Mutable Instruments Blades

[Zymos]

If it’s like the past, no one’s going to be able to make mini versions for a while, so there will be loads of time to think up cute names (or complain that they are too small, depending on your temperament).

[starthief]

I like where your head is at.
Though I might go with Razor ;-)

I hope that people don't feel the need to make shrunken versions of it, but they probably will. And when they do, I hope someone calls their version "Wesley Snipes"

[Audiodaan]

As this module is analogue it is probably not as likely we'll see minimised versions of it?

[starthief]

As this module is analogue it is probably not as likely we'll see minimised versions of it?

Look on Modulargrid and you'll see 4 renamed clones of Ripples, two of Veils, one of Blinds and one of Kinks.

There are probably more that didn't come up just from searching the original names.

[Audiodaan]

Yeah you're right. Somehow I thought that the complexity of this one would probably be prohibitive.

[ima_jrk]

Have been looking for a new filter to sit with my Matriarch (already with an amazing stereo filter), now this has been added to the consideration list... Had been quite decided with QPas till now. Hmm...

This makes me wonder if the inputs are normaled to one another. The mixer output from the Matriarch is mono, so I wonder if you can patch in to the left input and then get two different filtered outputs.

Mine will be here tomorrow, so I will hopefully be able to report back!

That's true actually. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts of Blades as a companion to Matriarch!

Can confirm that the input is normaled to both sides!

[ima_jrk]

Just made a short demo. This was hasty and not precise, I wanted to get some “traditional” flavor in here. Long and short is that I have no regrets!

Oscillator is Klavis Twin Waves on stepped square. Direct in to channel 1 of blades. EG by Maths. No VCA, filter straight in to interface. Main output is used. Channel one drive and wave shaper are both set around 1 o’clock. Channel two wave shaper fully CCW and drive set to 11 o’clock. Frequencies linked. Resonance on both channels around 10 o’clock. Both filters in low pass mode.

First section is manual manipulation of frequencies on both sides, mode on series. Then shift to parallel, then short to just ch1 and back again. I fiddle with modulation depth throughout.

If anyone has questions or requests, I will do my best!

[neumedi]

Got mine tonight... only a quick play, but so far...

Did a quick shoot-out with the Morgasmatron (since that's the filter it will have to boot to stay in the rack - my other filters aren't going anywhere). Ran a Basimilus Iteritas Alter patch through each filter. Had a BIA pattern, using modulation, giving me a kick, snare, and a high pitched tone. Played with both sides of both filters, using one side to accentuate the low end (lp or bp), other side for the high end (bp or hp). Wanted to push the distorting/driving/waveshaping character of each, so left the overdrive on with Morgasmatron, and dialed in various waveshaping on Blades.

Character very different as you'd imagine. Not sure which character I prefer quite yet - but very different. Using similar cutoff's and res's, I'd say, in general, the Morgasmatron has a flatter, mid-rangey, response, whereas Blades was easier to move the range around with (even without taking into account variable waveshaping and drive - although I did have to vary drive a bit to get levels where I wanted versus using input gain on Morgasmatron). So, in that sense, it was pretty close, but I'd give the edge to Blades.

Then, the bigger differences come in play when you vary the wave shape. Here, the practice matched the theory - being able to vary the drive and waveshaping led to sooooo many good sweet spots. With Morgasmatron, the Q-drive (or any other setting) just doesn't do much to change the nature of the on/off overdrive. It is what I expected from DivKid's demo, but was very nice to experience it firsthand. Definitely solved my biggest nitpick with the Morgasmatron.

My second biggest nitpick with Morgasmatron is difficulty in finding the right level of self-resonating pinging. Again, compared to my other filters, has always seemed very on/off. Keep res too low, and little to no pinging/resonating (in this case, I was looking for boosting the bass part of the BIA). With Blades - noooo problem! Super easy to dial in just the right amount of pinging. You'll never get as much pinging as you would from a QPAS, but plenty for the situation I was going after tonight - and very easy to dial in various amounts - from 808'ish sine booms, down to just enough to fill out the BIA bass a bit more.

Lastly, I appreciated having waveshaping/drive on both channels, instead of Morgasmatron only having overdrive on one channel.

Overall, pretty sure Blades covers all the nitpicks I had with Morgasmatron. There's still plenty to like about Morgasmatron - ultimately more drive with the overdrive (I believe - I'll have to test more), in some cases even tonight I preferred having XFade between channels versus Routing fade on Blades, the normalization on FM2, etc. And better ears would probably be able to pick out Morgasmatron's various filter types better (LP2 vs LP1, etc).

So far though, very pleased with Blades.

[Electro Something]

So far though, very pleased with Blades.

So you’re not selling your Morgasmatron quite yet?

My Morgasmatron came last week and I’m already having Blades envy. I’m not super impressed so far, but barely scratching the surface.

Just curious - Which filters would never leave your rack?

[pichenettes]

Can confirm that the input is normaled to both sides!

Please refer to the signal flow diagram in the manual!



Input 2 is normalled to a crossfader varying between input 1 and output 1, controlled by the routing knob.

in some cases even tonight I preferred having XFade between channels versus Routing fade on Blades

If you mult the same signal to both input 1 and input 2 (to break that normalization), then the routing knob acts as a simple crossfader.


Behind the scenes, the ROUTING knob controls two crossfaders with complementary and shifted response curves, one that crossfades both outputs to the MAIN out, and one that controls what is normalled to input 2.

[Raja]

I’m finding Blades works beautifully with the 4ms Ensemble.

[neumedi]

So far though, very pleased with Blades.

So you’re not selling your Morgasmatron quite yet?

My Morgasmatron came last week and I’m already having Blades envy. I’m not super impressed so far, but barely scratching the surface.

Just curious - Which filters would never leave your rack?

I likely will sell the Morgasmatron - but there are parts of it I quite like - so want to give it more than a day to decide.

XaVCF, Belgrad, and QPAS all not going to leave my rack without something seriously changing.

[Kosmikos]

After watching the Divkid video, I'm still pretty much sold on the AJH Gemini as the one to get.

Blades has both the HP and the wavefolder advantage though, but I felt the sound in the video wasn't there. It sounded too clinical to me, almost like a digital filter if that makes sense to anyone (and I know it's analog).

Also the Divkid video is sponsored by MI, so it's hard to know if his interest is genuine. But when he reviewed the Gemini he kept saying it sounded gorgeous and seemed genuinely more excited.

I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong by any of the early adaptor on here though.

[Bignorthumbrian]

Sold my Ripples before my Blades arrived, and don’t regret it, Blades is very musical, lots of control, and I can use it as two VCAs if required, brilliant.

[starthief]

Here it is pinging, with phase modulation, then FM, then back to phase modulation.



Patch:

0-Ctrl pitch output through CVilization as a quantizer, to Blades V/OCT 1
0-Ctrl dynamic envelope out to Blades input 1
Blades output 2 through Sweet 16 (as an attenuator) to Blades Mode 1 (then repatch to FM 1, then back to Mode 1)
Blades main output -> monitor
Shift enabled
Knob twiddling.

In hindsight I probably clipped my audio interface input a bit there, as it can get a bit louder with phase modulation.

Self-patching phase modulation on the same filter works nice too for a "soft saw" that doesn't affect pitch.

I haven't even played with it as a filter yet, I've been having too much fun using it as a unique complex oscillator. That phase modulation is pretty different from anything I've messed with on digital modules.

[starthief]

And now that I start messing with it as a filter, I find it's not hard to get both "polite" character out of it, as well as rude and nasty. It's probably obvious that more drive, and serial filters, are the key to a meaner sound. As is cross-modulation.

[Back Down the Path]

As the OP of this thread, you all know I had *no choice* but to purchase a Blades.

It just arrived this morning and my early thoughts are that it’s a very impressive sound design tool. The best thing about it is that you can basically go wild while recording and not blow your mix- yes, even with all that drive, waveshaping and two resonant peaks- almost everything it puts out is pretty much usable. With other filters I usually have loads of trepidation surrounding anything but the slightest tweak to the resonance while jamming/recording, but Blades teaches you not to worry about that pretty quickly.

I decided to put up the squealy thing I posted below to illustrate that point. I just hit record on this and after about 30 minutes it taught me to brave and generous with my wiggling. It’s basically impossible to dial in something that isn’t usable (if not very present and bright).

Now, the downside is, in my humble opinion (and you’ll hear it in this mix alongside my old Koma SVF-201 handing the rubbery bass part), it’s definitely not a true “character filter,” but more of a workhorse sound design/mixing/patch magic kind of thing, but I will report back (not that anyone cares about my elementary school level modular work!).

Blades is chewing on a sine and a saw from SSF Spectrum then into a VCA and then a touch of FX Aid.

[greyscales]

The input drive on Blades is probably the highlight for me so far. Definitely adds character to boring sounds.

Like others have said already, it is really nice being able to morph from LP to BP to HP smoothly as well as bring the input gain up without blasting the volume.

[studio460]

Seems nice enough but basically the only thing neat to me is the ability to continuously sweep between serial/parallel instead of it being a toggle. Continuous CV/morph between filter modes modes is rare but not unique . . .

I know we were all waiting for the new Mutable announcements, but my guess is something like this was totally unexpected. I just bought a Morgasmatron, probably a week before this was announced. Upon first-listen, I absolutely LOVED my Morgasmatron (still do). Everything about its Korg-ish/RAT legacy is right there—super-fuzzy and aggressive as hell when you want it. But, then, this! Do I really need to re-consider my Morgasmatron? I really like its sound.

I gather the Morgasmatron is not able to smoothly morph through filter-types like Blades, which seems to be a key distinguishing feature. Unsure about why the comparisons to the QPAS? (I own a QPAS and really like it.) Wavefolding is a nice addition. Can I just buy an inexpensive wavefolder, use it with my Morgasmatron and have (almost) the best of both worlds?

[pieter]

Can I just buy an inexpensive wavefolder, use it with my Morgasmatron and have (almost) the best of both worlds?

Yes.

[studio460]

Haha! Thanks!

[Squallaz]

Yo! this is just a super fast first patch i did as soon as I received my Blades.


Here blades is processing an arpeggio made by my Moog Grandmother. The drive knobs are set to 12:00 o'clock in the wavefolding mode.
An envelope is provided at both frequency inputs and the mode inputs are being modulated by two lfos.

The next time I'll try to ping it, hard-panning the two outputs to achieve a rings-like stereo effect.

[pieter]

It's a lovely patch, Squallaz, but maybe not the best way to hear Blades...

[Back Down the Path]

My favorite use of Blades so far is processing external audio. The drive plus a health dose of res can really fuzz it up. Just the base patch on any synth sounds huge through Blades. Send a triad in there and back out through some FX and woo boy. Gives it a “finished” vintage guitar tone-type sound. This is the benefit of how clean it is. It really shines here.

[Squallaz]

It's a lovely patch, Squallaz, but maybe not the best way to hear Blades...

Makes sense, sorry