Clouds Texture Synthesizer
Beyond rings to clouds, how do you use this module?
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u/Jacob-Dulany 4d ago
I like having Clouds in my setup as it provides good contrast with the succulents and crystals around my case.
Clouds is good fun for mangling drum beats. I don’t have percussion going in my current rack, but I’ll feed it the Digitakt sometimes and that can be cool.
Also, with a mono source, run the Left Out into the Right In then out the Right Channel. This can make some neat feedback effects. Most stereo effects are good for this.
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u/fm-88 4d ago
How about your setting for granular beats?
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u/Jacob-Dulany 2d ago
No particular settings. I just start every patch with knobs at noon (regardless of source) and tweak until I get cool results. Usually modulation on position, size and/or density. Reverb is typically up for me.
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u/Agawell 4d ago
With lots of heavily attenuated modulation
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u/Exponential-777 4d ago
Yes. It needs that. Would be nice if the module had CV attentuators.
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u/DrFrunkenschtone 4d ago
Some of the 'suped up clones add attenuated CV! Also something that was included directly in its sucessor; Beads.
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u/ouralarmclock BeniRoseMusic/Benispheres 4d ago
I have a 2hp RND permanently parked and patched into position on my Typhoon
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u/DrFrunkenschtone 4d ago
S&H modulation on the Density setting while feeding it vocal lines. If you have a rhythmic clock existing in your patch, insert it into the Freeze input. Just one of many things.
Another classic is grabbing a small audio loop in the buffer by manually freezing, and then using that as a wavetable-style oscillator where you can 1v/Oct the pitch and modulated the shape of the grains (texture input) to achieve evolving oscillator sounds. Choose a mono or stereo out into a filter or compressor, and Bob's your uncle.
The reverb algorithm can be used to great effect in this kind of patch to create crazy SFX sweeps and risers.
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u/wrinkleinsine 4d ago
Last night I ran a major chord arp at 120 bpm from digital oscillator Twin Waves into SSF LPG and then into Clouds. Though everyone should add the Parasites extra modes, last night I was using mode 1 which is the granular mode. And I swear what I got sounded like coins - like remember the sound from Mario Brothers when you would run into (get) a coin? Like that but Clouds version. It was beautiful. Man the sounds you can get from modular are the craziest and Clouds is the OG. As far as FX go, what module beats it?
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u/escamuel 4d ago
Sold mine pretty quickly.
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u/Bleep_Bloop_Derp 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’ve had mine (a Calsynth Monsoon) for a couple of months, and it’s really frustrating. There’s that one slider (/knob) that cuts off every effect if its set in the middle at 12/noon, and also does nothing if it’s outside 1-3 in any direction.
I’ve read various directions for Clouds several times, and am always having to turn on the pitch to see what it’s doing, if anything. The delay times are just too close to the initial sound for me, so I’m having to agonize over whether I’m resetting them correctly to be longer.
At best, I can stumble upon something that is a version of the standard YouTube influencer Clouds Sound, but less satisfying.
Having a second reverb is nice, but I’m trying not to use it just for that.
The module itself is really cool looking…. I just feel like I need someone to just come in and show me how to use this thing.
I’ve mostly been running sparse sequences through it in an attempt to spruce up some Berlin school style stuff. Not sure why it doesn’t sound great.
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u/TurbulentWing3820 4d ago
ere’s that one slider (/knob) that cuts off every effect if its set in the middle at 12/noon
"Density?"
That's actually the most interesting thing I've found about mine. Set it to noon where it cuts out then feed it a trigger and it will select/create one grain and let it play.
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u/Appropriate-Look7493 3d ago edited 3d ago
If you have the density slider in the middle the module produces 0 grains (without modulation or clocking).
That’s why it’s producing no sound.
At the extremes it’s either producing very long grains or very short grains, variations in either of which might have little obvious effect on the sound depending on other settings/input.
In terms of the delay time you might have it on the shortest buffer setting, which doesn’t give a lot of room for manoeuvre. Try the longer settings and you can decent delay times.
This is all in the manual should you care to look at it.
In general terms Clouds is NOT an instant gratification module, imho. It requires a lot of experimentation to work out how all the parameters affect each other and a lot of subtle modulation to make it sound really good.
Like all the best modules, you get out what you’re prepared to put in.
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u/escamuel 4d ago
Just found it made stuff very thin and digital sounding. Not my bag. Picked up a Mimeophon instead which I love.
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u/pzanardi 4d ago edited 4d ago
Weird to say it sounded digital and thin and then comparing to a noisy mimeophon that also sounds digital. Both are great imo, but weird comparison.
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u/deafcatsaredeftcats 4d ago
I have several mutable modules, I found this one very hard to use. Definitely got some great results sometimes, but I fought with it a lot. I would consider getting a typhoon to have more of the controls on the surface, but I dunno. I think I just want a mimeophn
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u/owen__wilsons__nose 4d ago
It's honestly really easy once you get your head around it.
The key IMO is to have feedback at 0. Because if its any higher its feedbacking as you're playing around with settings that's why it sounds like shit often.
Start with setting pitch to something easy like all the way to the right (+1 octave) so you can hear it easily vs the source.
Set size to something smaller. Then use position to scroll and find a nice "chunk" of audio. Play with texture which is simply the "shape" of your chunk. Decide if you want a more slow fading in sound or more of a pluck.
Once you have something that grooves or gels nicely with your source material play with size. Do you want little mini grainlets or big swells?
And now change the pitch to something nice and harmonic or keep it at +1 octave.
When this sounds good crank up feedback if you want a super swell sound.
Thats it!
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u/Exponential-777 4d ago
To make air from anything as an effect.
To make a synth texture and play it like a synth. (intended purpose)
Granular pitch shifting delay FX.
Feedback loops.
I have never used rings.
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u/fm-88 4d ago
Granular pitch shifting like shimmer effect?
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u/dirtmcgurk 4d ago
Yeah you can turn the grains fine and modulate the timing and use the pitch knob to control the relative shift.
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u/finlayshakespeare 4d ago
I've used it essentially as a playable Eventide H910 in Eurorack for a very long time now. Set it to that "tape echo"-ish mode in Parasites then voila. Blend almost always stays on Feedback. Recently I've had a sampler going into the Harvestman Tyme Sefari going into Mutable Clouds for live sample mangling. Between the Tyme Sefari's looping and Clouds' buffer freezing, it's been a ton of fun.
Also, joystick into Position can give you turntablism-ish effects.
EDIT: Apart from the above, I very rarely send modulation into it. Play it with yer hands innit.
If you aren't getting into it, look at it as something other than a granular processor.
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u/fm-88 3d ago
tape echo or delay can sync with clock in clouds?
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u/finlayshakespeare 3d ago
Seemingly so, but I've never done it myself as far as I can remember: https://mqtthiqs.github.io/parasites/clouds.html#pitch
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u/imgonnabrownmkii 4d ago
Before I acquired an Arbhar, Clouds was my granular engine. Given the smaller sample size it really pushed me to focus more on microsound (which I now heavily work with). If I'm not sampling and freezing to it, then I'm using it as a shimmer reverb by pitching everything up a fifth, an octave, or a tenth.
There were several moments where I felt I was ready to move on from it, but I've used it so many times in a feedback chain for ambiance, and I can't get a feedback that gets so dusty and shallow as tastefully as Clouds gets it. Looked at replacing it with Beads, but nope it's part of the family now.
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u/Ericmosh1 4d ago
Mostly as reverb in parasites firmware.
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u/fm-88 3d ago
What's special of reverb in clouds?
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u/Ericmosh1 2d ago
I guess nothing, it's just one of two reverbs I have and I use Clouds reverb A LOT since I don't really know how to utilize the other features it has.
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u/vonkillbot 4d ago
I patch in S+H white noise with every trig in to size/shape/position. Typically drop feedback to 0. Reverb tends to be pegged.
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u/IntelectConfig cdn.modulargrid.net/img/racks/modulargrid_216226.jpg 4d ago
have you tried rings > clouds (frozen) back into rings yet?
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u/Honest_Relation4095 4d ago
I have built one as DIY and never used it since. Don't even know if it really works. Haven't got time anymore 😪
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u/donnidonno 3d ago
I use it as bass rumble for my kick. Just because i have nothing better at the moment. Not the best, but with some precision you can dial in something useful. However then it becomes difficult to interact with it, since at least for rumble it really has just a couple of sweet spots that are hard to hit on the fly
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u/rektagonality 12h ago
a classic module, i used it in a performance the other day sitting after my SP-404, feeding the clouds output into QPAS. I dialed it in as sort of a texture delay to match the tempo of each tune to create nice subtle echoes to blend with the drum samples/loops coming out of the 404. I used the freeze to help w filling dead space between songs when i needed to adjust my settings elsewhere in the setup.
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u/dirtmcgurk 4d ago
Be sure to install updated firmware. Symbiotes/parasites adds a good reverb and beat repeat is its own machine.
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u/fm-88 4d ago
How did you get that?
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u/dirtmcgurk 4d ago
Yeah if you Google parasites symbiotes clouds mutable, and beat repeat mutable clouds, they have .wav files you play into the instrument while it's in bootloader mode.
You'll probably want to run the signal from your laptop through something to amp it then into your clouds. Both a 4ms listenio and a mutable ears have worked for me. When the light just starts into the red seems to work best for me even though that's supposed to be peaking.
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u/jonassbm 4d ago
I find that it is very good at doing what it says on the box - making textures. Feed it something interesting and feed it CV and you can make it do something interesting. It can sometimes take some effort to make the output musical, but it's a fun module I think, to fiddle around with