Interactive Musical Video System: Using Randomization

This week I created an audio effects rack applying different Ableton Live stock effects to Operator. I used stock plug-ins to reduce the CPU load of this track as much as possible. After applying many effect chains, I used the Velocity device to output random velocity values and Expression Control to map that velocity to a macro knob in the effects rack. This makes it so every time I trigger a MIDI note, a random effects chain is applied to Operator. Mr. Bill describes this process in Mr. Bill — Ableton Tutorial 73 — Automatic Hocket Machine.

I used this same randomization effects chain applied to the frequency rate of an Auto Pan device so I can apply a chop effect with randomized speeds.

In this instrument rack, I added Ableton’s Wavetable with an original more melodic preset so I can have a more melodic section while playing. For both instruments, I added an Arpeggiator and mapped the Rate and Gate of the Arpeggiator to MIDI control knobs 1 and 2 on the SPD-SX respectively.

From mapping this to my SPD-SX, I can now hit a single pad and trigger a random sound out of each effects chain each time. This was inspired by a native feature of the Alesis Strike MultiPad where one can hit a pad and trigger a sound from a randomly chosen pad in the current kit demonstrated in this video: Alesis Strike MultiPad Drum Controller Demo.

Overall, this adds more interest to improvising bass drops, and sets up a system that I can add more and more effects chains to.

I will have to optimize this setup to lower the CPU load of my main Ableton project using WAV or MP3 files in a Drum Rack or as one audio file in Simpler or Sampler. Previously, I was only triggering one-shot samples, while applying the SPD-SX built-in effects, but now I am using more comprehensive and powerful instrument racks and Max for Live devices.

Due to the song structure of many electronic songs starting with a riser and melody, going into the drop, continuing to a more melodic section, and then repeating, I came up with the idea to create individual SPD-SX presets that trigger randomly selected risers, bass sounds, and then more melodic synths or melodies. Using this system, I can improvise in a more structured way. This was inspired by the structure of this performance: Mr. Bill | Rubix @ Rubix Warehouse