Shapes.
Twenty-four models from the open-source Plaits engine plus three of our own basses, up to eight voices, and every note snaps to your scale.
27 models, named on the display
The display says what HARMONICS, TIMBRE and MORPH do for the model you are playing, plus a live scope.
Polyphonic
Up to eight voices from one poly cable, each with its own envelope and pitch.
Real quantizer
SCALE and ROOT: every voice snaps to the scale, knob and V/OCT together, with no jitter at the edges.
Three basses
BASS M, BASS DETROIT and BASS DUB: warm ladder, punchy pulse and deep round sub, made for techno.
Questions.
Is Shapes free?
Yes, like Texture. Enter your email on the account page and download it for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Is this Plaits?
24 of the 27 models come from the open-source Plaits engine by Emilie Gillet (MIT license). The three bass models, the quantizer, polyphony, display and presets are our own. Shapes is not a product of Mutable Instruments.
How does polyphony work?
Patch a polyphonic cable, for example into V/OCT. Shapes plays as many voices as the widest cable has channels, up to eight.
What does the quantizer snap?
FREQ and V/OCT together, so knob and sequencer always land on the scale. FM stays smooth, so vibrato and pitch sweeps still work.
Do I need an envelope?
No. With a cable in TRIG, an internal low-pass gate shapes each note, set with DECAY and COLOUR. Without TRIG the sound plays continuously.
Is there glide?
Yes, in the right-click menu: off, 30, 100 or 300 ms.
How much CPU does it use?
Little. Even eight voices of the heaviest model, six-operator FM, take about 1.4 % of one CPU core in our tests.
Get Shapes for free.
One email for all our free modules. You get a link to your Thoow account, where you pick your system and download, now and for every update.
When you click the link, you also agree that we keep you posted about updates and new Thoow modules: a few emails a year, unsubscribe anytime. Already have access? Open your account.
Engine: Plaits by Emilie Gillet (MIT) plus Thoow's own bass engines. Coming as a free beta.