MXR® TEXTURES™ GRANULAR SYNTH ENGINE

The MXR Textures Granular Synth Engine pulls your sound apart and weaves it into wondrous new forms. With the power of granular synthesis and dynamics processing, this pedal records what you play and reshapes it into a shifting blend of tones and timbres: shimmering pads, glitched-out rhythms, lush reverberations drifting back through themselves, and much more. It’s a sandbox in pedal form, and every grain is yours to shape.

GRANULAR SYNTHESIS

Like a delay pedal, the Textures Granular Synth Engine records your audio and plays it back. But instead of just delaying the audio, this pedal plays it back in small snippets called grains and hands you the controls to shape them. Play them in reverse, shift their pitch, freeze them in place, feed them back into cascading shimmers, and add the chaos of randomization to unlock new frontiers of sonic discovery. And if that wasn’t enough, on-board reverb, filter, and vibrato effects shape your sound even further. You'll be exploring realms of expression that pro soundscapers have been chasing for decades.

EIGHT WAYS IN

The MXR Textures Granular Synth Engine does a lot, but don’t get overwhelmed. It features eight different presets to get you started with the press of a button. You’ll find a huge variety of sounds here, from regenerative octave loops to warbly polyphonic synthesizer and glitchy blips to sub-octave pads with stuttering vibrato. Find one you like and stick with it, or use it as a foundation for experimentation.

DELAY, AUTO-FREEZE, OR LAYERS?

If you decide to dig deeper, the Mode button determines how the Textures Granular Synth Engine captures and replays your audio input. Delay Mode will be a familiar starting point for most, continuously chopping up notes and chords into grains as you play. Clean repeats, smeared trails, and pitch-shifted echoes are all on the table. In Auto-Freeze Mode, the pedal listens for what you play, captures it, and sustains it as lush, evolving washes of tone. Layers Mode samples up to four notes or chords into independent buffers, each with its own fade-in and fade-out shape—perfect for stacking harmonies, building polyphonic pads, or composing tiny orchestras. It's a granular take on the MXR Layers™ Pedal. Want to add even more depth and dimension to your pads? Run the Layers Pedal into this one, especially in Delay Mode.

SHAPE EVERY GRAIN

After you select your mode, a suite of controls stands ready to transform the sound of your instrument. The Size and Overlap knobs set the length and number of grains. Pitch and Reverse knobs set the playback speed and direction. Delay and Regen control how grains move through time. Mix sets the final blend, all the way from clean signal to fully granular. These are the tools that turn the sandbox into a carefully crafted soundscape, and each changes character according to your chosen mode.

KEEP DIGGING

For players who prefer to delve deep, the MXR Textures Granular Synth Engine has no bottom. Simply holding the Reverse or Mode button while turning any knob unlocks a second layer of parameters. Dial in randomization for passages that never quite repeat, fine-tune the on-board reverb, filter, and vibrato, or tap in tempo to lock grains to the beat. You can also plug in an expression pedal to morph between heel and toe states, hook up an MXR Split + Tap for hands-free preset scrolling, tempo tapping, or freezing, and configure the pedal for full stereo I/O with mono, wet/dry, or true stereo output.

STEP INTO THE SANDBOX

Whether you're a bedroom noodler chasing the ambient tones of your favorite record, a noise rocker layering dreamlike chaos under riffs and solos, or a sound designer scoring a film, the MXR Textures Granular Synth Engine is a sandbox with no boundaries. It's a self-contained universe of musical potential that sits right on your pedalboard. Plug in, and see where it takes you.