ijo audio Celestine: a colorful granular FX plugin for iPadOS and M4L

ijo audio Celestine, initially released as an M4L device, is a multi-faced granular FX processor that is now available as an AUv3 plugin for iPadOS AUv3

An app can be developed from scratch for iOS or ported from another platform. Many are based on existing VST plugins. For example, the apps from Eventide, FabFilter, or Unfiltered Audio are based on their desktop releases.

ijo audio has released Celestine, a powerful granular FX app for iPadOS, which was initially born as a Max for Live device. Now, you can explore it on your iPad. 

ijo audio Celestine

Celestine is a new, advanced, colorful granular FX processor for iPadOS based on the previously released Max for Live device of the same name. Yes, currently it’s only for iPad. Unfortunately, ijo Audio hasn’t released an iPhone version of Celestine yet. I hope that will change soon.

According to the developer, the FX processor listens as you play and transforms your sound into shimmering clouds orbiting textures and evolving ambient beds.

At its core, Celestine offers eight colorful granular engines, each with a unique sonic character and behavior. They can produce up to 30 simultaneous grain voices at the same time: 

• Grain: classic granular textures
• Mosaic: pitch-shifted harmonic clusters
• Glide: bending, sliding grains
• Reverie: dreamy reverse washes
• Bloom: ghost-echo reflections
• Tide: amplitude wave undulations
• Stars: rhythmic anchor patterns
• Orbit: circular spatial movement

Each engine is shapable with a handful of parameters: time, pitch, density, size, spray, jitter, spread, and more. You can also scrub manually through the live buffer or lock the grain triggering to the host tempo, giving you rhythmic clouds.

In simple terms, you send audio to the processor, which breaks it into small pieces that you can then deform, pitch, and otherwise modify to your liking. It’s like a miniature audio puzzle that can be assembled in many ways.

Granular Colorisation

Celestine offers more than multi-faced granularisation. You can colorize the process with a one-knob magic multi-FX block that consists of seven tone-shaping algorithms: chorus, widening, drift, shimmer, spread, echo, and swell. 

Dial these into the grain processor with the amount knob, and you can transform the granular swarm into a new effect or simply use it to refine the granular results. This can be something bloomy, or even broken and glitchy. 

One step further, you have a distortion section with a built-in wavefolder and bit-crusher for rich harmonic colorization or additional grid. Distortion and granular sounds like an interesting, unusual combo.

Then, at the end of the stage, you have a lush reverb with decay, tone, and a dry/wet. controls that envelope the entire effect in a fluffy result. A dedicated global dry/wet is also available for blending for subtle enhancement or full transformation

ijo audio says Celestine is capable of transforming incoming audio into frozen halos, spectral choirs, glittering glitchy timbres, and more.

First Impression

At first glance, it is a very comprehensive, well-laid-out, granular playground that gives you plenty of ways to transform your audio and take it to a textural advantage. I hope we get an iPhone version soon. macOS AUv3 would also be desirable.

Ijo audio Celestine is available now for an introductory price of $5,99 instead of $9,99 until June 11th, 2026. It runs as an AUv3 plugin on iPadOS only. Celestine is also available as a Max for Live device for $19. VST version is planned for the future.

More information here: ijo audio / Apple App Store

iOS News supported by Patreon