A stereo granular effect that turns incoming sound into a cloud of small grains: smeared, re-pitched, frozen or scattered. It is an independent Maru adaptation of the Mutable Instruments Clouds Eurorack module, with a face that follows the original 18 HP panel.
The idea
Clouds keeps a short recording of what you feed it and plays it back as many overlapping grains. Where in that recording the grains come from, how long they are, how they are pitched and how many play at once decide whether the result sounds like a gentle texture behind the dry signal or something entirely new. Freeze stops recording, so the grains keep playing from the captured moment while you move the other controls.
Controls
- Position picks where in the recorded audio the grains are taken from.
- Size sets the grain length.
- Pitch transposes the grains.
- Density sets how many grains play.
- Texture shapes each grain's envelope, from sharp to smooth.
- Input gain sets the level going into the buffer.
- Blend is one knob with four jobs, as on the original. Blend target selects which one it edits: Dry/wet, Stereo spread, Feedback or Reverb. Each keeps its own setting when you switch.
- Freeze holds the buffer.
The panel shows every socket of the original: left and right audio inputs and outputs, a freeze gate, a trigger, and modulation inputs for position, size, pitch (V/OCT), density, texture and blend. The sockets are visible but inactive when the module plays on its own; in a rack you can patch modulators into them. A blend modulator adds movement around the saved setting rather than replacing it.
Getting started
Clouds is an audio effect: play a stereo recording, a guitar or a microphone through it. Start from the Default preset with a low Dry/wet so you hear the grains under the original, then move Position and Size, and press Freeze on a moment you like.
Limits
This version implements the stereo 16-bit granular mode only. The original's other playback modes (stretch, looping delay and spectral), its other recording qualities and saving or loading the recording buffer are not available.
Mutable Instruments and Clouds identify the original design. This adaptation is not made, endorsed by or affiliated with Mutable Instruments; see THIRDPARTYNOTICES.md for the artwork and code licences.
