I haven't made updates to The Mangle in about a year. I have booked some time off work next week to work on it bit - mostly I'll be bug-fixing and doing compatibility for new OSes. I may grab Reason and check if it works there too. So the answer is, I am trying to keep Mangle working well, because many people like it, but I'm not currently adding new features. All the best,

Tom

Thanks. Didn't realize he was a "part time dev" with a different full time job. That explains a lot. I'll check it out again once he issues a maintenance update. As far as new features are concerned, I don't really think it needs any in its current form. I just want a rock-solid stable build.

Cheers

[Psuper]

I wonder if he realizes his app is heads above everything out there.


I tried out everything 'granular' I could get my hands on for 2+ weeks, and viewed countless videos of ones I couldn't demo personally, and The Mangle by FAR was superior to everything.

He still has time to catch that boat.

[EnochLight]

I wonder if Dan realizes his app is heads above everything out there.


I tried out everything 'granular' I could get my hands on for 2+ weeks, and viewed countless videos of ones I couldn't demo personally, and The Mangle by FAR was superior to everything.

He still has time to catch that boat.

I sort of agree, except that I find Grain far "funner" to play with. It's just easier, IMHO. Thankfully, anyone can have both in Reason if they want.

[Psuper]

Certainly true, I enjoyed Grain, easy to get into. Same with Europa.

[EdGrip]

As long as it's stable and up-to-date compatibility-wise, he could charge double what he does for it, and still make loads of sales. Just put a little bit of effort into videos and getting the word out. The interface is unique and fun.

[EnochLight]

As long as it's stable and up-to-date compatibility-wise, he could charge double what he does for it, and still make loads of sales. Just put a little bit of effort into videos and getting the word out. The interface is unique and fun.

Possibly... the Mangle is only $26 USD - it's no wonder the dev actually has a full-time job doing something else..

KV331's new Synthmaster One is an arguably more popular product appealing to a broader audience, yet the dev himself just admitted publicly over at KVR that he's only sold 500 new licenses since it was released . Taking into consideration it's been on sale on and off for much of that time, I doubt he's made enough to even cover the development cost of that thing! I wonder how devs actually make a living doing what they do sometimes.

[Psuper]

Well that's just it, you have to know the market and balance your passion with what will sell. Another wavetable synth is lost in the mire of thousands, another grain synth is one of only a dozen.

Right now the market is saturated to death with a thousands of 'damn near the same things' from synths to effects - there's very few 'stand outs' with the sounds capable. The largest difference being familiarity, so people tend to stick with what they know, or think they'd know.

His goldmine is The Mangle, he's nuts not to expand on it but that's up to him.

[danc]

Talking about Grain.... I thought I'd give the Grain a good test out. The lead acid bass line in the Soundcloud track in my signature below was sampling a saw tooth and triangle sample from my Sub 37 and then mangling up in Grain. I love the way you can automate pretty much every knob and switch (wish NNXT could do that) - which is how I morphed the acid line as the track progresses. Thumbs up to Grain!

The simple arp progression halfway through is the Mixfood Orange RE.