Steinberg Padshop 2 Granular & Spectral Synthesizer VST Instrument

Steinberg Padshop 2 Granular & Spectral Synthesizer Plug-In

Product Overview

Steinberg Padshop 2 is a sophisticated granular and spectral synthesizer designed for building complex, evolving sounds from samples. It’s built around two completely independent layers, letting you combine contrasting textures—like slowly moving pads with rhythmic elements—into one playable instrument for music production, scoring, and sound design.

Each layer can use factory content or your own imported samples as sources for either the Grain Oscillator or the Spectral Oscillator. The Grain Oscillator uses granular synthesis, playing short portions (“grains”) of a sample with grain envelopes to shape playback and minimize artifacts—useful for extracting pitched, musical material from sources that don’t have a clear pitch. The Spectral Oscillator analyzes the spectrum of a sample and generates a waveform for playback, enabling dynamic timbral movement and extreme slowing for more static, tonal results.

Padshop 2 is built for motion and control: modulate playback position and tone with LFOs, envelopes, the step modulator, and the arpeggiator’s controller lanes. With deep filtering, distortion options, and a multi-stage effects section, it’s a practical tool for creating pads, textures, cinematic beds, and animated synth tones that remain responsive and mix-ready.

Key Features

• Two Independent Layers: Create rich, hybrid patches by blending two fully separate layers—ideal for combining evolving pads with rhythmic or tonal elements.
• Granular Grain Oscillator: Build new sounds from micro-slices of audio using grains with envelopes for smooth playback and flexible texture design.
• Spectral Oscillator Sample Analysis: Analyze a sample’s spectrum to generate evolving waveforms, with the ability to slow playback down to near-static tonal states.
• Import Your Own Samples: Use factory samples or import your own audio as oscillator sources on each layer for custom sound creation.
• 24 Filter Shapes + Filter Distortion: Shape and color tones with low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-reject filters, plus distortion options including tube-style saturation, hard clipping, and bit/sample-rate reduction effects.
• Deep Modulation With Drag-and-Drop Routing: Modulate a wide range of destinations using envelopes, LFOs, and step modulation, including drag-and-drop assignment workflows.
• 16-Slot Modulation Matrix: Build expressive, evolving patches with 16 freely assignable modulation rows, including Note Expression-oriented assignments.
• Integrated Arpeggiator: Create advanced patterns and rhythmic movement with the built-in arpeggiator and controller lanes for additional modulation control.
• Multi-Stage Effects Processing: Polish sounds with a three-stage effects section featuring EQ, modulation effects (chorus/flanger/ensemble/phaser), per-layer delays, and a global reverb.

Technical Specifications

• Synthesis Type: Granular and spectral synthesizer.
• Layer Architecture: Two completely independent layers.
• Oscillators: Grain Oscillator (granular synthesis) and Spectral Oscillator (spectrum-based waveform generation).
• Sample Sources: Factory samples and user-imported samples supported per layer.
• Filters: 24 filter shapes including low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, and band-reject.
• Distortion: Integrated filter distortion with multiple character options (including tube-style and hard clipping) and reduction-style effects.
• Modulation: 3 envelopes (Filter, Amp, Env 3), 4 LFOs (2 monophonic, 2 polyphonic), plus step modulator.
• Modulation Matrix: 16 freely assignable modulation rows.
• Arpeggiator: Integrated arpeggiator for advanced rhythmic pattern creation.
• Effects: Three-stage effects section with EQ, modulation effects, per-layer delays, and global reverb.
• Supported Plug-In Formats: VST3, AU (macOS), AAX.