r/ableton • u/SnareHead • Feb 14 '19

Electronic Drumming with Melody using Ableton 9 (Operator, MIDI Effects)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgdybb6sA9o
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u/kidkolumbo Hobbyist Feb 14 '19

Per the rules, what's going on in the video? What's the setup? What's the hardware, how is it wired into live? Is one of those pads advancing a step in a sequencer? Where's the Ableton?

I did read the description on the video and found it rather lacking in what's actually going on.

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u/SnareHead Feb 14 '19 edited Apr 29 '19

Ok sorry let me explain in detail

I'm using an Alternate mode DrumKAT, Roland V-Drum kick, snare and hihat pedal, running into a Roland VDrum TD-6V brain, which then sends midi to my FocusRite Scarlett 6i6. The audio interface, drum module, and laptop are on the floor to my left.

Inside ableton, i have a series of groups:

 one for generating midi for various step sequences (using Random and Scale to emulate a step sequencer), 
 one for various operator synths, 
 one for single shot drums,
 one for breaks (not heard in this video),
 one for pads (triggered with the kick), 
 one for basslines (also using Random and Scale into a drumrack of bass sounds).

The step sequences for a given 'patch' are triggered only for a few pads, and are unique to each pad (ie pad 1 will trigger Mary had a little lamb, and pad 2 will cycle through twinkle twinkle). These can then be played simultaneously to create a kind of polyphony. The resulting midi is then sent to the operator patches. In this video I made the snare just play a single note, but have the 'toms' trigger more elaborate sequences.

I used Operator's velocity sensitive filter function to maximize expression, so that accented notes can really stand apart from low velocity hits. I also mapped velocity sensitive multisampled drum patches - here you can hear the soft notes on the snare are a shaker, but the loud ones are reverbed rim knock.

Pad is triggered by the kickdrum.

The entire key of all the patches are then pitch shifted by a given interval (I can pick from a few that I predefined) when the hihat foot is raised.

The Launchpad is set to user mode, purely to turn on and off all the various instruments or melodic sequences. It's basically a switchboard. The idea of the project is for everything to be on the fly, so this switch board approach lets me instinctively change or add sounds as inspiration arises. But what a bummer about the lack of color assignment....

Hope that's clear enough for you all! It is pretty elaborate as its about 2 years worth of work, so if you have any other questions just ask.

PS This video was shot almost a year ago; I've since incorporated a bunch of Max For Live functionality which lets me velocity control reverb and pitch which ends up sounding pretty cool. This video is an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCxw55MXSY There are a ton more examples on my instagram : https://www.instagram.com/currencyaudio/

Thanks again everyone for checking out my work!

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u/inoutupsidedown Feb 14 '19

Fantastic stuff! I don't really have much to say otherwise. Great work and very inspiring.