Modular Add-On: Mutable Instruments Clouds

This product is an expansion for Softube Modular. If you do not currently own Modular, you can purchase it HERE.

Mutable Instruments Clouds

Make It Rain

In the world of modular synthesis there are certain names that command veneration and respect; Moog, Buchla, Doepfer, Serge; but there are others that inspire the kind of fizzing delight and excitement that simply won’t leave you alone until you’ve filled your bedroom and half the hallway too.

Mutable Instruments have been making Eurorack modules in that latter category for almost a decade, and now Clouds — the texturizing module which sold like crazy in hardware and became a firm favourite of enthusiasts around the world — is available for Modular.

Clouds allows the user to divide incoming signals into audio droplets between 16ms and 1 second long; like using a tap to create a controlled drip from the audio stream; and manipulate those droplets in so many different ways you could easily pass a rainy weekend or two examining the capabilities of this module alone.

Scrub through the audio buffer. Change the sample size and texture. Create choppy rhythmic mayhem out of the smoothest input. Alternatively, mutate a snare drum into an ambient drone or soundscape by stacking droplets more and more densely until a reverb-like storm-system builds. Shift pitch, stretch time, feed back, until the tone you want shines through.

A digital module, Clouds hides hidden depths behind its every control, and learning its limits and possibilities is an adventure in itself. It’s great for mangling incoming drum loops into trippy, jerking breakouts. It can be used as a kind of one-shot sampler by freezing the buffer, allowing you to play with the same chunk of audio indefinitely. It can robotize an input signal, by using an external oscillator to quickly freeze and un-freeze the audio stream. It can be used like a wavetable by populating the buffer with multiple different tones. It can even simply add some grit and texture to a signal by generating a granular, irregular delay tail and blending it in parallel with the audio stream passing through. A kind of organic sonic friction.

If Modular synthesis is all about creating the broadest, deepest, densest, and most diverse palettes possible for sound design, then no system is complete without Clouds. Add it to your setup today, and make it rain.

In short

• A granular texturizer, which processes an audio stream into manipulable droplets.
• Control speed, size, texture and more of the flow of droplets.
• Can be used simply as a reverb, or a delay.
• Freeze function allows use as a simple one-shot sampler.
• Four audio quality modes, including appealing lo-fi 8-bit options.
• Stereo spread can send droplets firing left and right.
• An awesome module to experiment with – find a use no one else has.
• Requires Modular

Please Note: 

• Modular (cross-platform modular synthesizer) is required to run this software!

System Requirements

• macOS Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13
• Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11
• Softube account
• iLok account
• Computer with AU, VST, VST3, and/or AAX-compatible DAW host software
• Internet access (for downloading installers and managing licenses)

Supported CPU Families 

• Apple macOS computers with Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or Apple silicon (M1 or newer) CPU. Apple silicon is supported natively. 
• Windows computers with quad-core Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or AMD quad-core processors with SSE 4.2 support.
• Other Intel processors (Celeron, Pentium, and Xeon) are compatible if they support SSE 4.2 instructions. 

Supported Host Software (DAW)  

Any 64-bit VST, VST3, AU, or AAX (Pro Tools 11.0.2 or higher) compatible host application should work. However, due to plug-in host differences between DAWs—and our rigorous standards—Softube only officially test their plug-ins and instruments in the most recent versions of Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, and Reaper. Softube plug-ins are not tested regularly in non-listed systems. They will likely work if the system requirements are met. However, the manufacturer cannot guarantee a solution for issues in unsupported systems. 
  
Softube strongly recommend using VST3, as some of their plug-ins have features that are not present in the older VST format. Supported sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz, in both mono and stereo. The most recent maintenance release of your DAW application is recommended. AAX DSP is not currently in active development. TDM/VENUE/RTAS are no longer supported. See Legacy Installers.

• Softube Modular is required to run this software.
• Make sure that you always use the latest iLok License Manager. It is not included in the Softube installer but can be downloaded from www.ilok.com​