Beads ‘texture synthesiser’ // ULTIMATE GUIDE to Clouds v2! (Patreon)

Hello, 

first video in what feels like an AAGGGGGEEEEES and it feels great to complete something and share it with you all. It's been a long ride and often videos feel like little moments bubbled up in the music and creativity in the video and sent off for the world to witness. Not really sure what that means but there you go!

So ... Here's my ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEADS, as usual the video is in depth, packed with a wide range of musical applications and I've aimed to outline everything. More video details copied below from the video description.

BEADS PATCH COOKBOOKIn this video I mention a Patreon exclusive Patch Cookbook (like the RND STEP, OR SWITCH ones) and I am working on that right now. All the notes were taken during the filming of the video and I'll be making up images and putting the document together for all of you at the $5+ tier this coming week. So hold tight. I'm also going to organise where those documents live and how easy it is for you to find them. I'll make a new post for $5+ tier supporters this coming week with the file. 

PROCESSING YOUR AUDIO & PATCHESI've outlined some "play time" in the calendar next week to process YOUR AUDIO through Beads. I spoke about this on Discord but wanted to make sure you all saw it as I know not everyone has joined the Discord server. This came from a couple of you having questions about how Beads would sound with certain patches or audio sources. So, prepare some audio, comment on this below if you'd like to be involved and we'll sort it. This will likely be a private Patreon only video (of any tier) to share your sounds with me patching them through Beads. However it could be a cool public video too as it plays into ideas I've had for a while about sharing supporters audio and work. A post will follow this week about this again so watch out for that. 

QUESTION FOR YOUI also wanted to ask - who grabbed a Beads then? What have you done with it so far? 

That's it for now, have a great end to the weekend, enjoy the video and chat soon. 

VIDEO DETAILS

Welcome to my ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEADS a Eurorack module from Mutable Instruments. In this video I’ll be taking you through all the settings and controls with technical run downs, raw sounds and LOTS of musical patches and applications. I always aim to pack demos full of ideas and use cases both technically and musically so I hope you enjoy the video and learn a few things.

Beads is the follow up to the discontinued Clouds module from Mutable Instruments. It’s labelled as a ‘texture synthesiser’ and it’s core function is real time granular synthesis. It can also be a delay, media emulator (tape), beat slicer, pitch shifter and it has a built in reverb. When you’re not processing external sounds or frozen sounds you’ve locked into the audio buffer it will load wavetables giving you a bonus wavetable oscillator that still goes through the granular processing and reverb. Compared to Clouds it’s far higher quality, has more features, better control layout with no menus and less button press/hold functions.

THINGS TO CHECK OUT MENTIONED IN THE VIDEOInfo on granular synthesis - http://bit.ly/granularsynthesisThoreau’s cabin - http://bit.ly/thoreauscabinRotating Pitch Shifters - http://bit.ly/rotatingpitchKarplus Strong Synthesis - http://bit.ly/standford-karplusMusic concrète - http://bit.ly/musicconrete

OTHER MUTABLE INSTRUMENTS DEMOSBlades https://youtu.be/msCWWV89uV0Ripples https://youtu.be/GOsI4iidr48Stages https://youtu.be/B8FwJUq5qskMarbles https://youtu.be/GEF51zAUr5cPlaits https://youtu.be/_zYwdcYECdgEars https://youtu.be/MALTYSPhMrYRings https://youtu.be/O0IHt1JiRvkWarps https://youtu.be/iRLU5B4V-JwClouds https://youtu.be/IjcDnax9yLYElements https://youtu.be/uqfSDk7cpbcStreams https://youtu.be/UEkjscJIIxIShelves https://youtu.be/GTSXQ-Tpg7QPeaks https://youtu.be/qR82LP9MuM0Branches https://youtu.be/hVKx_OWhwF8

TIMING INDEX // SECTIONS

00:00 Hello and patch previews

02:21 Verbal and graphical run down of Beads and how granular synthesis works

05:41 My Beads Patch Cookbook PDF

06:07 Patch Break - Rings into Beads & VERB BLISS

DENSITY & SEEDING GRAINS OF AUDIO

06:32 Latched density - auto grain creation

08:31 Clocked density - dividers and probability

09:33 Gated & Triggered density & turning Beads into a voice

10:55 Patch Break - Fuzzy bass guitar with scattered granular animations

ATTENURANDOMISER

11:24 Internal modulations

12:44 Random modulation as the key to granular synthesis sounds

13:08 External modulations

14:42 Patch Break - Particles of the speech in 12 bit ‘classic Clouds’ mode

15:01 Parameters snapshot for each grain + polyphonic chordal washes

16:03 Patch Break - modulated dry/wet for fading octave particles

16:22 Sound design tip - Synthesising debris from basic impacts

17:12 Patch break - Lo Fi Modular Beats to relax and study to

17:40 Quality settings and their media emulations (hi fi, lo fi, tape emulation)

18:33 Reverb - it’s sound and quality changes

20:04 Sound design tip for cinematic evolving drones

20:21 Patch Break - Ambient guitar with pitch shifting trails

21:47 Making one VCO sound massive with granular top line melodies

23:13 WHAT A BONUS! - WAVETABLE OSCILLATOR!!!

24:45 Patch Break - a pitched down poem about Clouds

DELAY MODE

25:05 How to get into delay mode

25:36 Standard delays

26:47 Multi-tap delays

27:21 Clocked delays

28:23 Quality settings & media emulating delays (tape)

29:17 Rotating head based pitch shifting & internal modulation of delays

29:47 Grungy lo fi ambient machine! Multi-tap saturated tape delays

30:28 Quick & dirty Karplus Strong Synthesis for plucked strings

31:33 Chorus & vibrato

32:39 Comb filter & flanger

33:29 Beat Slicer - think beat repeat, glitch, buffer stutters

35:13 Patch break - swelling grains from wavetables

35:37 Shimmer FX - granular echoes & shimmer verb

37:22 Patch break - Music concrète style sonic collages

37:43 How to time stretch with Beads

39:00 Patch Break - Beads as a multi-FX unit for external gear

39:19 Pitch shifting - quick tips for smooth settings

40:03 Patch break - Scattered percussion and glitch beat

40:25 Assignable CV input for feedback, reverb and mix

41:55 Patch break - guitar wow and flutter with UBER CHARACTER!

42:29 Gain adjustments

43:18 Bask in Beads by itself