I've gone into much detail about the Mutable Instruments brand in a few of my posts. They really do offer a vast range of powerful modules and are some of the most recognizable.
One of their most famous (now discontinued) modules is the texture synthesizer Clouds. Clouds is a really genius module that takes incoming audio, divides it up into tiny samples and, frankly, does some pretty crazy things with them in terms of reverberation . Early on in my patching career, way before I even owned a module, I heard some ambient patches using Clouds and was instantly hooked!
So I took the plunge. The good thing is that there are plenty of manufacturers that make a replica of Clouds, or its thinner counterpart uBurst; the original models can be very expensive no doubt. My first impressions of it were positive, from the bit that I've explored. The reverberation feature is pretty mesmerizing, to say the least, and the density parameter can really do some funky things when modulated.
After playing around with it for a bit, here's a patch I'm calling the "Mutable Instruments Trifecta"! Rings into Clouds (a very common practice), both modulated by Tides v2.
Not that bad. I'm getting a cool space-like vibe from this, "space strings" or something to that extent. The contrast between the background hum and sharp sequence of notes is pretty cool as well.
Let's look into this patch a bit more.
Clouds is in its basic granular mode, with all its blending parameters set to 12 o'clock except for reverbation, which is set to ~4 o'clock. This is what adds that nice reverberation to the patch.
Rings is in quadriphonic (red) sympathetic strings (yellow) mode and sends both its odd and even outputs to Clouds. The reason for using the quadriphone mode here is to add as many notes into the mix as possible, all of which contribute to the ambiance.
Tides is in 1/8 Hz (green) cyclic bipolar oscillation (yellow) mode, set to output different shapes (LED off). Output 1 is an LFO that modulates Rings' damping parameter. Output 2 is a low-frequency triangle wave that modulates Tides' own shift/level parameter, which in turn attenuates Output 1's signal. Output 3 is a gate that controls Clouds' freeze setting. It opens at the end of the attack phase of the main signal and closes at the end of the oscillation.
The Doepfer LFO sends LFOs of various shapes to Tides' slope and frequency parameters, Clouds' position parameter and Rings' brightness parameter. Yes, that's six LFOs in total now, which may actually be a record for me at this point!
As always, perhaps a personal favourite of mine, 2HP TM sends random voltages (quantized via 2HP Tune) to Rings. 2HP Euclid sends a Euclidean rhythm to trigger Rings. Finally, Pam's Workout is set to 126 BPM, and triggers TM every quarter of a beat (sixteenth notes) and Euclid every half beat (eighth notes).
I will admit, many users of Clouds experience finickiness with their patches and to a lesser extent that was the case with this patch. It was a bit challenging to figure out the exact sound I wanted Rings to send to Clouds such that the reverberation did not die away too quickly. In my case, varying the damping parameter of Rings even the slightest has dramatic effects on decay time of the reverberation. But hey, it was pretty fun experimenting around with it, so I don't see this challenge as something negative.
That sums up my first attempt at using Clouds. Naturally you can expect more videos featuring Clouds for anything ambient-related; I really want to learn the ins and outs of this module and what each mode is capable of.
Also, if you've been following me on Twitter ( @UnclePeterMod), you'll know that this is my last video in my current 1-row case. I just finished building a new 2-row case, maybe I'll make a post about that too, it was pretty fun to make!
Do you have any suggestions on patches to make using Clouds? If so, leave a comment below!
Happy patching friends,
-Uncle Peter
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