#1

I love easter eggs, so I just summarized all found and still unknown easter eggs. Read it on your own risks! It can spoil you. I will update, if new stuff is found/released. :slight_smile:

Braids
It’s a hidden oscillator model that plays morse code.
To get the mode as an additional oscillator mode you need to enter 49 in the built in text editor. It can be found on one of the last pages of the Braids settings. Here is the initial text:
GREETINGS FROM MUTABLE INSTRUMENTS * EDIT ME*
Change it to: 49
Now the new oscillator model is available in the list of oscillator models.

Elements
It’s a hidden mode, which turns the module into a weird 2x2 operators FM synth voice. Think Braids’ FM/FBFM times two. It lives in a strange middle-ground between classic subtractive analog and what you’d expect of FM.
Set all the attenuverters and all the TIMBRE knobs of the Exciter section to their minimum position. Set all the attenuverters and the DAMPING, POSITION, and SPACE knobs of the Resonator section to their maximum position.
Hold the PLAY push-button for 5 seconds. Press PLAY again. The push-button’s built-in LED should be off. You can now move the attenuverters and other knobs to their normal position.
More info here

Peaks
Three long presses on both the SPLIT and FUNCTION buttons starts a “number station”. The pots are controlling pitch, transition probability, noise and distortion.
There is also a fifth mode in the source code: Bouncing ball. A hidden mode for hackers and programmers :smiley:

Streams
Streams has a hidden lorenz attractor. To activate it, press this sequence 4 times: "Channel 1 button. Channel 2 button. Channel 1 button (long press). Channel 2 button (long press)."
SHAPE controls the rate (value of the time step) and is CV-controlled by EXCITE. AMOUNT controls whether amplitude or cutoff frequency are modulated.
You can use it to make a CV/audio signal “wobble”, or when nothing is patched into the input, you get a random source. It’s a very pleasing smooth modulation source!

Tides
A hidden Plotter drawing mode. It draws a plotter that can be edited in the source code (plotter_program.h).
To enter: Add a cable to the FM and Level Input. Now press the top (mode) button 1 second. All leds light yellow. Press it again for one second. All leds light green. Now press the button bellow (the range button) and all LEDs should light red.
You have now entered the plotter mode. To see the plotter, best use a oscilloscope like the “Jones O’Tool Oscilloscope module”.

Yarns
The hidden mode plays a song that can be edited in the source code (song.h).
To enter set the Clock Tempo and Clock Swing both to 49. Set the Clock Output Devision to 3 and the Clock Bar Duration to 9.
Now press the Start/stop button without being in any mode.

No hidden easter eggs in Branches, Clouds, CVPal, Edges & Grids.

Links, Ripples, Shades & Shelves don’t have any easter eggs. They are analog and without micro controller.

1 Like
#2

All will be revealed on 20th April 2014, after which such questions will be answered with Μή μου ἅπτου, or a transcendental function.

#3

Olivier has given away the solution to the Braids Easter Egg on another thread. It’s 49 from the Crying of Lot 49.

Please direct me to the Yarns Easter Egg info. I’ll crack it for you.

#4

Shit you are right. It’s 49 :smiley: (yay, my app was working :D) I will update the information.

Here is the yarns information from a MI weekly update:

  • Implemented a few improvements to Yarns’ firmware suggested by the pioneers. Fun fact: one of these suggestions required some code which was already there as part of the Easter egg.

It could be anything. Here is the hint for tides easter egg:

  • Intensive firmware testing for Tides. Obscure easter egg.
#5

I have yet to figure out the Peaks easter egg. Other than that the manual’s reference is to a Thomas Hardy poem…

Would like to hear that bouncing ball though, perhaps I’d find it more useful than the delay, unless it could be incorporated there. Instead of gate length, perhaps use that pot for bounce curve…

#6

Isn’t it an Edgar Allen Poe poem, The Raven? Of course, Thomas Hardy was a much better poet than Edgar Allen Poe, but that’s beside the point.

#7

Tides easter egg or hiden mod is perhaps when all led are red, it’s possible to have it when you push the 2 button on the same time in some configartion.

#8

OK, Easter is still a long way off, and I’m an atheist anyway, thus herewith the secret of the Peaks Easter egg (unconfirmed because I don’t actually own a Peaks module, nor any MI modules for that matter, only four Shruthi):

As mentioned above and previously observed, the clue in the Peaks manual is the section titled “Quaint and curious”, with the instruction:

… nau … ((tone)) …

“Quaint and curious” is a reference to the well-known and much-studied-at-school poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. So let’s read the poem. Hmmm, poetry. OK, just the first stanza, then:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`‘Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.’

OK, so there is a raven tap-tap-tapping at his chamber door. Gosh, there’s a TAP mode in Peaks! Many a quaint and curious…volume. Ah, the top knob controls amplitude (volume) in TAP mode. Hmmm, at midnight! So set the top knob to the 12 o’clock position.

OK, let’s turn to the clue. Too easy. Nau is nine in Esperanto. My educated guess is that if you tap on the function button nine times when in TAP mode (or possibly when in expert TAP mode), it will play a tone. I’d be extra chuffed if the tone sounded like a vocoded version of “Nevermore!”. (If those cultural references are lost upon you, read the rest of the poem, and then listen to this).

Of course, I could be wrong.

#9

haha, the Poe thing totally makes sense! There is a Hardy poem called The Man He Killed that uses that same phase “quaint and curious”.

Anyway, is it really a vocoder?! Has anyone figured this out then? Olivier wrote in that other thread that he messaged the winner, so that should mean the easter egg is out, but I still somehow missed it in that thread!

Tap tap tap. I’m going to try to figure this out…

#10

The winner may not have cracked the Easter egg… And thanks for reference to the Hardy poem (whom I hold in greater esteem as a poet than Poe), although in this case I am pretty sure Olivier was alluding to the Poe poem.

So what is the ((tone))? Soundcloud please!

#11

@BennelongBicyclist: Great idea :slight_smile: However I couldn’t get it working. :confused: I tried different combinations (expert mode, all to 12, etc.).

#12

And nine taps? Not on the function button, as I suggested - that doesn’t make sense, rather (obviously, now that I have looked at the quick-start guide) on the two tap buttons/LEDs. Maybe nine taps alternating on each button. First tap on upper button. If no joy, try first tap on lower button. Then try nine taps on just one button. Then nine taps on just the other button. Nine trigger pulses? Unlikely. After that, I am out of ideas.

#13

no luck here either … 9 taps on either tap button while the volume pot is on 12 did not result in anything quaint and curious, … luckily (i think), as people will tap them also frequently to set the tempo and that might as well be 9 or more times and with volume on 12. It better be something that is very unlikely to happen during normal performance.

#14

I pressed the two tap buttons individually, together , etc. I tried many combinations :wink:

#15

@morcego: good point. How about 9 taps on the tap buttons when not in TAP mode?

#16

Maybe set all the knobs to 9 o’clock? And tap nine times? I give up.

#17

> How about 9 taps on the tap buttons when not in TAP mode?

The tap buttons are useful in the other modes too, for example to manually play the drums or trigger envelopes.

#18

@pichenettes: so is tapping of anything, nine times, involved?

#19

I somehow forgot to bookmark this page. Anyway, thanks flocked I’ll take a look on the Yarns and see what I can find. There’s a MO behind Olivier’s Easter Eggs so it might be solvable this time (too bad I don’t have the spare time like I had when cracking the Braids Easter Egg; fun times!)

No hint in the Quick Guide though.

#20

So I’ve followed the instructions posted to unlock the morse code mode but I think I’ve edited the wrong part of the text in the menu and deleted all of it, I attempted to reapply the 1.5 update in the hope of restoring the line of text so I can try again but no love…any ideas guys?