The Pad Grid
Trigger pads, play with velocity, and rename and colour each of the pads in the 4x4 grid.
The pad grid is the heart of GranSample — a 4x4 grid of 16 pads that you tap to play. Each pad holds its own sample, granular and effect settings, and its own colour and name.
The 4x4 grid
The home screen shows sixteen pads arranged in four rows of four, numbered 1 to 16. Tap a pad to select it and play whatever sample it holds. The selected pad is what the bottom toolbar (or, on iPad, the Pad Properties panel) acts on — its Edit, FX, Load, and Rec buttons all target the currently selected pad. To load sounds onto a pad, see Recording from the Mic and Importing Audio.
A loaded pad shows its name, a small waveform thumbnail, and a coloured accent bar along the bottom. An empty pad just shows its number.
Free and Pro pads
The free tier unlocks the first four pads — pads 1 to 4. Pads 5 to 16 require GranSample Pro and appear dimmed with a lock badge. Tapping a locked pad opens the paywall rather than triggering a sound.
Triggering and velocity
Tapping a pad triggers its sample immediately. GranSample reads velocity from how much of your fingertip touches the pad: a wider contact area plays louder, and a light tap with a small contact area plays softer.
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Tap a pad | Selects it and triggers the sample |
| Wider contact (flatter finger) | Higher velocity (louder) |
| Light tap (small contact) | Lower velocity (softer) |
| Lift your finger | Releases the note (relevant for looped or sustained sounds) |
Velocity scales the pad’s output level, so your playing dynamics carry through to the sound. For step-programmed playback with per-step velocity, see The Step Sequencer.
Renaming a pad
Each pad can carry a custom name. Open the pad in the Sample Editor (the Edit button) — on iPad you can also use the Pad Properties panel beside the grid — then tap the pad’s name to edit it. Names are limited to 24 characters. Leave it blank and the pad falls back to the sample’s filename, or to Pad N when no sample is loaded.
Choosing a pad colour
In the same place you rename a pad, you can pick its accent colour from a row of chips. The colour tints the pad’s accent bar, its waveform thumbnail, and its lane in the sequencer, which makes a busy grid easy to read at a glance.
The available choices are:
| Colour | Notes |
|---|---|
| Default | Neutral grey-blue accent |
| Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink | Vivid accent tints |
Chromatic note labels
When Chromatic Mode is active, each pad shows a note label (for example C4, C#4) in its corner, and the root pad is marked with a cyan ring. In this mode the grid plays one sample chromatically across the pads instead of sixteen separate sounds.
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