Mutable Instruments go beyond the Clouds with the Beads Eurorack ‘texture synth’

>Mutable Instruments have introduced the Beads ‘texture synthesizer’ – a wholesale reinvention of Clouds, one of the most beloved Eurorack modules of all time. This promises to do “(most of) whatever a Clouds does (but better)”.

The fundamental concept is the same – to offer live granular processing of an audio signal – and the labelling on the interface will be familiar to Clouds users, too.

However, Beads promises a crisper, broader sound palette, more control, better playability and new features.

Spec improvements include higher audio quality, a longer buffer, better interpolation and anti-aliasing algorithms and DSP blocks that run at a faster rate. Your granular processing can now explore the likes of formants, wavetables, hard-sync type sounds and crisper noise, too.

There’s a refined range of parameters, so you can enjoy the likes of reverse playback and percussive envelopes.

Beads is available to buy now, priced at $359/299€.