Braids Meta Sequencer With BITT Firmware

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In our newest video tutorial, we examine the Meta Sequencer in the Bees In The Trees alternate firmware for Mutable Instruments Braids. We’ve looked at how to control the standard firmware and Meta Mode in Braids to create glitchy, Richard Devine – inspired beats using external sequencing and modulation of the FM input. With the Bees In The Trees firmware, Meta Mode is expanded into a 2 to 8 step sequencer, with wave shape, pitch, repeats and assignable parameter values for each step.

Bees In The Trees (developed by Tim Churches) is a complex, third-party recreation of the original Mutable firmware designed for Braids, a digital “Macro Oscillator”. Braids is already a deep module with many pages of menus, however Bees In The Trees adds a lot of extra functionality. The FM input, for instance, which was previously relegated to control the expected Frequency Modulation or Meta Mode modulation, has been re-purposed to be assignable to almost any function in the module. Additionally, a frequency Sample+Hold, two complex modulation sources and a virtual Turing Machine have all been built into the firmware. But the Meta Sequencer is particularly fun.

The standard Meta Mode allows voltage sent to the FM input to be used to change the current wave shape of the Oscillator. By modulating that voltage, we can sequence or change wave shapes using that external signal. With the addition of the Meta Sequencer, that modulation can be achieved entirely inside the Braids menus. Dedicated pages for each of the 8 wave shapes, note pitch, repeats (not ratcheting, simply repeating the step on the next Trig) and parameter values assignable to Timbre, Color, Level or any combination of the three, allow for interesting and complex sequences that would otherwise require at least 3 external sequence sources.

This functionality can be put to use to generate a chord progression using the WTx4 chord-based wave shape, a complex glitchy pattern similar to the kind we’ve created previously, or even an internal 8 step drum and percussion groove. As we’ve seen with other Mutable modules, alt firmware can greatly increase the functionality of these modules. Bees In The Trees takes Braids to a different level altogether.

Are you using Alt Firmware on your modules? Tell us in the comments!

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