Mutable Instruments Beads
Granular texture engine with up to 30 simultaneous grain voices
14 HP Eurorack module
Beads is a granular audio processor by Mutable Instruments that continuously records incoming audio into a buffer and replays it as overlapping grains with independent position, pitch, size, and envelope control. Up to 30 simultaneous replay heads can scrub through recorded material, creating textures ranging from shimmering clouds to pitch-shifted delays. Its musical character spans ethereal ambience, glitchy stutters, timestretched drones, and lush reverberant granular washes.
Features
- Up to 30 simultaneous grain replay heads
- Continuous recording into a virtual tape loop buffer
- Mono or stereo operation depending on input patching
- Six recording quality settings: three stereo and three mono variants (Cold Digital, Sunny Tape, Scorched Cassette)
- Automatic input gain control (+0dB to +32dB) with manual override
- FREEZE button halts recording and backs up buffer after 10 seconds
- Buffer backup restored on next power-on after long freeze
- Latched, gated, triggered, and externally clocked grain generation modes
- DENSITY knob doubles as divider/probability in clocked mode
- TIME parameter selects playback position from newest to oldest buffer material
- PITCH parameter with -24 to +24 semitone range and virtual notches
- SIZE parameter controls grain duration (30ms to 4s) and reversal (up to 4s reversed)
Controls & Jacks (33)
- Freeze — Latching button that disables recording of incoming audio into the buffer. When engaged for >10 seconds, buffer content is backed up.
- Seed — Controls grain generation mode. Long press (4s) enables latched mode, short press disables it. In gated/triggered mode, hold to generate gra
- Density — Controls grain generation rate in latched mode. At 12 o'clock: no grains. CW: randomly modulated rate. CCW: constant rate. In clocked mode:
- Time — Controls buffer position for grain replay, from most recent audio (fully CCW) to oldest audio (fully CW), shifting replay heads relative to
- Quality — Selector button for recording quality (Cold digital, Sunny tape, Scorched cassette). Long press enables automatic gain adjustment. Hold whil
- Quality LED — Colored LED bar indicating current recording quality setting (Cold digital, Sunny tape, Scorched cassette).
- Pitch — Controls transposition of grains from -24 to +24 semitones with virtual notches at selected intervals.
- Size — Controls grain duration and direction. 11 o'clock: 30ms forward grain. CW: up to 4s forward grain. Fully CW (∞): never-ending delay taps. CC
- Shape — Adjusts amplitude envelope of grains. Fully CCW: clicky rectangular envelopes. Fully CW: slow attack envelopes reminiscent of reversed grain
- Time Attenurandomizer — Attenurandomizer for TIME parameter. CW from 12 o'clock: external CV modulation amount. CCW: CV-controlled randomization or internal randomi
- Pitch Attenurandomizer — Attenurandomizer for PITCH parameter. CW from 12 o'clock: external CV modulation amount. CCW: CV-controlled randomization or internal random
- Assign LED — Colored LED indicating which destination (Feedback, Dry/Wet, Reverb) the assignable CV input is currently routed to.
- Seed LED — Illuminated when latched grain generation is enabled. Brightness slowly modulates to indicate latching mode is active.
- Assign — Selects which of the three destinations (Feedback, Dry/Wet, Reverb) the assignable CV input is routed to. Hold and turn Feedback/Dry·Wet/Rev
- Reverb — Controls amount of reverb applied to the output signal.
- Size Attenurandomizer — Attenurandomizer for SIZE parameter. CW from 12 o'clock: external CV modulation amount. CCW: CV-controlled randomization or internal randomi
- Shape Attenurandomizer — Attenurandomizer for SHAPE parameter. CW from 12 o'clock: external CV modulation amount. CCW: CV-controlled randomization or internal random
- Feedback — Controls the amount of output signal mixed with the input and fed back into the processing chain.
- Dry/Wet — Controls dry/wet balance between original and granularized signal.
- Input Level — Indicates input signal level. Blinks during automatic input gain adjustment.
- IN L — Left channel audio input for recording into the buffer.
- IN R — Right channel audio input for stereo operation.
- Freeze Gate In — Gate input to freeze/disable buffer recording.
- Seed Trigger In — Clock or trigger input for grain generation.
- Density CV In — CV modulation for grain density/generation rate.
- Assignable CV In — CV input assignable to Feedback, Dry/Wet, or Reverb via the Assign button.
- Input VU — VU-style LED between audio inputs indicating input signal level.
- Time CV In — CV modulation input for TIME parameter, amount set by Time Attenurandomizer.
- Size CV In — CV modulation input for SIZE parameter, amount set by Size Attenurandomizer.
- Shape CV In — CV modulation input for SHAPE parameter, amount set by Shape Attenurandomizer.
- Pitch CV In — CV modulation input for PITCH parameter, amount set by Pitch Attenurandomizer.
- OUT L — Left channel audio output with granular processing and reverb.
- OUT R — Right channel audio output with granular processing and reverb.
How-To Guides
- Backing Up Buffer Contents
- Restoring Backed-Up Buffer on Power-On
- Firmware Update
- Classic Granular Cloud Texture
- Timestretching with a Decaying Envelope
- Sequenced Melody of Grains
- Chord Generation from Fast Arpeggio
- Buffer Slice Sequencer
- Pitch-Shifting Delay
- Granular Wavetable Drone Synthesis
- Reversed Grain Atmospheric Pad
Explore the interactive Beads panel on BleepDex — tap any control to learn what it does.
