The Beginner's Guide to HyperWarp: How to Create Glitches, Ear Candy and Granular Effects

HyperWarp is our new granular time warping effect. With a powerful graph input system and seven distinct effect profiles, it’s one of the most expansive creative effects we’ve ever built.

Featuring eight core parameters alongside its warp sequencing panel, HyperWarp can accomplish everything from classic time remapping effects to all-out granular chaos.

But how does HyperWarp actually work? How do you work with it and what kind of sounds can you create?

In this article, I’ll lay out the complete beginner’s guide to HyperWarp, give you a basic framework to understand how to use it and provide some creative examples to help you get started.

Let’s dive in.

What is HyperWarp?

HyperWarp is a granular warping effect based on Baby Audio’s acclaimed granular engine. From the same lead developer who brought you Grainferno, HyperWarp is a curated expression of one of the most advanced grain generation platforms in the plugin world today.

Like Grainferno, HyperWarp breaks your sound down into microsampled snapshots and reassembles it to create its effect. Along the way, the graph sequence, Warp panel parameters and per-profile controls result in a plethora of different sonic outcomes.

HyperWarp is perfect for reimagining any audio in your session as an intricate rhythmic glitch sequence or creating transformative granular ear candy to enhance any sound.

HyperWarp basics

HyperWarp’s UI is divided into three principal components—the graph input panel, the Warp panel and the Profile panel.

Graph input panel

The graph input panel is where you sequence HyperWarp’s time manipulation behavior, The graph plots time against time, with the total length of the processing window represented by the X axis and the distance warped backwards in time represented by the Y axis.

In this setup, a downward sloping line results in slower audio, while an upward sloping one makes it playback faster. Straight stairsteps give you an abrupt warp backwards in time.

Curving lines create a change in speed over time like a tape stop effect or record player scratch.

Using a combination of stairsteps, curves and sloping ramps, you can create a huge variety of rhythmic patterns, from intricate glitch sequences to swing and half-time effects.

When the angle of the line corresponds to that of the second dotted line down the middle of the graph panel interface, HyperWarp’s playback speed is 0%. This means HyperWarp continues to generate grains as if time has stopped at the point where the playhead passes the left boundary of the graph window.

Shift your line angle steeper than the stop line and grains will start to play back in reverse with their speed increasing as the slope gets more severe.

To quickly draw stairstep lines for glitch effects, hold the Shift key or enable step drawing mode with the pen tool at the bottom of the graph panel interface.

Along the bottom of the graph input panel, you’ll find a set of options for loading and save graph panel presets.

HyperWarp comes loaded with dozens of preset shapes and patterns to give you quick results without ever entering a single breakpoint yourself. On top of that, you’ll get a dedicated step drawing mode for quickly entering stutter steps as well as a pair of randomizers to generate new graph patterns with emphasis on steps or curves.

The graph system is the key to HyperWarp’s most exciting effects, so it’s worth taking some time to get familiar with it. To help you get started, here’s our in-depth tutorial on the graph workflow:

Graph transform

Finally, the bottom row of the graph panel gives you additional options for transforming the shape of the graph, setting the total window length and defining the resolution of the snap points within the grid.

Try experimenting with different length values using the same pattern to see different ways the shape can affect HyperWarp’s behavior.

If you’re looking for quick variations on a pattern you’ve already built, try using the Amount and Skew controls to shift breakpoints proportionally along the vertical axis, or side to side.

How does the graph panel affect the other parameters?

With all Grainferno’s other parameters at neutral, the graph input panel has a significant impact on the sound. Some users have asked us how the other parameters factor in.

First off, you can think of the playhead within HyperWarp’s graph panel as similar to the grain generation position in Grainferno.

When the graph line is flat, HyperWarp generates grains based on the position of the playhead as it scrolls across the window following the host tempo and window length division.

This means that while HyperWarp is active, its sound is created by reassembling grains on the fly. As a result, the Warp panel’s granular parameters are always active and affect the sound even when no breakpoints are entered in the graph panel.

When you use the graph panel to sequence changes in playback speed, direction and grain position, the grain engine reconstructs them accordingly, with different results based on your Warp panel settings.

Warp panel

Speaking of the Warp panel, its four parameters let you adjust the characteristics of the grains as they are generated.

Resolution sets the frequency with which new grains are generated, This effectively controls their length, from microscopic fragments  to clearly audible slices at low settings.

Pitch gives you granular pitch shifting independent of the playback speed set by the graph panel. To snap the pitch control to semitone values, engage the lock button at the bottom right corner of the knob.

Scatter introduces randomness to the playback position for a more chaotic sound as you turn it up.

Feedback sends the output of previous grains back into the granular engine at a delay. Click the ping-pong icon at the bottom right to spread the repeats from left to right in the stereo field.

As mentioned above, the Warp panel is always active, even if no graph pattern has been entered. Pitch, resolution and feedback may act in different ways depending on the selected profile or the settings of the four per-profile parameters.

Profile panel

Moving across HyperWarp’s UI, you’ll find the profile panel. Each profile represents a unique configuration of the deep parameters inside HyperWarp’s granular engine.

To make it more intuitive to use, profiles consist of just four high-level macro controls that control the core behavior of each profile under the hood. Since each profile is unique, all seven offer a unique set of parameters to discover.

Here’s a quick overview of the seven different profiles:

Flange Warp

Flange profile configures HyperWarp’s underlying grain engine with tight grains that produce a squeaky modulation effect with changes in playback speed. The physics control determines how pitch and time interact, with pitch linked to playback speed when the dial is fully clockwise for traditional time remapping behavior..

Clean Warp

Clean Warp provides the cleanest time warping sound from HyperWarp’s granular engine. Use it for transparent tonal glitching, pitch-independent speed effects and any other situation where preserving the timbre of the source material is desired.

Degrade Warp

Degrade Warp lets you introduce digital downsampling to HyperWarp’s time warping effect. It creates sample reduction distortion at the level of the individual grains and manipulates them further with pitch randomness and filter effects.

Filter Spam

Filter Spam introduces per-grain filter effects with randomness, speed fluctuations and unpredictable pitch behavior.

Harmo-nicer

The Harmo-nicer profile increases tonal density by generating grains at octaves and fifths above the source signal. The result is a sparkling, textural dispersion of the input with a shiny and magical quality.

Fauxcoder

The Fauxcoder profile brings a resonant quality to the grain generation that’s reminiscent of classic vocoder effects, despite its completely different processing paradigm. Use it to add resonant harmonics and warp them with swirling filter movement that descends into sci-fi chaos at extreme settings.

How to work with HyperWarp

With the basics out of the way, I’ll give a quick overview of the basic workflow with HyperWarp.

As I mentioned above, you can experiment with HyperWarp’s granular controls and per-profile parameters without entering any breakpoints on the graph.

But things get interesting once you get a feel for how the granular processing can change how the outcome of the warp sequence in the graph panel.

Here are four approaches to help you get started creating effects with HyperWarp

Rhythmic glitch effects

HyperWarp is perfect for creating stuttering glitch edits from basic drum loops. Not only that, working with percussive material can help you understand the graph system since it makes it easier to hear changes to the rhythm.

For a short tutorial on how to sequence rhythmic effects, check out the following video guide:

The basic idea is to start with straight stairsteps and get a feel for how they warp time backwards to repeat previous beats. HyperWarp can create intricate glitch patterns using just straight stairsteps, but there’s plenty more to discover with slopes and curving lines.

Single grain sound design

As I mentioned above, the second dotted line on the graph input panel represents the stopped position or 0% playback speed.

When the line connecting two breakpoints falls along this angle, the granular engine continuously generates grains from the playhead location when it reaches the far left border of the window.

This gives you a unique oscillator-like effect that can be deeply customized using the different profiles and granular parameters.

Try it on vocals for stop time effects and extra texture with the mix control backed off from 100%.

Granular modulation and delay effects

The Warp panel features a feedback control that cascades some of the generated grain signal back into the granular engine.

The result is a unique delay effect that takes on the characteristics of the effect profile and granular settings.

In combination with the more experimental flavors of the profiles like Harmo-nicer, Fauxcoder and Lo-fizzly, you can create thrilling granular delay effects with the unique influence the graph sequence.

With the Harmo-nicer profile, try setting the graph length to two beats or less and using a pattern like the Fangs graph preset from the Complex subfolder to get started. From there, you can turn up the feedback for extreme cascade grain effects that resemble delay.

Complex wet/dry blends

HyperWarp is equipped with a basic wet/dry blend, but it also features a convenient band split control for limiting the frequency range of the processed signal.
With a dual-ended slider control for adjusting both the high and low-pass filter cutoff point, you can quickly dial in unique multiband sounds to focus HyperWarp’s effect on a specific frequency range.

The band split control works independently of the mix control and frequencies excluded by the filters are automatically replaced by the dry signal.

With these two simple controls you can tailor HyperWarp’s more extreme effects to bring a more subtle influence to the overall sound.

Try creating some aggressive lo-fi effects with the Degrade Warp mode and limiting the range of the processed signal to the midrange to bring back some clarity.

Enter the time warp

Despite its relatively simple controls, HyperWarp is a powerful and versatile tool for sound design.

Once you understand the graph panel and how sequences interact with the rest of the controls you’ll find an incredible platform for experimenting with granular effects.

If you made it to the end of this article, you’ll have a solid grasp of HyperWarp’s workflow and possibilities.

Now that you the basics, download the free trial to get started with HyperWarp right away.