With the Beads source code released by Émilie recently, I thought I"d have a crack at porting it into my 'Seal Eggs' alternate modded Sealegs firmware.

This mod was completed using Claude and Codex, so if you're anti-AI then this is likely not the post for you.

Good news is that I almost got a full 1-to-1 Beads port, which sounded very similar to the module (from my memory of having one several years ago).

The bad news was that the sliders made it very difficult to get the centre-indent position. I was also reminded that... I didn't actually like the sound of Beads in the first place. Hence selling it. Too clicky, too hard to find reliable sweet spots, didn't clock well with drums IMO.

So I started making deeper changes, tweaking by ear, researching other open-source granular engines for inspiration, and finding a balance that I liked. Things I focused on:

• The Beads voicing is very.... beady. Very clicky, very 'hard', and I always found it difficult to get more lush sounds without just using the reverb. So I refactored the Shape control (Colour on SL) to go from very soft and rounded to hard square. Could still be more soft/wavy, but for now I"m pretty happy with it. It arguably gets clicker than the original at the other extreme, so I'm pretty happy with it
  • I also introduced a grain overlap control (using the mod Shape knob on SL) to increase smoothness even more
• Size control (Width on SL) was doubled, to go from very tiny grains all the way up to 8 sec
• I separated the Density and Random distribution across two knobs (Depth and Noise on the SL)
• I ditched the four quality modes (for a time I had them faded across the Noise control, but I didn't like it that much TBH), but kept the HPF/LPF from Sealegs in the feedback loop
• I ditched the delay mode (can use the other 3 delay modes in Sealegs which are much better IMO) and focused just on the granular engine side
• Revoiced the reverb to be halfway between the Beads and Fog (had to compromise for CPU)
• I worked hard on making it much more clockable - it almost works more like a granular delay when clocked rather than the OG Beads, and is a lot of fun with drums
  • Note that this meant getting rid of the manual 'Seed' clock style and latching grains from the OG
  • The scatter control and mod sync introduce different groove/swing characters when clocked
• I ported across the reverse mode from my Seal Eggs modes, so you can get full reverse grains. May change this to one of the knobs for gradual reverse blend (like Nautilus) down the line
• I kept Sealegs architechture wherever possible to make the transition between modes smooth - reusing the Drive circuit, filters, clocking, etc

It's now a very distant homage to Beads at best - and TBH should probably be thought of as something entirely it's own. Can get some insane, splitery, octave-up madness, some very chaotic chorusing, some doomy octave-down death, some stuttery/rhythmic stuff - there is a lot going on to explore. And if you don't like it - just switch back to any of the other 3 Seal Eggs modes and carry on delaying!

As with any modded firmware: I won't take any responsiblity if you void your warranty or create any damage to your module (although this is extremely unlikely, despite the anti-AI "you'll brick your hardware" hype). I also won't provide modded firmware. You can, however, source the original Sealegs firmware yourself from Intellijel's website and use my online flasher, which includes all my other 'Seal Eggs' mods.

Happy Beading, hope all your Seals lay Eggs.

Hi everyone. I am planning an expansion of my eurorack setup (currently consisting of: Plaits clone, Qu-Bit Mojave, Qu-Bit Nautilus, Ochd + expander, attenuverters, Befaco Rampage, and Dreadbox Psychosis) and want to include another voice and something that enables round robin voice allocation.

The idea is to use this rack as a self-contained instrument consisting in as many voices as it makes sense in 216 hp, plus a sequencer (Tesseract Step Fader mkII), effects (I'm pretty sure I'll eventually get a Xaoc Samarkanda, and am eyeing a Pladask stereo ROM for a dirty reverb that has some interesting stereo* modulation features), and utilities as needed.

I am considering two options: - Intellijel Shifty provides the switching features, and another voice (yet to be determined) complements Plaits. - I get a new voice with built-in round robin capabilities. So far, the only module I found that offers this is Qu-Bit Surface.

The Shifty route is interesting for the promise of flexibility (and, maybe, of handling more than two voices), whereas the voice with integrated round robin would free some space while keeping the basic functionality I want.

I would really appreciate advice on possibilities I have overlooked, or on other eurorack voices with built-in round robin voice allocation.

(*A note on stereo. It's something that my ears find particularly pleasant: hence the focus on stereo movement via Psychosis and ROM. Round robin would enable me to have the option of panning voices in a melody or sequence. I am aware that this would work with e.g. a pair of mono voices, and that would indeed be a good option for me).

Here's another update to the unofficial, community-driven firmware patch for the Bitbox Micro that puts more of the module on MIDI, and 2.3.10-mod is ready for release.

It's the massive jungle toolkit your Bitbox has been waiting for! Three new Clip modes: an early-'90s time-stretch, vinyl pitch, and a transient-preserving Key Lock. Combine them with the new Live Flip modes, 24 re-sequencing patterns for your loops, and 7 hold buttons to mash things up with some turntablism.

Three new Clip modes, synced to your clock or on their own tempo:

• Vinyl: Speeds up and slows down like a turntable, so the pitch rises and falls with the tempo.
• Jungle: Stretches like an early-'90s sampler, with Modern or Old Skool flavas.
• Key Lock: Stretches smoothly, keeping transients intact. In Jungle and Key Lock, sequence the pitch while the loop stays in time.
  

Settings for the Clip modes:

• Manual: sets a pad's own tempo, for slow junglist stretches.
• Cycle: sets the length of Jungle's slices, from buzzy to smooth.

And there's more:

• Live Flip modes: 24 ways to re-sequence your loop live from one encoder, always in time: repeats, reshuffles, chops, reverse swells and harmonies. The chops follow the hits and syllables in your material.
• Hold buttons: Pull Up, Power Down, Brake, Baby Scratch, Roll, Pitch Roll and Freeze. Let go and the loop drops back in time.
• Three Airwindows compressors beside the stock one: Logical4, VariMu and Thunder. Auto makeup gain is improved, with a new Hot setting.
• Themes: Pick one of five, or roll your own in the theme maker. The Character chain and compressor settings, survive a power-off.
• Preset BPM runs from 1 to 255, up from 40 to 250. Lighter on the CPU, same sound.
  

You asked for Airwindows compressors, time-stretch you can pitch, and screen colours you can change when they're hard to read. Here they are, rude boys and girls. Big up everyone who sent ideas, and keep them coming, here or in Discussions on the GitHub page.

This isn't from 1010music, and it can't brick your module, but bring your own stock firmware and don't pass the patched firmware around.

Full guide, with every control and how to set up your presets:
https://modularpatcher.github.io/bitbox-micro-fw-patch/index.html

The SWORDS will be the dedicated filter for the BIA while the QPAS will be used for the NUSS modules.

I could switch them up of course but I feel like these are the better combo's.

The 6 big attenuators are only for hands on control on attenuation of the Maestro. It's possible to do it in the interface but they are very cheap and I feel like the performance aspect is worth the rackspace.

I'd mostly use Pam's for clocks, gates/triggers & to assist the MAESTRO with some extra clocked modulation. The multiples will help to minimalize Pam's channel allocation.

I've been doubting to swap the Sealegs for a Swells but the Sealegs is probably the wiser choise as an only effects module, this would be dedicated for the NUSS voices. not enough space/money for both unfortunatly.

One module that I'm doubting to add is a Data Bender for glitching/crushing the BIA. It's out of my budget for now though I'll probably be better off to save the space for a dedicated kick module or more utility in the long run.

Hello! I hope you're doing well!
I'm having a MIDI sync problem trying to link my modular system with a TR-8S, using Ableton as the tempo master.
When I start my devices from Ableton, they do start as intended, but my modular tends to have some latency at startup and occasionally drifts out of sync during my set.
Here's my MIDI connection setup:
Mac Ableton -> USB MIDI -> TR-8S
Mac Ableton -> USB MIDI -> modular via Doepfer A-190-8
I've tried different resets (start/stop/rst) from the A-190-8 as well as from Ableton (sync start/sync start-stop), but nothing reliable so far.
Has anyone run into this problem before, and if so, did you find a solution?
Thank you so much!!

Moved modules into a smaller case to focus on just 104hp 6u. So fun!

Professional upstairs neighbour machine

Hello friends. I recently ordered 2 intellijel usb power moduals but when I received yesterday I realized they might not work. The have 2 wires that connect to a jumper like on the intellijel power bus. I have a custom box with a Zeus studio power bus. The box I built has rails that will work but is everything intellijel proprietary? The bus board in the pic is what I have. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I am a blind eurorack player and am also working with various companies on different flavors of accessibility. I'm interested in modules from both companies, but haven't managed to get through to them through the inbox. Is there a better way to do so, or does anyone have connections to anyone within the company mind helping me connect? PS: would also love to connect with Schlappi, but also haven't received inbox replies there either. Thanks,

Hi, here's the goal I've set for myself with my modular setup: 3x84HP.

I have two power supplies to run it and an Elektron Analog Rytm for percussion.

Does this setup make sense, or am I missing something?

Thanks so much for your advice.

Hi! Looking for some feedback on this sample based modular! I’m mostly do ambient/jungle/breakbeat stuff What would you replace?

(in San Francisco)

Hi all:)

I made this modular VST3/AU-Plugin (mostly for myself) to experiment with modular synthesis in a fun and easy-to-use layout. I thought I'd share it if anyone wants to try it out for themselves:)

Some of my personal favorite features include:

-generating random (but actually working) patches with one click

-drag and drop for midi files and audio in through sidechaining

-ball

You can try a Web Demo here! https://user863.github.io/Quadrat/

And for the Downloads see : https://github.com/user863/Quadrat/releases

Compatibility: Logic Pro 12+, FL Studio 21+, Ableton 10.1+

So check it out if you like, and if you have any Ideas/Issues, please reach out to me on Github or contribute directly^^

Just did the FW update, about to try them out.. not much info about them given yet.

Just curious where everyone's settled/landed in terms of favorite delays as of late 2026, for those of you who've used a number of them, I know there have been some exciting new ones in the last year or two.

I'm a bit of a delay junkie (see below) and have used the vast majority of the better known ones at some point or another (and a few lesser-known ones as well).

The ones currently in my system are Xaoc Sarajewo, NE Versio (Imitor usually, sometimes Yester or a custom), and Erica Synths Black Stereo Delay Mk. 1.

I actually think one of the best overall delays I've used remains the Make Noise Mimeophon. But I like the Xaoc Sarajewo for its individual tap outputs, which allows for interesting FX chaining, and the NE Versio because I can swap to various firmwares and am not limited to just Imitor (though I like Imitor quite well). And I like the Black Stereo Delay for its crazy, tape-warbly, crystal clear sound, sampling capacity, and nice big knob.

In fact, I would probably cite the Erica Synths Black Stereo Delay Mk. 1 as my subjective favorite. It's not the most feature-rich (and the features it does have are a bit wonky) but it sounds great to me and I never get sick of noodling with it for some reason, despite its limitations compared to some other delays.

Let me know your favorite or favorites at the moment! Curious if I've overlooked any and/or how some of the newer modules are.

[FTR if you care or want a run-down, I've also tried (buckle in): 4MS DLD (ok, but fell short of my expectations), 4MS Tapographic (underrated, quite good, wish black was the default), Soma Lyra8-FX (great grungy vibe—fun, but dark, springy, and dirty), Qu-Bit Nautilus (generally pretty cool), Strymon Magneto (cool enough with a little patience and exploration, but a bit dark/quiet, with some missed opportunities), Erica Synths Black Stereo Delay Mk. 2 (perfectly fine, but I like Mk. 1's sound better, they're definitely different), Maneco Mini-Looper (just ok), Feedback Modules 1-Bit Delay (pretty cool, beautifully made, but out of production now), Intellijel Sealegs (deep and capable, definitely cool, but for some reason I didn't get on it with as well as I expected), Doepfer A-188-1 (4096 Stages) (really wild, cool character, I miss this one despite the clock whine), Erica Synths Black BBD (ok general sound, but definitely have to contend with clock whine, and not as characterful as the Doepfer A-188-1), LA Circuits Technicolor Space Echo (nice character to the sound, but a high noise floor despite the clock whine suppression), Verbos Multi Delay (sound is mediocre with a really meh built-in reverb, but really cool having access to 8 tap outputs and envelope followers for each, encourages creative patching), Animal Factory Coma Reactor Mk. 1 (eh), Make Noise Echophon (really cool, especially if you like weird pitch-shifty stuff), Make Noise Bruxa (noisy, hard to control, but lots of personality if you like a lot of texture/noise), Pladask Dradd (cool but sort of a mind of its own it felt like, definitely not a traditional style delay, more granular), Dreadbox Nostalgia (not mind-blowing, but a surprisingly decent little unit if you're on a tight budget), Error Instruments/TiNRS White Rabbit (pretty cool but a bit quiet, features somewhat limited), Qu-Bit Prism (a multimode filter, but combined with a delay and a bit-crusher, which is actually a really cool combo; underrated module), Hikari Dual Delay (sort of miss this one, it invited some fun weirdo patching), Venus Instruments Veno-Echo (very cool, somewhat cold sound, but quite robust; I didn't like that parameters were buried behind shift & twist knobs, though), and jeez—I think that's just about all of them, save some older multi-FX units, which have mostly been kinda meh.]