Modular Add-On: Mutable Instruments Braids

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

Astonishingly Sophisticated Sound-Generation

Braids, by French Eurorack pioneers Mutable Instruments, is not an oscillator.

It sort of looks like one, with fine and coarse pitch/frequency controls, a v/oct input, and voltage-controllable tone/timbre controls.

It even sort of sounds like one, in as far as it outputs audio.

Mutable Instruments call it a macro oscillator, but even that is an understatement. It’s a hugely sophisticated digital synthesis engine, able to produce and manipulate complex sounds – classic waves from vintage synths, bells, resonant filters, plucked and bowed strings, vocals and vowel/formant sounds, wind instruments, percussion, noise, granular clouds and more – by means of 45 or so fully-realized algorithms, featuring multiple oscillators, wavetables, filters, VCAs, ring modulators, and so on under the hood.

Each mode is a different algorithm and produces a different variety of sounds as you turn the two tone controls, Timbre and Colour. These controls are pre-programmed to do different things per algorithm, often adjusting multiple parameters in the set-up at once to tour the sweet spots. And of course, they can be CV controlled.

Using the trigger input and built-in AD envelope, each algorithm can even become a self-contained synth voice. No other modules required. But bring other modules in and you can make pretty much any instrument you could imagine.

In a sense, Braids can be looked at as both an encyclopedia of classic synthesis techniques and a tool to bring them into the present-day, with tremendous sound-quality and ease-of-use to match.

It is also shockingly, spectacularly rich, varied, and complicated, with each mode being an instrument unto itself.

Features

• Macro oscillator featuring 40+ fully-realized digital synthesis algorithms
• Produce millions of different sounds easily – classic waves and telecoms babble, bells and whistles, percussion and ambience
• Just two controls morph through the sweet spots of each algorithm
• Great for triggered percussion
• Awesome for crazy complex waveform synthesis
• Phenomenal for glitchy out-of-control modulated sounds
• Incredibly deep, but easy to use
• It’s like a library of the greatest synth sounds of all time
• Requires Modular

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.

Important Note: 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​