Mutable Instruments Marbles becomes latest VCV Rack preview module
Mutable Instruments have released their second official module for VCV Rack via the Audio Instruments Preview plug-in. Marbles is the module in question and will exist in the VCV Rack ecosystem as “Random Sampler”. VCV Rack is an open source virtual Eurorack modular environment for Mac or PC.
Audible Instruments
VCV Rack had already ported the open source firmware of existing Mutable modules into the VCV Rack Audible Instruments range. But earlier this year Mutable and VCV Rack got together to produce an official “Preview” plug-in module that allows VCV Rack users to try out new Mutable modules before they would normally get released to the open source community. The first module they released via Preview was Plaits, their recently released macro oscillator. Now they’ve followed that up with a port of Marbles, the awesomely creative controlled chaos and randomisation module.
Marbles – Random Sampler
The VCV Rack version is taking the name “Random Sampler” but is otherwise (almost) identical to the hardware. It’s a source of random gates and voltages with many different ways of imposing structure onto the random events. You can generate a couple of channels of random drum triggering, pattern creation and ratcheting. There are three channels of randomly fluctuating voltages, quantised, unquantised, smoothed or steppy.
Where it’s not identical is when there’s anything to do with holding buttons. VCV Rack has not implemented the ability to hold a button and turn a knob at the same time. This affects the ability to alter gate length and jitter on the gate side and the timing divisions of Rate, Bias, Spread and Steps on the voltage side. Although timing divisions can be accessed via a context-menu. Programming your own scales is also not available – apparently it’s “too tedious in software” and is better done in another module. You can select from the 6 preset scales though.
The Audible Instruments Preview plug-in costs just $20 and gives you access to two of Mutable Instruments most recent modules. It’s just bonkers and completely awesome. If you have any interest in Eurorack at all you should go and get this immediately.
More information
- VCV Rack Audible Instruments Preview page.
- Mutable Instruments Marbles page.
- More from Mutable Instruments.
- More from VCV Rack.
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