Rubato Audio
Rubato LabsPlaits Palette
Bank composerContribute a model

One Plaits.
Unlimited colors.

Plaits Palette is a free browser tool for building your own custom Plaits firmware — a way to widen and deepen what the module can do, and make it your own. Choose a model for each of Plaits’ slots: stock models, Mutable Instruments’ Braids models ported to Plaits, alternate takes on the stock models, experimental Rubato Labs models, and community contributions. Then set your firmware options and generate an audio-installable build.

Arrange your palette

Selected · Green 3Two-op FM

A focused two-operator FM voice spanning pure bells to metallic noise.

Green

8/8
Tonal voices
  1. 01Virtual AnalogSubtractive
  2. 02WaveshapingDigital
  3. 03Two-op FMFM
  4. 04Granular FormantGranular
  5. 05Harmonic OscillatorAdditive
  6. 06WavetableDigital
  7. 07ChordsPolyphonic
  8. 08PulsarMicrosound

Red

8/8
Noise, physical & drums
  1. 01SwarmTexture
  2. 02Filtered NoiseNoise
  3. 03Particle NoiseNoise
  4. 04Inharmonic StringPhysical
  5. 05Modal ResonatorPhysical
  6. 06Analog Bass DrumDrums
  7. 07Analog SnareDrums
  8. 08Analog Hi-hatDrums

Amber

8/8
Digital & alternate
  1. 01VA + VCFSubtractive
  2. 02Phase DistortionDigital
  3. 036-Op FM Bank AFM
  4. 046-Op FM Bank BFM
  5. 056-Op FM Bank CFM
  6. 06Wave TerrainDigital
  7. 07String MachinePolyphonic
  8. 08ChiptuneDigital

Orange

8/8
  1. 01GlissonGranular
  2. 02ScannedPhysical
  3. 03Reed PipePhysical
  4. 04Phase WeavePhase
  5. 05Sideband BankAdditive
  6. 06UndertowSubharmonic
  7. 07Phase FlockCoupled
  8. 08Spectral SpiralFeedback
Estimated flash223.1 KB / 224.0 KB

Close to the 224 KB flash limit. This is a measured-size estimate that can run slightly low on full palettes, so leave a little headroom — the ARM build is the source of truth.

Customize chord tables
Applies toChordsString MachineChiptuneOptional · 4 / 16 tables

Loaded tables

Original · Mutable Instruments

Original

The classic eleven Plaits chord positions in their original knob order.

Edit it first to make your own copy, then give it a name and description to submit it to the library.

Voice values are in cents from the played root — 100 ¢ is one semitone, 1200 ¢ an octave. Editing a library table makes a local copy.

  1. Octave
  2. Fifth
  3. Sus4
  4. Minor
  5. Minor 7th
  6. Minor 9th
  7. Minor 11th
  8. 6/9
  9. Major 9th
  10. Major 7th
  11. Major
Customize wave tables
Applies toWavetableWave TerrainChordsOptional · 3 banks

Customize Wave Tables

This is the shared wave library for every compatible model. Each model decides how to travel through it; Wavetable uses the full ordered set by default. Removing a factory bank removes it everywhere, saves its payload, and removes any stock Wave Terrain derived from it.

Included in this build

Shared wave library

3 available banks · used by the models shown above

Harmonic Ladder

Ordered harmonic climbs, resonant clusters, and increasingly bright partials.

Engine useSelect how an engine maps the shared wave library.
64 unique waves · direct 1:1 bank
1 → 2 → 3 → 3 → 2 → 1
Derived return
  1. 4Shape Mosaicbank 3
  2. 5Pulse & Syncbank 2
  3. 6Harmonic Ladderbank 1
Resulting waveform110 Hz
HARMONICSForward + return · interpolate 3 banksTIMBRE · MORPHBlend frames 27, 28, 35, 36TWISTBipolar phase warpWAVEFORMRead one 128-sample cycle
Customize Wave Terrain
Applies toWave TerrainOptional · 8 terrains

Customize Wave Terrain

HARMONICS sweeps this list from top to bottom. Select any terrain to see and hear what Plaits scans.

8 of 16 terrains · 8 stock · 0 custom

Included terrains

Asymmetric Saddle (stock bank 1)

Warped crossings with an asymmetric saddle.

Stock equation(2*sin(2*pi*x*1.273)/(1+abs(2*sin(2*pi*x*1.273)))-sin(2*pi*y*(x+1.571)*0.637))*0.57
Drag to rotate
Resulting waveformTerrain height over one lap110 Hz
TERRAINCurrent landscapeTIMBRE · MORPH · TWISTChoose the loopWAVEFORMRead height around it

Firmware options

Starting options
Where your firmware starts. Everything here stays editable on the module.

On the module you reach these by pressing both buttons at once. All eight lights become the menu: the left button steps to the next light, the right button changes its setting, and both together save and exit.

  1. Chooses what AUX does at startup. Alternate model keeps each model’s normal OUT/AUX pair, even for models enabled for stereo. Stereo uses OUT/AUX as left/right for stereo-enabled models; other models are unchanged. Enable optional stereo per model with the button in the model library, so it uses flash only where you want it. Suboscillator sends the waveform and octave chosen below from AUX.

  2. Dark until the aux output is a suboscillator — the module steps straight past it.

Model navigationHow the two buttons move between models. Built into the firmware, not shown in the module’s options menu.

The left button steps backward and the right button forward, through every model one at a time. Walking off the end of a bank lands in the next one.

Try it — these buttons work like the module’s.

Virtual AnalogGreen · slot 1
AdvancedTuning, envelope, sound resources, hardware, accessibility, calibration, and file format

Adds Envelope contour as a locked-FREQUENCY assignment. Its shape follows the separate TRIG response setting: a one-shot attack/decay for either Trigger mode, or attack/sustain/release for either Gate mode. Either Velocity mode scales the contour from the rising-edge voltage.

Keeps only the three most clockwise ranges — coarse, fine tuning and octave switching — and drops the eight ±7-semitone ranges and the sub-audio LFO range below them.

If you tune by setting a coarse pitch, fine tuning it, then locking it in, the dropped ranges are redundant: one coarse sweep already covers the whole range, and octave switching moves in octaves from wherever you left off. Each remaining range also gets a third of the selector travel instead of a twelfth, so choosing one is far less fiddly.

Leave this off if you use Plaits as an LFO, or if you like jumping octaves directly on the selector rather than through octave switching. Your tuning is unaffected either way: the module keeps its tuned root and locked octave across a reflash.

Whenever the FREQUENCY range is set to octave switching, hold the right button and turn FREQUENCY to retune the saved root by up to seven semitones—regardless of what the locked FREQUENCY knob normally controls. The selected octave stays separate; release to save and return the knob to its normal assignment. This is compiled out completely when disabled. .

Every 6-Op FM bank in this build can then be replaced by playing an audio file into the TIMBRE input — each bank separately, as often as you like, with no reflashing. Build the banks in the bank composer and download the transfer audio there.

Leave it off and the FM banks are fixed to whatever you build here. You can still send one bank at a time the way Plaits has always allowed; what this adds is keeping several at once, each in its own place.

Turn this on only for a Ro’Ved. It replaces Plaits’ two-button controls with Ro’Ved’s four clickable knobs; the synth models, banks, chord tables, and other firmware options stay the same.

Every model light uses one hue, with brightness identifying the bank: the first bank is brightest, followed by bright, dim, and — for the optional fourth bank — dimmest.

This is built into the firmware, so there is no power-up gesture and the calibration startup gesture stays available. The slower selected-model pulse still works independently. The options menu also uses brightest, medium, and dim instead of relying on hue.

Leaving the procedure out leaves more space for synth models.

Turn this on if your module has never been calibrated (fresh DIY build) or if your module doesn’t appear to respond accurately to V/OCT. With it on, hold the right button while powering the module up: the first light pulses green, and you patch 1V into V/OCT and press a button. It turns yellow; patch 3V and press again. If the two voltages aren’t two octaves apart, every light flashes red and nothing is saved.

Remember, calibration data isn’t touched by firmware updates. So if you need to calibrate, you can always enable it once, and then build another firmware without the procedure to reclaim that space and use it for models.

For flashing with a hardware programmer. For the usual audio update process, leave this off and use WAV.

ExperimentalSync In and alternate FM modes

Adds Sync In to the module’s MODEL-input choices. With Sync In enabled, rising edges at MODEL reset the current model’s phase.

Nearly all of the cost is per-model reset code, so it depends on which models you have placed — a palette of a few cheap models pays a fraction of a full one. Fast sync on demanding models can produce digital distortion or dropouts.

On 29 qualified models, the FM attenuverter’s counter-clockwise side becomes linear through-zero FM. Clockwise stays regular exponential FM, and the center is off. Models without a meaningful phase-reversal path keep regular exponential FM on both sides.

Your palette: 14 of 32 distinct models can use TZFM.

On 34 qualified models, FM input sampling rises from the normal 4 kHz control rate to a continuous 50 kHz stream. Other models keep normal control-rate exponential FM.

FM and LEVEL are wired to the same converter. Reaching 50 kHz requires dedicating that converter to FM instead of alternating between both inputs, so LEVEL CV is unavailable throughout a Fast FM build — including while a non-Fast model is selected. The LEVEL option light is skipped on the module and shown dark above.

Your palette: 11 of 32 distinct models can use the 50 kHz stream.

Models 32 / 32Flash 223.1 KBUnique 32Labs slots 9Tables 4 / 16

Experimental palette loaded

Plaits Palette is free. Optional payments help fund its continued development.

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Plaits Palette is an independent Rubato Audio project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Mutable Instruments. Mutable-derived firmware and artwork: Rubato Audio source · original source and licenses. Original Plaits symbols and panel button artwork by Mutable Instruments / Papernoise Design; amber bank icons by Rubato Audio.