Mutable Instruments Beads: best new Eurorack module of 2021
As we celebrate the best of 2021 and look forward to 2022, the Mutable Instruments Beads takes the award for best new Eurorack module.
Mutable Instruments is a brand which is already firmly established as one of the go-to names in Eurorack, responsible for some of the classics of the format, including the likes of the Rings resonator and Stages segment generator. The brand’s trademark combination of experimentalism and usability was displayed once more this year with the outstanding Beads module, a reinvention of the older Clouds granular audio processor.
Beads appears similar to Clouds at first glance – most of the controls are similar, even if the layout’s all been refreshed – but Mutable point out that the hardware and software has all been redesigned from the ground up for increased versatility and broader sonic options. Feed an audio signal into the module (or use one of the internal wavetables) and you soon realise that you have almost infinite creative potential at your fingertips.
With Beads, granular processing (or texture synthesis in Beads lingo) is the basis of everything from pristine digital synth tones to lo-fi pads, glitchy delay effects and spacey reverb ambience. It’s a deep module which takes time to get to grips with, but understanding how Beads works unlocks its immense sonic potential. Clouds was an excellent module in its own right, but Beads takes things to the next level. In a strong year for Eurorack releases, it’s a module which captured our imaginations and inspired us.
The Mutable Instruments Beads is in stock now, priced at £247.