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carve hanging under the light: its screen of six recordings and its sixteen pads, lit from above.

carve · granular instrument

A recording becomes sixteen pads you play.

Drop in up to six samples and give a moment of them to each pad. Play the pads by hand, let the sequencer play them, or both.

Get carve · €99Try carve

€99 · 14-day free trial

Mac + WindowsAU / VST3 MIDI + MPE14-day trial
the screen

Six samples, every moment marked.

Drop up to six recordings on carve's screen. It finds their transients and shows each pad's letter on the moment it plays. A factory library of voices, speech, chords and textures is built in.

carve's screen: six recordings as waveforms, each pad's letter on the moment it plays, the pattern as letters along the top.
sixteen pads

A moment of your recording on every pad.

Each new sample fills a row of four pads with its transients. Choose a pad, then click any moment on the screen to give it that sound. Every pad keeps its own sound, and the pads' dice deal new moments when you want a fresh kit.

carve's sixteen pads, A to P, each with its sample's colour, the sample and transient it plays, and its key.
the sequence

Sixteen steps that play the pads.

One bar of quarter notes, eighths or sixteenths. With a pad chosen, a tap gives it a step. Drag across steps to merge them into one longer note, scroll on a step to change its pitch, and swing it from straight to hard.

carve's sequence: sixteen step keys lit with the pads they play, a merged run, the step length switch, swing and pitch.
two ways to play

By hand, by its sequencer, or both.

The same sixteen pads answer your hands and the pattern, at the same time.

by hand

The pads sit on C1 to D#2, like a drum rack. Play them from a keyboard or pads, or write them in your DAW's piano roll.

by its sequencer

Press play, or hold C0 in a clip: the pattern runs in time with your song for as long as the key is held.

or both

Your hands and the pattern share the pads. With follow keys on, the pattern plays the pads you hold, in its own rhythm.

variations and chain

Six variations. Chain plays them in turn.

Each variation keeps its own pads and pattern. Switch between them as it plays, from the keys C0 to F0, or turn on chain and carve plays the saved ones one bar each. Randomize writes a new pattern and leaves the pads alone; revert steps back through the last three.

carve's variations: four saved slots, two empty, the chain pill, randomize and revert.
every pad its own sound

Slice, bloom, loop and cloud.

Each pad plays its moment in one of four ways, with its own pitch, level, tone, space and envelope.

carve's pad page: the switch between slice, bloom, loop and cloud, with position, size, density, spray and scan, and pitch, level, tone, space and the envelope.

slice

The moment itself, from its start, like a sampler. Set where it starts, reverse it, shape its decay.

bloom

The attack as it was recorded, opening into grains that hold for as long as the note does.

loop

A window of the moment repeated, from a slow stutter to a buzz, synced to your song. Ramp speeds it up or slows it down over the note.

cloud

Grains only, read around one place in the moment, for as long as you hold the note.

touch

Every note can move its sound.

Strike, press, slide and the mod wheel each move one of eight things, by a depth that goes both ways: a loop's rate, position, size, scan, tone, level, space or spread.

  • Any MIDI keyboard: velocity is strike, aftertouch is press, and the wheel is the wheel.
  • Your DAW's piano roll: draw the notes and their expression, and carve plays them back the same way.
  • An MPE controller: press, slide and bend on every note, with Push 3 and Osmose set up in carve's guide.
carve's touch: press, slide, strike and wheel, each with a depth and the thing it moves.
browser demo

Try carve

Turn the sound on, click the interface, then play the pads with the keys a to p and start the pattern with space. This is a browser demo; the plug-in runs in your DAW.

carve: a bone-coloured panel with a dark screen of six recordings, each pad's letter on the moment it plays; sixteen pads, the sequence's sixteen steps, variations, the pad's sound and touch.

On a touch screen, tap the interface to open the demo.

Buy carve, or try it first

Try carve in your own music for 14 days, with every feature. Then €99, with every update free.

€99one payment, every update free

VAT included in Europe. In the US and Canada, sales tax is added at checkout.

  • Mac (macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon and Intel) as AU and VST3. Windows 10 or later, 64-bit, as VST3.
  • Works on 3 of your computers at once.
  • 14-day refund period.

Paddle, our reseller, takes the payment and sends the receipt. Your licence and download arrive by email straight after. Terms.

Downloads and licence

Compatibility
Mac (macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon and Intel) as AU and VST3. Windows 10 or later, 64-bit, as VST3. Requires a DAW that supports AU or VST3. On Windows, carve's window uses Microsoft Edge WebView2, which current Windows already has.
Installation
On Mac, open the disk image and run the installer. On Windows, copy the quiver carve.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. Rescan your plug-ins and load carve on a MIDI track.
Trial
Request the 14-day trial above. We email a confirmation link, then your trial licence and download. In carve, open more, then license and updates, and paste the licence. Every feature works for 14 days, then carve keeps playing for three more days before it goes quiet until you buy.
Activation
Internet access is required for activation. The licence is checked daily when online; carve can run offline for up to 30 days.
Computers
Three of your own computers at once. Manage activations and downloads at quiver.fm/account.
Updates and refunds
Updates are free. For a refund, reply to your Paddle receipt within 14 days. Terms.

Help: support · support@quiver.fm