Reverser

A granular reverse effect. It captures the incoming audio and replays it in short backward chunks at the original pitch — from a smeary frozen reverse wash through smooth continuous reversal to rhythmic, gapped reverse stabs.

How it works

The Reverser keeps a rolling buffer of recent audio and fires grains that read it backward. Size sets how long each grain is, and Space sets how far apart grains are spawned, measured as a fraction of the grain length. With heavy overlap the reversed grains pile up into a thick, frozen smear; back-to-back grains give a clean continuous reverse; wide spacing leaves silence between grains for stuttering reverse hits. Both stereo channels share one grain engine, so width is exactly that of the source.

Controls

  • Size — grain length, from 50 ms to 2 s. Short grains chatter and granulate; long grains reverse whole phrases.
  • Space — grain spacing as a fraction of grain length. Around 0.3 grains overlap heavily for a frozen smear, ~0.95 is the classic continuous reverse, 1.0 is back-to-back, and above 1.0 opens gaps into rhythmic stabs.
  • Shape — the grain-window edge fade, from 0% to 100%. At 0% each grain is a hard rectangle that clicks and punches; wind it up and the edges soften through near-rectangular into a full triangle of gentle reverse swells. Most audible in the gapped, stab-heavy regime, where it sets the attack and release of every hit.
  • Mix — wet/dry blend, from the dry source to fully reversed.

Inputs & outputs

  • In L / In R — the stereo signal to reverse; patch mono into one for a single channel.
  • Size / Space / Shape / Mix CV — voltage control over each knob; patch an LFO or envelope to evolve grain length, spacing, window shape, or wet/dry over time.
  • Reset — a rising gate forces a fresh grain on the next sample, re-syncing the grain cycle to your clock.
  • Out L / Out R — the reversed stereo result.

Tips

  • Clock Reset from your sequencer to lock reverse stabs to the beat.
  • Wide Space with short Size turns sustained pads into glitchy, backward rhythms.
  • Pull Mix back to layer a reversed shadow under the original instead of replacing it.