BASTL Microgranny

Anyone have one of these in their setups?

as soon as they ship it to me i will…

I bought a Microgranny 2 around 2016, and I don’t know if it needs the 2.5 upgrade.

Is there a way to find out what firmware version I have? I didn’t find the info in the manual or by searching the Internet.

Cheers!

Do you still have any of the factory sounds on the SD card?
If so, they are different between firmwares - this is all 2.5 I think

or they are downloadable from Bastl here to compare:

https://f002.backblazeb2.com/file/bastl-zip-files/mg-bank-2.5.zip

I am not sure if there is any other way or not?

Also: that video is August 2016, so if you bought much before that, maybe you do?
Also: I think maybe the colours changed when 2.5 came out, so Bastl might be able to tell you themselves from the colour.

1 Like

I got mine in May 2016 and you’ll have to buy a new firmware chip to get 2.5

https://noise.kitchen/updates/454-microggranny-25-update.html

1 Like

I contacted Bastl support, here’s how to tell the version:

During powerup the display shows a dot when indicating selected
midi channel.

Also, in the video above, the 2.5 versions should show the dot after the number, like so:

ch 4.

My version is lower, the dot is right after the h:

ch. 4

2.5 upgrade ordered :+1:

1 Like

The new Microgranny Monolith, priced at 276.52€. Always had my eye on a Microgranny but never pulled the trigger. Intrigued by granular but not like 400+ € intrigued if you get what I mean so this might be it… Once they’ll start to be available second hand.

6 Likes

I might give it a try! Had one before and liked a lot about it. I’m a big fan of Bastl, think they make cool fun innovative small sized stuff!

2 Likes

Just picked up the MG Monolith variant today. I was kinda shocked when the Microgranny was discontinued for awhile so i finally jumped at it with this new release. The enclosure feels very nice. I’ve never held an original one before but I have to assume this is much heavier than that one. Knobs are nice as well.

I’ve messed around a little bit and mainly just used the TX-6 for quick FX. This is a cool little unit to add to my collection of weird samplers lol

1 Like

Hello everyone !
I just sold my Octatrack after 5 years of love/hate relationship and I was planning to buy a Digitakt. And then, I remembered the Microgranny and I’m finally considering to buy one. I love strange & dirty textures so I think it would be perfect for me and I want something very simple and direct (not the OT :wink: ).
In my music, I like to live sampling patterns, singers and then mess it up. When reading the manual, it seemed to me that sampling is very quick and easy and could be done in live situation without problems but I wanted to be sure. So, do you think it could be a good device for live sampling and (nearly) real time audio manipulation ?

It’s really clicky and noisy and hummy. Even if you think you like that, do you like only that with no options? I quite like mine but tbh I find the grot in the sound a bit wearing. It’s nice to have another granular options like you’d find in the average granular app or presumably the 1010music box. But the one button per sound thing on granny is magnificent.

Yes I know it’s a very simple device (very lo fi and clicky sounds, monophonic, no seq, no modulation, etc…) but my question is how fast and easy is it to sampling with it ? Typically, if it needs more than 5 seconds to sample and assign to a pad, it is starting to become very long for me.

Like basically instant in terms of workflow. Not sure the timing is perfect tho, iirc, so you possibly can’t count on catching the transient with your perfect rhythmic fingers. But I might be misremembering might be fine.

1 Like

Hmm ok thank you :slight_smile: I don’t expect perfect synced sampling (and I don’t sample this way) so it could be fine for me

It’s good immediate fun but sounds like grot.

Nice to see that enclosure, it looks to be a massive improvement on the previous design, but what about the rest of it?

Is it purely an external re-work or did they improve the firmware, add features etc?

No, it’s just a new design. It’s exactly the same firmware but it’s a beautiful device now :heart_eyes:

The joy of those things is the sync, everything just kinda locks to clock without any setup iirc. Sampling is crazy fast, and they’re tons of fun with any Monotron.