Borderlands Granular 2.1, Massive Update For One Of The Best iOS Apps

A long wish of iPad musicians came true: Borderlands Granular has been updated to version 2.1 with a massive amount of new features, improvements & exciting news for the preview

I take a little pause from my break for this big announcement. It took a long time, but now it’s finally here. Okay, it took a lot longer than my break. Chris Carlson has today released a massive update for Borderlands Granular, one of the best granular apps for iPad.

Why am I so excited for an update? Simple, Borderlands Granular is one of the only music apps on iOS that unlocks the full potential of the Apple tablet: it’s specially designed for iPad (not a port of…), made for performances and it’s something that only exist here. One of the best news: an iPhone version is coming in future but we are now concentrating on what’s new.

Borderlands Granular 2.1 is a free update, no unloved in-app purchases and offers a lot of new features and improvements. It offers new tempo-synced grains with Ableton Link, semitone pitch tuning option per cloud, new waterfall-style streaming input mode and more. The most important thing for me, however: the app has been completely revised and known problems have been fixed. Good news, especially for artists using the app in live situations.

Version 2.1 is compatible with all iPads and is a free update for all existing users. While this is technically a “point” release, it is packed with a myriad of new features, improvements, and bug fixes.

New Features

Ableton Link support (internal clock/tempo sync)
Tempo synced grains with Ableton Link
Semitone pitch tuning option per cloud
New waterfall-style streaming input mode
Overdub level control for real-time inputs
ADSR mode with automatable trigger pad for each grain cloud Automate sound position, size, and rotation
New ring modulation, vibrato amount, and probability controls per grain cloud
Proper scaling on new, larger iPads and iPads with different aspect ratios
Scene contributions from Cristian Vogel, Electric Indigo, King Britt, Mikronesia, and Tom Hall. Presets from Arovane coming soon.
Audiobus 3 support
Solo one or more clouds by touching clouds while pressing the mute button.
Longer max grain duration – 6 seconds. Older scenes will still load with 3 seconds max.
It is now possible to drop folders of audio into the app’s documents directory and see the folder and its contents as a unique header in the recordings browser.
48 and 96 kHz sample rate options
… more

Exciting News For The Future

For many, it is probably one of the most amazing Sundays, but keep some jumps of joy for you, as more will happen in the future for we can hug Chris tightly. The developer also announced some future plans of Borderlands Granular 2.1:

I am thrilled to finally release the work that I have been chipping away at for the past 5 years and am committed to pushing Borderlands forward. I am very excited about where the app it is heading next. AUv3 support, MIDI / OSC I/O, and iPhone / Universal compatibility are some of the next big features I plan to explore, in addition to a number of smaller, more experimental ideas. I am always trying to improve the balance of control and expressiveness as I develop this instrument.

My good friend Jakob Haq has published an excellent documentation for the new release, including an interview with Chris Carlson which I would like to share with you.