MIDI Delay and Sequencer Via Eskimo Spy

Ryan Terrell (aka Eskimo Spy) recently wrote this article to share on AudioCookbook.org regarding MIDI delay and sequencing in Ableton Live, and I agree that it is something that will interest many ACB readers. Ryan writes:

I’ve always wanted a MIDI delay and sequencer built into Ableton. Recently, Max for Live programmers have been coming up with some slick patches to do just that. For those of us who haven’t got the cash for Max yet, there’s an alternative.

While tinkering with the “Note Length” MIDI plugin I stumbled upon an interesting find. The “Note Length” plugin has two modes: Note On and Note Off. Note On simply allows the note to pass through changing only the length of the outgoing note. However, “Note Off” waits for the “Note Off” MIDI message (sent from most synthesizers after the key is released) before triggering a *new* note.

I found that in stacking more than one of these plugins end on end I was able to successfully create a MIDI effect rack built on quantized step increments. Each “Note Length” plugin is waiting for a note to finish before triggering their note. By stacking more than one, and setting the plugins to “Sync” mode, you can delay it by quantized increments.

For added versatility there is a Pitch and Velocity plugin at the end of each parallel rack. The velocity plugin is set to “Fixed” mode, so when the velocity macro for each chain are set at 0, the note doesn’t sound at all, effectively silencing that step.

Finally, there’s are global “Random Velocity” and “Gate” length macros. This will give you global control over all the steps’ lengths, and random deviation by degrees from each step’s programmed velocities.

The implementations of this are two-fold. You can create a type of “MIDI Delay” if you remove any pitch variant, and map a macro (with some tinkering) to the velocity of each step, thereby allowing it to “Decay” over time in velocity. You can also use this as a step sequencer, with 4, 8, 16, 24… etc. steps. The rack I used to make these are built on 16 steps, but it’s entirely modular. Also, with the myriad of “Velocity to ____” (fill in the blank) parameters on every synth in Live, this is a massive breakthrough for my own music. Such is the beauty of racks.

E-mail eskimospy.music [at] gmail [dot] com for the prototype racks. This will be featured on the upcoming website www.RacksForLive.com and you should head over there to register for details of the site launch from the founder, Isaac Halvorson.


Ableton – MIDI Delay w/ Velocity or “Feedback” Modulation by Eskimo Spy

This entry was posted in Audio News, Sound Design and tagged by John CS Keston. Bookmark the permalink.

About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

One thought on “MIDI Delay and Sequencer Via Eskimo Spy

Leave a Reply