Ableton Forum

This is probably the most cliche' question but i must ask it anyway
I ried searching the board for an answer but i couldnt find any so here goes -
I want to use follow actions randomness ability to create crazy drum n' base beats.
How would you suggest i should set the start\end point for every clip in the group?
Should i use the legato option?
How much quantization is required?
What about the probability? how much do you suggest i should set it to?

Thanks in advance for your help

Doesn't that take all the fun out of it? Go play!

The way i see it, even the greats like aphex twin, autechre, venetian snares, use randomness as a tool when creating their beats because reaching that kind of intricacy by painting the drum parts by hand is simply impossible. That's the level of intricacy i want to achieve.

I meant, try all the combinations of settings yourself, go explore, it's all about happy accidents. You're on the right track.

just setup some stuff and record while youre experimenting. then look for crazy beat repeat like patterns and rearrange. its that easy
making IDM beats is too easy. a little child that can handle a mouse can do it in Live.
even in a midi sequencer its childs play.. you just have to know how

ikke wrote:you just have to know how

Well its the "how" that i need, the basics. I'll experiment from there.

The way i see it, even the greats like aphex twin, autechre, venetian snares, use randomness as a tool when creating their beats because reaching that kind of intricacy by painting the drum parts by hand is simply impossible.

I'm 90% sure the venetian snares uses reNoise.
http://www.renoise.com
So in that case you're wrong he does create that shit by hand. Check out the demo, I find it much easier to create chopped-up, glitchy beats in reNoise then by using any FSU plug-in. It gives you a level of control not really matched by most sequencers.

every midi sequencer with a hi grid resolution can do it

them idm producers also use random sound generators (circuit bended keyboards and stuff like that) to get freaky sounds. Maybe thats what you mean by "random" ?

vsnares use renoise.

I saw something on his myspace section about this.

This is a serious tool for doing that kind of stuff.
[/quote]

Liveslice VST is nice for making glitchy choppy style drumbeats. check it out.

i suspect the answer you seek doesnt exist...

i think what a few people have hinted at & which u dont seem to be getting
is that you need to go experiment & find your own methods of creating the
beats etc that you want... of course there are plugins & programs &
techniques that will all help achieve something, but what is that something?
plenty of sales people (or users with vested interests) will tell you their
product holds the secret but really the only secret is having the desire
& then doing the hard work & long hours of realising that desire....
Cos they are YOUR tastes & aesthetics and only yours
so try LiveSlice, it has some randomness/probablity functions, download &
try some reaktor patches... download Max/MSP & spend some time
learning to program... try Supatrigger, try GRM Freeze
try reading the manual for LIVE & doing the tutorials...

take a beat/break you like and load it into a clip in live.
copy it say 8times and paste it down the session view.
leave the first as is, starting at the 1
move the start and end points around with the other clips, try to maybe be aware of starting on specific drum hits if possible.
set each clip to follow action at a length, 1bar is good, but try to mix it up maybe. sometimes really short lengths are good for this, remember if the length of the clip is 2 bars and the follow action is 1 you'll only hear the first bar of said clip.
set the follow action to random other, or whatever they call it.
let er rip.
you have to play with it to get something usable.
I set the quantize to 16ths.
I don't really use the legato for this, but try it, I think it will let the clip finish before moving on.
good luck.

Follow action is fantastic for nonrepeating beats. Put a group of clips in one channel and let randomness reign.


For example:

Very good for hihats: Three, four slightly different oneshot-sounds, follow action on shortest interval possible, and there you go.

If you have a groovy loop, duplicate it various times and set on each one a different send channel full open, all others with zero volume. Set all clips to legato. Put a different efffect on each send channel (one delay, various different tuned resonators, ...) Now let follow actions play in short intervalls randomly through all the clips. The loop will be playing normally, uninterrupted, but you will have randomly set effects going on and off all the time.

And because I am so bored I made you an exampleset.

Download it here

pepezabala wrote:And because I am so bored I made you an exampleset.

Download it here

Hey thanks alot Pepe
You've given me plenty to think about.