Marbles Symbiote v0.3.0

Alternative Symbiote firmware for Mutable Instruments Marbles — a self-contained generative drum + acid bassline machine (Grids drums on the T-section, TB-3PO bassline on the X-section), plus two extra standalone T-section models.

Install the .wav via the standard Marbles firmware-update procedure.

Fixes

• Full-range drum density CV. The RATE / BIAS / JITTER CV inputs (BD / SD / HH density in Grids mode) now reach maximum density. The mapping is unipolar: 0 V leaves a voice silent, +5 V drives it to full, so a 0–5 V envelope or LFO sweeps the whole range.
  • Previously the bass-drum density was hard-capped at roughly half — no CV could push it to maximum.
  • Previously negative CV on any density input could wrap the internal density byte and glitch to spurious full density; it is now clamped to silent.
  • Note: with nothing patched into a density input, that voice is silent — patch a CV or a fixed offset into each drum voice you want to hear.

Assets

• marbles.wav — firmware-update audio file (install this one).
• marbles.hex — Intel HEX, for JTAG / SWD flashing.

Marbles Symbiote v0.2.0

Alternative Symbiote firmware for Mutable Instruments Marbles — a self-contained generative drum + acid bassline machine (Grids drums on the T-section, TB-3PO bassline on the X-section), plus two extra standalone T-section models.

Install the .wav via the standard Marbles firmware-update procedure.

New features

• External clocking of the TB-3PO bassline — patch a clock to the X clock input and the bassline follows it instead of the internal Grids clock. RATE acts as a clock divider / multiplier (¼× to 4×, neutral 1:1 at 12 o'clock) in the same musical ratios as the drum clock, with T RANGE folded in. One clock shared between the t and X inputs keeps drums and bassline locked together.
• 4-slot pattern bank for bassline seeds, persisted in flash. X MODE saves the current seed to the active slot; X RANGE steps through the four slots and recalls a saved seed instantly (empty slots are skipped). The X CONTROL MODE LED shows the active slot color, with a one-second flash confirmation on save / select.
• Two new standalone T-section models, reachable as "dark" slots past DRUMS on the T MODEL button (the X-section is unaffected by both):
  • Markov — probabilistic gate patterns from a Markov chain with an 8-step history (the stock MI Markov generator, now selectable). T-model LED stays unlit.
  • Toggle — a deterministic 3-way ring counter that fires exactly one of T1 / T2 / T3 per clock tick (Branches toggle, extended to three outputs). T-model LED gives a brief green flash.
  • Short-press past DRUMS (red) lands on Markov; long-press flips Markov ↔ Toggle; short-press from either exits back to the first model.

Fixes

• The external bassline clock now respects the RATE ratio and stays in lockstep with the drums when sharing a clock, instead of running ~6× too fast and ignoring the rate knob.
• When the external bassline clock stops, the gate is released so a stalled upstream clock can no longer latch downstream VCAs / envelopes open.

Assets

• marbles.wav — firmware-update audio file (install this one).
• marbles.hex — Intel HEX, for JTAG / SWD flashing.

marbles-symbiote-0.1.0

Marbles Symbiote v0.1.0

First release of the Marbles Symbiote firmware. Adds a brand-new Grids mode that turns Marbles into a coordinated drum machine + acid sequencer, while leaving every stock T/X/Y mode untouched.

Install the included marbles.wav through the normal Mutable Instruments firmware-update procedure (audio-cable into the LEARN button-hold sequence).

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What's new — Grids mode (T-model 6)

Hold the T MODEL switch to jump into bank 1; the fourth slot (LED blinks red) is the new Grids engine. The T section now runs the full Mutable Instruments Grids drum generator, and the X section locks to it as a generative TB-3PO-style acid sequencer — an algorithmic port of the Hemisphere TB_3PO applet by Logarhythm1.

T-section — Grids drum engine

• Full port of MI Grids: drum-map XY interpolation + Euclidean sub-mode.
• t1 / t2 / t3 output BD / SD / HH gates.
• Deja Vu button switches the sub-mode:
  • OFF → Drums (map-based 8-step patterns, BD/SD/HH topology)
  • ON / LOCKED → Euclidean (shared length across all three voices)

Knob	Drums sub-mode	Euclidean sub-mode
RATE	Tempo	Tempo
BIAS	Drum map X	(unused)
JITTER	Drum map Y	(unused)
DEJA VU	Bipolar: CCW → chaos / pattern randomness; CW → (no effect)	Bipolar: CCW → T2 (SD) fill probability; CW → pattern rotation
LENGTH	—	Shared Euclidean step count (1–16)

CV input	Function
RATE CV	BD density (around 0.5)
BIAS CV	SD density (around 0.5)
JITTER CV	HH density (around 0.5)
DEJA VU CV (rising edge)	Resets both T and X sections to step 0 (Grids mode only). Analogue value is discarded — does not feed chaos/rotation.

The JITTER knob's normal swing/timing role is disabled in Grids mode so all three drum gates stay tight to the clock.

X-section — TB-3PO acid sequencer

When Grids mode is active, the X section becomes a generative 303-flavoured monophonic sequencer locked to the drum clock. It is a clean algorithmic port of the Hemisphere TB_3PO applet by Logarhythm1 — no Hemisphere/O&C dependencies — sharing Grids' clock and reset.

Output	Signal
X1	5 V / 0 V step clock (8th-note rate, 2 Grids steps per cycle)
X2	1 V/oct pitch with slide IIR
X3	Gate (held through slides)
Y	Accent gate (high only on accented steps)

Marbles control	TB-3PO parameter
X SPREAD knob	Density / pattern complexity, quantised to 0..14 (treated as −7..+7)
X SPREAD CV	Density offset, ±7
X BIAS knob	Transpose, ±18 semitones (3 octaves), quantised in semitones
X BIAS CV	Transpose, 1 V/oct, clamped to ±18 semitones; summed with the knob
X STEPS knob + CV	Step count 1..32
X DEJA VU switch	Seed lock: OFF → ON/LOCKED commits the current seed to flash; ON/LOCKED → OFF reseeds (audition without writing flash)
X SCALE	Scale lookup (C major, C minor, Pentatonic, Pelog, Raag Bhairav That, Raag Shri, user-recorded scales)
DEJA VU CV	Resets both T and X to step 0 (shared with the T-section reset, above)
X RANGE switch	Unused (TB-3PO pitch is always 1 V/oct)
LENGTH knob	Unused by TB-3PO — drives the Grids Euclidean step count only

The sequencer walks the active scale's in-scale degrees only — no chromatic passing tones on the 12-degree weighted presets. Transposing by ±1 semitone snaps to the next in-scale degree.

The committed seed is persisted to flash; it survives a power cycle whenever DEJA VU is ON or LOCKED. Flipping DEJA VU off and back on auditions a new seed and saves it on the rising edge.

Clocking & external-clock stall watchdog

• T1/T2/T3 drum gates run at the Grids step rate.
• X1 emits a steady 8th-note clock (one cycle per 2 Grids steps) so the X section locks to a musical clock that's decoupled from the BD/SD/HH gate patterns.
• An external clock patched into the T-clock input drives the whole engine; otherwise the internal Grids clock is used.
• If the external clock stops, the TB-3PO gate is force-released after ~2× the last observed clock period (clamped between 125 ms and 2 s) so a stopped upstream sequencer can't latch downstream VCAs/ADSRs open.

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Credits

• The Grids drum engine is a port of Mutable Instruments Grids by Émilie Gillet.
• The TB-3PO acid sequencer is an algorithmic port of the Hemisphere TB_3PO applet by Logarhythm1, via the Phazerville O&C fork.

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Compatibility

• All original Marbles T/X/Y modes (1–5) are untouched. Grids mode is an additional model reachable by long-pressing T MODEL into bank 1.
• Loads on stock Marbles hardware via the standard .wav firmware update — no hardware modification required.

Install

1. Power Marbles with the LEARN button held.
2. Play marbles.wav into Marbles' audio input.
3. Wait for the success indication, then power-cycle.

Source

Built from the symbiotes branch at commit c2826f2.

warps-symbiote-0.4.0-beta

New Features

• Stereo Filter: stereo multimode filter LP, HP, BP and notch Algo knob 1.
• Dual parallel filter: same config as originally implemented. Find it as a sub feature by pressing internal oscillator move Algo knob to position one and while still pressing the button move the modulation knob fully CW. To return to the stereo filter, repeat the same procedure but turn the modulation knob fully CCW.
• Ensemble voice: ensemble effect with low pass filter and internal oscillator. Algo knob position 2.

Fixes

• Fixed Chebyschev Waveshaper algorithm. It runs oversampled and with the latest parasite's v1.01 tag code.
• Improved resonance calibration for the dual filter.

tides-symbiote-0.1.0

Tides Symbiote v0.1.0

Tides Symbiote firmware includes a new mode that has four modulation options:

• Lorenz and Rossler chaotic attractors.
• Thomas and Chua chaotic attractors.
• Poly LFO ported from Mutable Instruments Frames easter egg mode.
• Wavetable Oscillator ported from Mutable Instruments Plaits.

The attractors in audio rate modulation can be used as noise oscillators while the other two modes can be used as LFOs or oscillators with 1V/oct tracking.

More details on the manual

warps-symbiote-0.3.0-beta

Fixes:

• Tweaked Ladder Filter calibration so that the filter would open a bit more.
• Set the sample rate back at 96.000.
• Down-sampled the audio fed into the Chebyschev Waveshaper to tame down the glitchy sounds when high knob values are selected.

warps-symbiote-0.2.0-beta

Beta release for quick testing on the following changes:

• Replaced Parasites Vocoder with Doppler Panner, find it in position 7 in the interface.
• Replaced pulse train oscillator with square wave oscillator.
• The internal oscillator options for the ladder filter are now:
  • Triangle (green), Saw (yellow), Square (red).
• Improved cutoff frequency calibration for the ladder filter.

warps-symbiote-0.2.0

New features:

• Replaced Parasites Vocoder with Doppler Panner, find it in position 7 in the interface.
• Replaced pulse train oscillator with square wave oscillator.
• The internal oscillator options for the ladder filter are now:
  • Triangle (green), Saw (yellow), Square (red).
• Improved cutoff frequency calibration for the ladder filter.

Documentation is updated here

warps-symbiote-0.1.0

Warps Symbiote

New Algorithms:

• Ladder Filter: ported from an implementation of the improved Moog Ladder Filter
• Dual State Variable Filter: implemented a dual filter based on Emillie's State Variable Filter
• Multi Reverb: added 4 reverbs based on the implementations found in Rings, Clouds and Elements.