Beads $360 mutableinstruments.com
As the manual lyrically begins, ‘Once upon a time there was Clouds. Then came time to clean up the mess’. So, let’s acknowledge right now that Beads is somewhat of a version 2 of Mutable Instruments’ immensely popular texture synthesizer. The fact that it isn’t called Clouds 2 feels odd, but then, Beads is all new; it may have a similar function but it’s a ground-up reimagining and the better for it.
To start with, it manages to fit in three more physical controls into a smaller space but feels somehow more manageable. The layout is logical, easy to read and playing with the
