Learn Live 12: MIDI Generators

Ableton2024-03-05

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💫 Short Summary

Ableton Live offers tools for generating rhythms, patterns, and chords easily accessible in the clip view. The Rhythm Generator allows for creating beats in a drum rack and adjusting parameters. Users can also generate melodic patterns and counter melodies with controls for various elements. The Shape Generator can automatically generate notes in different shapes with adjustable parameters. The video demonstrates adding and manipulating chords in Live's interface, including custom generators like MaxForLive patches for creating rhythms based on subdivisions of whole numbers. Users can explore preset patterns or create custom shapes for chord exploration.

✨ Highlights

📊 Transcript

✦

Ableton Live offers tools for generating rhythms, patterns, and chords in the clip view.

00:00

The Rhythm Generator enables the creation of beats in a drum rack, with customizable parameters and a Generate button for toggling.

Tools for generating melodic patterns and counter melodies include controls for pitch range, duration, velocity, voices, and density.

The Shape Generator can automatically generate notes in different shapes, with adjustable parameters like rate, tie, and jitter.

Users have the option to explore preset patterns or create custom shapes for chord exploration.

✦

How to use chords and generators in Live's interface.

06:14

Users can add and manipulate chords by changing inversions, root notes, duration, and start time.

Custom generators like MaxForLive patches can be added to create rhythms based on subdivisions of whole numbers.

The video showcases the use of the Euclidean generator for creating unique rhythms.

00:00Ableton Live comes with a set of tools to generate rhythms, patterns and chords,

00:05all easily accessible in the clip view.

00:07Let's take a closer look.

00:09You can choose between the tools using this drop down menu.

00:12Let's explore the Rhythm Generator and create a beat in a drum rack.

00:17I'm going to start by selecting the closed hi hat pad using the

00:20menu, and suddenly some notes will appear in the note editor window.

00:25This is because the Generate button is on by default, which means

00:28that any changes I make to the parameters in the generator will be

00:32automatically reflected in the clip.

00:42I can toggle this button off if I like.

00:45Now, any changes I make will only be printed by clicking the apply button

00:49or using the shortcut Command Enter on a Mac or Control Enter on Windows.

00:58Let's select the bass drum and explore the parameters.

01:01This time, instead of using the menu, I'll hold down Option on a

01:04Mac or Alt on Windows and click on the note in the piano ruler.

01:09Steps sets the number of steps in a pattern, and density defines the

01:13number of notes within those steps.

01:17The pattern parameter cycles through a number of different patterns, and

01:21the higher your step setting is, the more possible patterns are available.

01:26Step Duration defines the length of each possible step.

01:50Shift moves the pattern forwards or backwards in time.

01:55Below this, we can set

01:57the bass velocity for the generated notes, as well as the velocity of accented notes.

02:03We can use the Freq control to define the amount of accented notes in

02:07the pattern, and we can shift the resulting velocity pattern to the

02:10left or the right using the arrows.

02:16Finally, the split slider determines the chance that a step will be

02:20split into equal length notes.

02:32Let's move on to generating a melodic pattern.

02:35I'll double click on an empty clip slot on this track, which houses an

02:38electric piano instrument, and then I'll select Seed from the drop down menu.

02:43I'll start off by selecting a pitch range for my generated notes.

03:04As we can see and hear, Live has generated a pattern of notes

03:07that adhere to the scale I chose.

03:10I can also set a duration range and control how long

03:13or short the notes can be,

03:31and I can also set a velocity range.

03:36Clicking the Apply button or using the shortcut Command Enter on a Mac or Control

03:40Enter on Windows will keep regenerating patterns that fit my parameter choices.

03:46I'll regenerate a few until I'm happy with one.

03:54The Voices slider defines the maximum possible amount of voices,

04:05and the Density slider determines the total amount of

04:08notes that will be generated.

04:20Now I'd like to add a counter melody to this idea.

04:23Double clicking again in an empty clip slot, this time on a third

04:27track, creates a new MIDI clip.

04:29Here I'll select the Shape Generator, and move a parameter to automatically

04:34generate an upward ramp of notes.

04:45I'll use the Minimum Pitch and Maximum Pitch choosers to generate notes in

04:49a slightly lower register, and start exploring the parameters from here.

04:58The Rate knob sets the minimum length of the generated notes, and by default

05:02is set to match the current grid.

05:12The Tie knob defines the likelihood of a note's length being extended

05:16to merge with the next note.

05:24And the density knob defines how many notes are generated

05:27within the chosen shape.

05:34Jitter adds a bit of random deviation to the shape of the pattern.

05:41You can explore a selection of patterns from the drop down menu, or

05:44you can draw your own custom shapes.

06:04Stacks is a great way of exploring chords.

06:07In a new MIDI clip, I'll begin by dragging the chord symbol up and

06:11down to scroll through some shapes.

06:14The notes, chord names and scale degrees are all listed in the

06:17bottom left of Live's interface.

06:22When I have a chord I like, I'll click on the plus button and add a new chord

06:26inside the currently selected space.

06:29I can continue to do so.

06:32I can also scroll through possible inversions of the

06:34currently selected chord,

06:40and also change the root note.

07:05I can change the length of the current selected chord using the duration chooser

07:11and offset the chord's start time.

07:33Finally, you can add custom generators in the form of MaxForLive patches

07:38nested into the generators tab.

07:49Here for example is a Euclidean generator with a range of options

07:53for generating rhythms based on subdivisions of whole numbers.

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