The sound is split into small chunks called granules. These may then be processed in various ways to acheive various effects - for example, to stretch a sound (timestreching) the granules will be played back so as to overlap each other. An interesting effect can also be obtained by playing the granules backwards....
MS 50
This was the most modular, most complex, and therefore most expensive of Korg's MS
line. It was designed to be an expander and, therefore, had either Hz/volt or volt/octave
interfaces. The MS-50 was totally modular, in that there was no hard-wire patching at
all. A monophonic synth, the MS-10 had one VCO, two VCFs, two VCAs, a voltage
controlled LFO, two ASDRs (with normal and inverted outputs), pink and white noise, a
signal inverter, multiples, a ring modulator, a voltmeter, sample and hold, and a
headphone socket. It is designed to match the SQ10 analog sequencer.