Tag Archives: Ableton Live

Robert Henke’s Granulator (Part 1)

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By now most Ableton users, especially Max for Live developers, know about the latest update and price cuts to Max for Live. Peter Kirn has written a couple of articles on the topic (see Music Patchwork: Ableton Makes Max for Live Cheaper, Showcases Creations by Henke, Hawtin, More and Ableton Delivers Max for Live Improvements and Guidelines, Responds to Feedback). Consequently you may already know that Ableton is giving away several amazing Max for Live instruments. These are perfect devices to explore for my One Synthesizer Sound Everyday project, and although I’m already backed up with weeks worth of analog sounds in the can it won’t hurt to interject some experiments from the M4L pool.

The first one of the new devices that I tried was Granulator by Robert Henke. Within a couple of hours experimenting I had enough material for a couple of weeks! Granulator is brilliant. Having developed my own M4L instrument, Grain Machine, I can really appreciate what Mr. Henke has done here. I even opened up his perfectly organized patch in Max for Live to get a look under the hood and I fully endorse his work (not that this means anything coming from me, but trust me it’s good). Here’s the first of a series of sounds I produced using Granulator with a recording of Three Wind-Up Snow Globes. Absolutely no processing was applied before or after the Granulator instrument, or to the snow globe recording.

Snow Globes Granulator Demo 1

Resonator Study

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I built this Ableton resonator study around the same time I posted Synth Bass Through Resonators, but didn’t post it because I’m not satisfied with the drums that I put in as a temporary placeholder. If this gets used l’ll be replacing the drums with something more fitting and less conventional.

Resonator Study

Synth Bass Through Resonators

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I made this synth bass patch today on the MKS-80 and performed real time edits with the Bitstream 3X sending sysex directly to the instrument. This technique feels a lot smoother and lower in latency that any other routing method I have tried so far. After recording it I ran it through Ableton’s resonators and automated some chord changes. Here’s an excerpt from the results.

Synth Bass Through Resonators

Bitstream 3X MIDI Controller

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I just got a Bitstream 3X MIDI controller (BS3X), and have just started experimenting with it. This is a complex and fully programmable device, so I will need some time with it before I have learned the best way to incorporate it my setup. The easiest way to use it is in standard mode where no programming is required on the unit. Simply map the controls in the software you are using. However, what makes the BS3X powerful is the user mode where every assignable control can be programmed. A sophisticated editor allows the user to map these controls based on a long list of device parameters such as “Roland D50 Upper Partial 1 – TVF Cutoff Frequency”.

Just to get started with the device I used the standard mode and mapped the bulk of Roland MKS-80 parameters to it via the reKon Audio VST-AU MKS-80 editor in Ableton Live. For the VCF cutoff and resonance I used the XY axis joystick. This gave me one finger control over both of these parameters for very expressive control of the filter. I also mapped the VCF envelope LFO depth to the ribbon controller for another way to manipulate the filter. In one take using only three controls (the XY axis, ribbon, and a knob mapped to the LFO rate) I performed this drone.

MKS-80 XY Axis Drone

Short Circuit Videos

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Short Circuit – 021911 – Ostraka from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Short Circuit – 021911 – Sputnik Viper from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Short Circuit – 021911 – Square Wail from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Short Circuit – 021911 – web dimension from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Logan Erickson, also known as Low-Gain, organizes the monthly electronic music event called Short Circuit. As well as doing a great job with the event, he produces excellent, HD documentation with the direct audio signal from the house system synched up to the video. Above is his documentation from the February 19, 2011 event that I had the pleasure of participating in. Checkout his Vimeo page to see videos from former Short Circuit events and interesting experiments by Low-Gain.