Polarity | Tension

DUAL GRANULAR TEXTURE ENGINE

sound design by K/V
Drag User samples
180 presets
kontakt player nks

Polarity | Tension is a dual-layer granular instrument shaped by contrast.

It is designed to create immersive sonic worlds from raw, physical sound.

Built entirely from custom recordings of industrial machinery, extended string techniques and abstract vocalizations;

Polarity | Tension offers a palette that feels intentional, unstable, and alive with detail.

Audio Demos

DEVELOPED WITH K/V

Soniccouture worked in collaboration with creative audio team K/V (Ramon Kerstens and Richard Veenstra) to create Polarity | Tension.

The sound design in Polarity | Tension reflects K/V's varied background: in music, sound art, and game audio. With years of experience working with Native Instruments, Arturia, Steinberg, Orchestral Tools, and others, K/V approach sound design as a musical and expressive process, rooted in imperfection and detail.

POLARITY | SOUND DESIGN TUTORIAL

James takes you through the basics of granular synthesis, and shows how to design a preset in Polarity | Tension.

THE POLARITY INSTRUMENT

THE MACRO PANEL

The main page of Polarity features four powerful macro controls, which shape and twist the sound with unpredictable results. User samples can be dragged onto the two waveform areas.

GRAIN EDIT PANEL

GRAIN SHAPING CONTROLS
SAMPLE SELECT + AUTO TUNING
SCAN, JITTER, GRAIN LFO CONTROLS

The expanded edit controls feature all the granular engine controls. Element A + B each has its own separate set, because each is a unique granular engine.

SYNTH EDIT PANEL

AMP, FILTER + LFO MODULES
MACRO MOD ROUTING

The Synth Edit page features more conventional Amp, filter, and LFO controls. Key parameters can be routed to the Macro Controls + synced to DAW tempo. Again Elemement A+B each has its own set of separate synth controls.

THE FX PANEL

2 SEPERATE INSERT CHAINS
IR REVERB MODULE WITH DUAL SENDS

Polarity features a comprehensive effects page, where each element has its own fully configurable insert chain featuring Replika, Phasis and other cutting-edge NI effects. The IR Reverb module features Soniccouture's custom impulse library built up over many years and recording sessions, and can be used independtly by each Polarity element.

" Polarity | Tension is not built to please everyone...

It's made for composers and
sound designers drawn to the abstract, the dissonant, and the unresolved."

K/V

GRAIN CHARACTER MOVEMENT SPACE

GRAIN CHARACTER

MOVEMENT SPACE

Each Polarity | Tension preset can be pushed in totally different sonic directions, creating complex interactions between textures.

The four macro controls; Grain, Character, Movement, and Space provide hands-on, expressive control over the instrument’s sound. They come pre-mapped to NKS for each snapshot but can also be reassigned to control any parameter the user chooses.

Not so much a collection of presets, more a set of sonic vignettes.

KONTAKT PLAYER 7.10 COMPATIBLE

This is a Kontakt Player instrument. This means that you do not need to own the full version of NI Kontakt to use it. It will run as a plug-in instrument in any VST/AU/RTAS/AAX/WASAPI,compatible host program or DAW eg: Cubase, Logic, Ableton Live, DP, Reaper, Pro-Tools. No extra purchase necessary.

Requires KONTAKT 7 / 8 or KONTAKT 7 / 8 PLAYER version 7.10 or later.

Download Delivered By Native Access.

Minimum System Requirements