Ableton Forum

I'm sure this is possible, but I just can't figure it out. I'm trying to randomize the timing of one of my drum hits during a breakdown, so that it could come in on any (or none) of the four 16th notes in a beat, for part of a live performance. However, this is dance music so I want it to stay locked in to the grid, which means a "random" groove isn't going to cut it.

I have already thought of designing a Reaktor ensemble on another track that will do this and routing the MIDI through, but this is no good because I already have clips on the target track, and obviously one track won't play notes from a clip and MIDI-in ones at the same time. I'd rather not create a whole track for a single drum sound because it's part of a multi-sample Battery kit. I'd do it in the Kontakt scripting thing if I knew how.

So basically what I'm asking is, does anyone think they know a way of randomizing rhythm with the built in MIDI effects?

follow actions>other

other only jumps to clips directly touching the group so you can use it as long as there is a space in between the top and the bottom of its group here

first also acts the same way

so if you have a group of clips set up it will run the right way

example, if you want the snare hit on beat 4 of each measure to be randomized in the 4th beat set it up like this

s----x------- follow action 0 3 0 other
kx-------x---

sx--- follow action 0 1 0 first
k----

s-x-- follow action 0 1 0 first
k----

s--x- follow action 0 1 0 first
k----

s---x follow action 0 1 0 first
k----

s---- follow action 0 1 0 first
k----

when you start the first clip it will instantly fill in the last beat with one of the 5 choices randomly but will always be in time

ahh cheers for this, follow actions hadn't even crossed my mind!

Check out my latest blog post for a demonstration of follow actions