In granular synthesis, short (e.g. 50 milliseconds) sound fragments, "the grains," come from a fixed file buffer. The starting time, length and silence between the grains can be modulated. More than one grain at a time is possible, so you can create complex sounds "clouds" from a single sound file.

Special is the floating sound buffer which allows real-time input and output. In this floating buffer the grains are created. You can apply many unusual parameters to the grains such as pitch, filter, pan, reverse, and limit - all with a simple, flexible interface.

All parameters can be modulated by internal oscillator sources, whose configuration can be saved as crusher-sheets. A feedback loop inside the algorithm enables very complex and non-linear sound processing. Also, a multiple Undo/Redo function permits nondestructive work and encourages experimentation with crusher-X.