Mutable Beads....?

[O1B]

You may be exaggerating.

It was $359 new. I checked my receipt (2021).

It was 250 € new.

[znort101]

I just checked mine, it was 279 Euro, Thomann April 22, and not long after that it was sold out.

edit: That was the price as long as it was available, not a special discount.

[Zymos]

French company, price may be lower in Europe?

[O1B]

Not a one sold that low back then…. Except … used.

I just checked mine, it was 279, Thomann April 22, and not long after that it was sold out.

[pixelmechanic]

Had Clouds, wasn't thrilled with it, took a bit of patching to get it to do things I like granular things to do, e.g. a bit of jitter/random on almost everything

Beads is really playable without any patching, love the built in randoms. My only gripe with it is the input level control workaround, I'd much rather have a level knob as per clouds.

[JohnLRice]

Where ? I am in Europe and it was sold out a few months (2 or 3 ?) after being introduced. (Schneidersladen, Thomann, Musicstore)
Two or three popped up used at the original price and then everybody realized its discontinued and now they ask 400 +.
Modulargrid Marketplace prices from 400-600. (EU sellers)

https://www.detroitmodular.com/products ... ents-beads
https://nightlife-electronics.com/produ ... ents-beads

There were multiple runs of this available at the stores you listed. Blades on the other hand.

I got mine last month from from https://www.analoguehaven.com/mutable-i ... nts/beads/

[soundular]

The person complaining about the price, would be better off accepting they got a deal the first time around. If they want a second one, they are available until they're not.

I agree with pixelmechanic about the playability. The level control, and the volume sweeps it does over time are frustrating, but I can live with it. Who knows, maybe there will be an alt firmware for that.

[TheSynth]

I had it for a short period of time, first mounted on a large setup, then a very small one which allowed me to learn its functionality better, and gave me better results. However, I later decided to keep effects to external devices/in the box, and sold the module.

[popetouching]

I find Beads does best when you use it like it says on the tin; it's a texture synthesizer. I usually process audio through it to get an extra layer of grit/ripple, either for rhythmic or timbral variation. I've had less success trying to use it as an independent sound source for a frozen buffer or for Clouds-style ambient smearing. (Delay and wavetable modes are both pretty neat though, and I come back to them on occasion.)

[clwilla]

The person complaining about the price, would be better off accepting they got a deal the first time around. If they want a second one, they are available until they're not.

I agree with pixelmechanic about the playability. The level control, and the volume sweeps it does over time are frustrating, but I can live with it. Who knows, maybe there will be an alt firmware for that.

Like Clouds and just about every other MI module, I expect that there will be alternate firmware available within a couple months of the code being open sourced.

[soundular]

The person complaining about the price, would be better off accepting they got a deal the first time around. If they want a second one, they are available until they're not.

I agree with pixelmechanic about the playability. The level control, and the volume sweeps it does over time are frustrating, but I can live with it. Who knows, maybe there will be an alt firmware for that.

Like Clouds and just about every other MI module, I expect that there will be alternate firmware available within a couple months of the code being open sourced.

Totally. I'm excited to see what happens!

[informationsource]

I just checked mine, it was 279, Thomann April 22, and not long after that it was sold out.

There were more shipments of Beads delivered after then, and regardless of the price you paid then, the fact is that there are new modules available for purchase. The fact that they're in places that aren't convenient for you in terms of shipping/tax doesn't discount that: not having local or favourably-priced access to modules is the case for most people for most modules at most times. If you're set on it, open Wigglehunt, a bunch of tabs, and a spreadsheet.

That said... do you need a second? I quite like Beads but I can't see any reason to get another when plenty of other FX exist - is there anything that Beads does best?

Blades on the other hand.

Oh, to be able to pay the retail price for the one that I preordered before finding that another shipment wasn't coming. I wish a bad toothache upon everyone selling one of those for more than they paid.

[Chopper]

You may be exaggerating.

It was $359 new. I checked my receipt (2021).

It was 250 € new.

the fact that Euros were mentioned should have been a clue.
regularly coming up with a red card before correcting people when they are actually right seems to be a speciality of yours.

[tdallas]

Not a one sold that low back then…. Except … used.[…]

I just checked mine, it was 279, Thomann April 22, and not long after that it was sold out.

€ vs $ … I payed 289 Euro for a new one at Thomann (October 2021):

► Show Spoiler

Edit: I also bought one in February 2021 for a
friend. It was 299 Euro at that time.

And here is the latest price at Schneidersladen before they were sold out (282 Euro) -> https://schneidersladen.de/de/mutable-instruments-beads

[znort101]

The person complaining about the price, would be better off accepting they got a deal the first time around. If they want a second one, they are available until they're not.

I did not get a deal, 280 Euro was the new price as long as it was available, i don't want to support private sellers who try to rip off people by asking 400-600 - and not nice to see some dealers doing that too.
In my opinion it has not been available for about a year (other than "collectors prices")
Thats why i hoped for a remake soon.

[znort101]

why a second one, since the grain size can be up to 4 seconds i very often use it to send sniplets of the input signal to Erbeverb or Mimeophon, could do that with a vca and envelope and random gates but not with randomly changing size shape pitch and even reverse it - so i would love to have a second one to use that for the actual effect things it does. And then there is the wavetable osc. Might have a use for three of them.

[fairplay]

…actually: i was able to get a new one over here (europe) for ~260 euros a few weeks ago - but i am looking all the time for some discontinued modules (seems i am late ‚to the parties‘ very often somehow) and getting used to check for stores that sell in currencies like ‚PLN‘ and ‚HUF‘ and which are not so easy to find via search-machines - often only on page 11 or 13 of the search results…

…the thing with those stores is that while they are located within the EU and there are no customs or other fees, someone like me has to use a site like https://translate.google.com to translate everything on their native-language websites, store-registrations, store- and payment forms into some language which i understand…there is a little risk that i might misunderstand something during the process, but until now (six or seven times during the last year) it worked for me without any problems, and in some cases after placing the order the store owners started their communication with me - like order-confirmation and shipping-information - in english-language…

[fairplay]

…ah! - sorry, just remembered: ‚SEK‘ is another currency i successfully used to pay for ‚discontinued‘ modules lately…

[informationsource]

In my opinion it has not been available for about a year (other than "collectors prices")
Thats why i hoped for a remake soon.

They literally are, or at least have been until recently. If you don't want to buy from outside of your jurisdiction that doesn't mean that they're not available. Buy one if you want one, check Wigglehunt for stores. There are even some on Reverb for less than those retail prices.

[tdallas]

In my opinion it has not been available for about a year (other than "collectors prices")
Thats why i hoped for a remake soon.

You could also wait and see if the code / schematics are actually released (in June):
https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 4#p3959664

If that happens, I assume that there will also be clones soon.

[znort101]

…ah! - sorry, just remembered: ‚SEK‘ is another currency i successfully used to pay for ‚discontinued‘ modules lately…

I tried to find something like you suggested but was not really successful.
I will just wait, i hope they don't let this cool module just disappear. I hoped they would at least make this last one for a year or so before shutting down MI. As far as i watched the big stores in europe it was sold out after a very short time, i cant say if it was half a year or somewhat longer or shorter.

[fairplay]

I tried to find something like you suggested but was not really successful.

…yeah, sorry - i just checked ‚my sources‘ and it seems they are sold out too - even the last one that i saw available a few days ago in Switzerland for 250 euros is gone now…didnt mention that one as you wanted to avoid customs…

[AnalogDigits]

There are several still available here and there (including new), but the days of $279 or €280 Beads are almost certainly behind us. Even simply accounting for inflation from the release date, prices are up rather significantly. Everything is up.

You’re much more likely to see them in the $330-359 range, and (eventually) higher. If you’re looking for a second one, I’d say that it’s more likely to get worse, rather than get better.

[znort101]

Still hoping for a clone, would be a shame to let such a unique module die after a very limited production number.

[BLogic12]

Still hoping for a clone, would be a shame to let such a unique module die after a very limited production number.

Luckily there’s tons of clouds clones, that can get you into similar territory

[foolish]

Still hoping for a clone, would be a shame to let such a unique module die after a very limited production number.

That would be great, but if it hasn’t happened by now….

[pbeatman10]

I can't put my finger on it but I like beads more than clouds. Especially like the built-in attenu-randomizers. They are really intelligently designed for musical results. Often I don't like "true randoms" in modular. Mutable creatively pushed UI past what people assumed was possible

[starthief]

I favor Beads by far too. I don't *quite* want to say it's apples and oranges, but... it's red delicious vs. Honeycrisp
Very rarely I'll fire up Clouds in VCV, but I don't miss the Supercell that I had at all really.

I tend to have a very light touch with the attenurandomizers (except occasionally Time). Just a very tiny bit of random pitch can work really well.

[1n]

I tend to have a very light touch with the attenurandomizers (except occasionally Time). Just a very tiny bit of random pitch can work really well.

On that point, I'd buy a plus-size Beads clone, with larger knobs for more precise manual control of attenurandomization.

Beads is a playable instrument, more so than clouds (which I've only used in MiRack, so that limits my experience). Perhaps I need another Shades.

[White Bear]

One of my favorite demonstrations of Beads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVnMIosiPy4

also this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf_JrqKxE-o