Stream Pro: feed it anything, get a dark granulated monster

I have been waiting for a granular instrument that does not feel like a science experiment, and Delta Sound Labs might have just shipped it. Stream Pro is their first real instrument (they have been doing Eurorack hardware and effects like Stream and Fold up to now), and it takes any audio you feed it and turns it into playable instruments and evolving textures.

It has two sides. Single Mode is the pad machine: drop in a recording and get long evolving textures with independent control of time and pitch, plus real-time sample scrubbing so you can park on one tiny moment in a sample and live there. Multi Mode is where it gets performable: up to 8 polyphonic voices with per-voice ADSR envelopes and a visual editor, so a field recording or a vocal fragment becomes an actual keyboard instrument. It is fully MPE capable too, with profiles for Seaboard, GeoShred, and Sensel, which says a lot about how seriously they take expression.

The part that sold me is the per-voice processing. Every voice gets its own Moog-style lowpass/bandpass filter, soft saturation for warmth or grit, and a stereo delay, and you can swap whether the space or the effects come first in the chain. Run a metal door slam through this with the saturation pushed and you have the start of a proper industrial percussion kit. The spatial engine is no afterthought either: it uses Steam Audio HRTF for true 3D headphone placement, with per-voice motion, ping-pong grain distribution, and a BOIDS flocking mode that makes voices cluster and burst apart on their own. Properly unsettling with headphones on.

Modulation is deep but sane: four LFOs with seven shapes, sixteen routing slots, and everything is MIDI-mappable with right-click learn. Runs as VST3, AU, and standalone on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Price: $99, buy direct from ILIO. Details and downloads: https://www.deltasoundlabs.com/product/streampro/