Skip to content
TidalCycles
Blog

Installation

Description

Mutable Instruments was a popular Eurorack module company from Normandy. The designer, engineer, and founder of Mutable Instruments, Émilie Gillet, has made all of her work open source. Volker Böhm has taken the time to port some of these modules to SuperCollider under the project title “mi-UGens” (no affiliation with Mutable Instruments).

Significant further work to make mi-UGens functional in Tidal was done by a large number of forum users, documented in this thread by @chrislo

Installation

Automatic

For debian/ubuntu/mint systems, these ugens can be installed as part of the ansible Tidal installer

Manual

  1. Unpack the latest release from mi-UGens appropriate to your Operating System (Note: Windows is missing from 0.0.4, try 0.0.3 which has everything except mi-Braids)

  2. Move the top level directory of the archive (mi-UGens/) into the SuperCollider Extensions folder (create it if it doesn’t exist):

    • Linux: /home/<youruser>/.local/share/SuperCollider/Extensions/mi-UGens
    • Windows: C:\Users\<youruser>\AppData\Local\SuperCollider\Extensions\mi-UGens
    • OSX: /Users/<youruser>/Library/Application Support/SuperCollider/Extensions/mi-UGens

  3. Create a new synthdef file mi-ugens.scd, with these synthdefs

    • Linux: /home/<youruser>/.local/share/SuperCollider/synthdefs/mi-ugens.scd
    • Windows: C:\Users\<youruser>\AppData\Local\SuperCollider\synthdefs\mi-ugens.scd
    • OSX: /home/<youruser>/Library/Application Support/SuperCollider/synthdefs/mi-ugens.scd

  4. Create a new parameter definitions file, mi-ugens-params.hs, with these parameters

    • Linux: /home/<youruser>/.local/share/SuperCollider/synthdefs/mi-ugens-params.hs
    • Windows: C:\Users\<youruser>\AppData\Local\SuperCollider\synthdefs\mi-ugens-params.hs
    • OSX: /Users/<youruser>/Library/Application Support/SuperCollider/synthdefs/mi-ugens-params.hs

  5. Configure SuperCollider - edit your startup.scd:

    • Linux: /home/<youruser>/.conf/SuperCollider/startup.scd
    • Windows: C:\Users\<youruser>\AppData\Local\SuperCollider\startup.scd
    • OSX: /Users/<youruser>/Library/Application Support/SuperCollider/startup.scd

  6. Load the mi-ugens.scd synthdef in startup.scd. Use the full path from 3.

    After:

    // ...
      ~dirt = SuperDirt(2, s);
      // load mi-ugens.scd synthdefs
      load("FULL_PATH_TO_mi-ugens.scd");
      // end load mi-ugens.scd synthdefs

  7. Configure verb and clouds as Global Effects. Add the following stanza as indicated to your startup.scd:

    After:

    // ...
                ~d10 = ~dirt.orbits[9]; ~d11 = ~dirt.orbits[10]; ~d12 = ~dirt.orbits[11];
            );
            // define global effects for mutable instruments effects
            ~dirt.orbits.do { |x|
                var clouds = GlobalDirtEffect(\global_mi_clouds, [\cloudspitch, \cloudspos, \cloudssize, \cloudsdens, \cloudstex, \cloudswet, \cloudsgain, \cloudsspread, \cloudsrvb, \cloudsfb, \cloudsfreeze, \cloudsmode, \cloudslofi]);
                var verb = GlobalDirtEffect(\global_mi_verb, [\verbwet, \verbtime, \verbdamp, \verbhp, \verbfreeze, \verbdiff, \verbgain]);
                x.globalEffects = x.globalEffects
                  .addFirst(clouds)
                  .addFirst(verb);
                x.initNodeTree;
            };
            // end define global effects for mutable instruments effects

  8. Save your startup.scd and exit

  9. You can choose to import the mi-ugens-params.hs parameter definitions manually in your tidal session, or add the following :script directive to the BootTidal.hs file associated with your editor of choice (locating the correct BootTidal.hs is beyond the scope of this reference)

    After:

    -- ...
        setR = streamSetR tidal
        setB = streamSetB tidal
    :}

    Add:

    :script FULL_PATH_TO_mi-ugens-params.hs

    Which should now be followed by

    :set prompt "tidal>"
    :set prompt-cont ""
    -- ...

  10. Start/restart SuperCollider