Getting back into Ableton and other things
Ableton launched 12.1.1 earlier this week and there are some interesting new tools
Coming up over the remainder of the year and building up more in 2025, our content is going to grow and expand to encapsulate, iPad (which is our favourite), Ableton, Bitwig (once I’ve renewed my license) and quite a lot of hardware. Not all new stuff, there are a zillion channels on YouTube that cover this; I’m interested in exploring buying some older stuff second-hand, especially for Eurorack and to change my way of thinking, tackling that GAS problem that bugs us all from time to time.
ModCaf - how the Testchamber project is doing
Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone - Barry Barnage and Delia Derbyshire — Inventions for Radio
Ben Champion and Marolaeth, members of ModCaf who took part in the TestChamber project that I wrote about in previous Modulations, appeared on the above show recently.
Welcome to the the Freak Zone, dedicated to giving the people what they want - as long as what they want is Earth Kitt singing Donovan, Icelandic double bass ambient and electronica recorded in a wind tunnel.
Plus, to celebrate Delia Derbyshire Day, this week's featured album is Inventions for Radio, the electronic pioneer's landmark collaboration with poet and playwright Barry Bermange.
Originally broadcast on the BBC Third Programme in 1964 and 1965, they were sound collages of electronic sounds and interviews with everyday people on subjects such as dreams, the nature and existence of God, life after death, and ageing. After being rebroadcast in 1977, they were unavailable for many years until being commercially released for the first time in 2023
You can also find all of the music from the album on Bandcamp, that I have included here for you!
Getting back into Ableton
I was planning on getting the new Ableton Move by the way, but then decided against it and whilst I was thinking about this, I upgraded Live to 12.1.1 which includes some nice new features, more on those in a bit; but I also downloaded the new Sequencers Pack which includes SQ Sequencer, Rhythmic Steps and Step Arp which are very inspiring. I will later review a similar thing that has been released for Bitwig (next year for that one though).
In the above video, I take a little look at the three step sequencers and there is a lot to explore in these. SQ Sequencer is a more traditional device, Rhythmic is great for drums but in some future notes, I will explore how it can be in other ways and finally Step ARP is a very powerful arpeggiator that I tied to a clip, playing a series of chords.
Updates for Note and Live
https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/note/
https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/live-12/
We shall work our way through some of the new stuff in Live and Note a little bit later, I’ve only just updated mine and need some time to play with it.
Live: Drum Sampler
A new sampler has been added in Live to complement the existing Simpler and Sampler and it’s superbly simple, drop a drum sampler or more into a drum rack slot, then drop a sample from anywhere into the empty space and the video below shows some of the effects that can be applied to each beat.
There are a whole raft of new features that are big improvements
AutoShift, have seen some interesting demos for uses other than the obvious.
Updated Limiter, which is much nicer and the UI is far more obvious, with better feedback
Updated saturator
Filter and select MIDI notes in the piano roll editor. I love this part of Live now, I’ve come up with some nice ideas using these tools, let’s explore more in future Modulations issues.
Chop Midi Notes
The list goes on and I’d rather share more video/audio examples with you from week to week
Hardware
I mentioned at the top, how I was interested in the Ableton Move and then decided, that maybe not what I want, not convinced and as such gets added to that list of things I once added to a web store basked but then changed my mind. Do you do this?
So what will I get? Do I wish to spend money on something else or am I going to lock my wallet in a safe that doesn’t let me have it back until this time next year?
Polyend Synth
This is what I might order this week, I love the idea of it being more about just playing, I’ve plenty of things I can sequence it with, such as the Oxi, my laptop, iPad etc - Slow Hastee does a great demonstration and pairing it up with the SP-404 makes a lot of sense, especially when I have one of those.
You see, this is much more fun, much more capable than the Move.
Polyend Tracker
I regret selling my Polyend Tracker, the OG version earlier this year but weirdly, they released the plus version the following week and whilst watching YouTube last night I stumbled upon this and made me bloody want one of those sodding things too!
I’ve still got the SD card for my old device.
I shall leave you folks with a cliffhangar - which one of the above will I get? Or will I get neither? Have I become indecisive in middle age?
If you want to check out a Move - I have one.
It is brilliant if you want to come up with quick transferable ideas within 4 tracks then move them on to other hardware (push3) or into live.
Battery/portability is really appreciated.
Just dont expect a full live experience and know what you are buying into.