Clouds

Clouds is a multi-function granular audio processor by Mutable Instruments.

To change modes, hold the "blend parameter" button for 5 seconds until the LEDs turn orange, then tap the blend button again to change modes.

Links

Clouds Home
Clouds Manual

Mode

Controls

Press to freeze buffer / hold to reverse

position

size

pitch

density

texture

blend

Position	grain starting position
Size	grain size
Pitch	grain pitch shift
Density	rate of grain generation.
Texture	amp envelope for grains.

Blend Parameters

	Dry/Wet
	Stereo Spread
	Feedback
	Reverb

Mode

Controls

loop

position

size

pitch

granular difffusion

LP <filter> BP

blend

Position	position
Size	size
Pitch	pitch
Density	granular diffusion
Texture	LP <filter> BP

Blend Parameters

	Dry/Wet
	Stereo Spread
	Feedback
	Reverb

Mode

Controls

loop / hold to reverse loop

time / loop start

loop length

pitch

diffusion

LP <filter> BP

blend

Position	time / loop start
Size	loop length
Pitch	pitch
Density	diffusion
Texture	LP <filter> BP

Blend Parameters

	Dry/Wet
	Stereo Spread
	Feedback
	Reverb

Mode

Controls

POSITION = selects in which buffer the audio is poured (when FREEZE is not active), or from which buffer the audio is synthesised (when FREEZE is active).

Example:
Set POSITION to minimum value. FREEZE. You get a first texture. Set POSITION to maximum value. UNFREEZE. Wait for something else to happen in the incoming audio. FREEZE again. By moving POSITION you interpolate between the two textures which had been captured at the press of FREEZE. Depending on the quality settings there are 2 to 7 buffers laid out on the course of the POSITION knob. So it's a bit like morphing between FFT slices.

SIZE = change the coefficients of a polynomial that determines how frequencies are mapped between the analysis and synthesis buffers. It's like a 1-knob GRM Warp. Over the course of the knob it'll do spectral shifting, but also spectral reversal.

PITCH = pitch-shifting.

DENSITY determines how results from the analyzer are passed to the resynthesizer. Below 12 o'clock, there's some increasing probability that a given FFT bin won't get updated, causing a kind of partial freeze. After 12 o'clock, adjacent analysis frames are increasingly merged together (like a low-pass filter in the amplitude each frequency bin). At extreme settings, random phase modulation is applied to smooth things - giving you different flavours of spectral muddling/reverb.

TEXTURE does two things: below 12 o'clock, it increasingly quantize the amplitudes of the spectral components, like a very low-bitrate audio file (a long time ago I loved making super harsh noise textures by loading text files as raw audio files in an audio editor... then encoding as mp3 or real audio with super low bitrate to make it sound like some underwater brian eno). After 12 o'clock, it increasingly weakens the strongest partials and amplifies the weakest ones. This has the effect of making the spectrum more noise-like.

- Émilie Gillet, via Muffwiggler