Robot Boy 2.2.0

This release collects the 2.2.0 betas, without their Classic mode.

• Particules, Retours and Ondes now run on the real Mutable Instruments Beads code, which Émilie Gillet released as open source in October 2026, instead of a reconstruction. They should sound and respond like Beads in its granular mode, delay mode and wavetable-oscillator mode. Panels and patches carry over, but patches made with 2.1 or earlier may sound different. For the old engines, install the 2.2.0 beta 4 pre-release from GitHub, which can switch back to them with a Classic mode menu option. Other changes that come with the new engines:
  • Quality settings now match Beads: Cold digital runs at 32 kHz, and buffers are 4, 8, 10.7 and 16 seconds (double for a mono input). Sunny tape no longer has wow and flutter. Scorched cassette's tape hiss can now be switched off from the context menu.
  • Auto gain works as on Beads: it boosts quiet sources by up to 32 dB but never turns hot ones down.
  • Particules: a new Seed button, as on Beads. One press unlocks it, so grains play only while it (or the Seed input) is held high; a 4-second hold locks it again. It replaces the "Seed CV mode" menu (Triggers = locked, Gates = unlocked); saved patches keep their setting.
  • Particules: the Pitch knob has Beads' notches (unison, 1, 3, 4 and 7 semitones, octaves). Size reaches 4-second grains. Grain scheduling and voice stealing are Beads'. A new Gate output sends a gate per grain, replacing the "Grain trigger on R output" menu option.
  • Retours: the panel is now 15 HP, laid out like Particules, with two new controls from Beads' delay mode: Filter (a low-pass/high-pass tone control on the repeats) and Reverb, each with a CV input and trimpot. A new Gate output sends a gate on every repeat. Existing patches load with Filter off and Reverb at zero.
  • Retours: tap tempo works as on Beads (the first press switches to tempo mode, then taps set the tempo). The "Time change response" menu is gone. Feedback reaches unity at about 82% (the panel arrow has moved there). New input-gain menu items, as on Particules.
  • Ondes plays Beads' 12 wavetable banks of 16 waves (previously 24 banks of 8 derived from Plaits), switching banks with a short crossfade. The "Waveform banks" menu is gone.
• New: Lucarne, a display expander for Particules and Retours. Place it to the right of Particules to watch the recording buffer and every grain as it plays: where it reads, how long it is, its pitch, its stereo position, and its playback. Place it to the right of Retours to watch Retours' recent audio scroll past a line for each echo, which flashes as you hear it; with Slice on, it shows the whole buffer with each looping slice shaded. Its panel key changes to match the module it's attached to. On MetaModule, attach it from the module's Expanders menu (firmware 2.4 or later).
• Ondes: a new Anti-aliasing context-menu option (Off, 2x or 4x oversampling) removes the harsh aliasing Beads' oscillator has on bright waveforms at higher notes. Off by default, so Ondes still sounds like Beads.
• Ondes: Position now starts fully counter-clockwise, on each bank's first waveform, which has a full fundamental. Existing patches keep their Position.
• Patches saved in Classic mode in the 2.2 betas open with the Beads engines.
• Particules: Quality can now also be set from the context menu, as on Retours.
• Particules and Retours: loading a preset that leaves out a context-menu setting (input gain, Quality, tape hiss and, on Particules, Lock pitch and its root) now resets that setting to its default, instead of keeping the module's current value.
• Particules, Retours and Ondes: clearer tooltips. The small knobs under Time, Size, Shape and Pitch are called attenurandomizers, as in the manuals, and the pitch inputs read "1V/octave pitch".
• All modules: context-menu changes can be undone and redone.