Ableton/Live/UG/11 MIDI Tools
- The Transform and Generate tools in the Clip View that reshape existing notes or create new ones, aware of the clip's scale.
- MIDI Tools live in the Clip View's Transform and Generate panels. Transformations need selected notes and replace them; MPE tools are transformations that add or change note expression, visible in the MPE Editor. Generators need no input and create notes.
- Native tools are built in and fixed; Max for Live tools can be edited, built, or installed from other makers, and show under the browser's MIDI Tools filter group or the MIDI Tool tag.
- Pick a tool from the panel's selector and adjust it. Auto Apply, on by default, applies changes immediately; turn it off, which restores the original notes, to adjust first and then press Apply.
Cmd+Enter (Mac) / Ctrl+Enter (Win) applies from the editor. - Transformations act on the time selection, the note selection, or the whole loop. Generators fill the time selection or loop, keeping existing notes they don't overlap and replacing those they do.
- With a clip scale, pitch parameters use scale degrees.
- Undo and Redo affect notes, not tool settings; Reset returns a tool's parameters to default without touching notes.
- Max for Live MIDI Tools are
.amxd files (Ableton/File/.amxd) edited in a Max patcher like any Ableton/Max for Live device. Velocity Shaper and Euclidean come with Live Standard and Suite; building or editing tools needs Suite or the Max for Live add-on. - Third-party tools appear when saved in
~/Music/Ableton/User Library/MIDI Tools/Max Transformations or .../Max Generators, or in any folder in Places.
- The transformations included with Live.
- Turns the selected notes into an arpeggio, using the Arpeggiator effect's engine and its 18 Style patterns.
- Distance transposes successive steps by semitones or scale degrees; Steps sets how many transposed steps. Rate sets the pattern speed and note length; Gate shortens notes below 100% and lengthens them above.
- Divides notes into 2 to 64 Parts, and builds division patterns of up to 16 parts that repeat.
- Gaps adds rests: a positive value puts a gap after that many notes, a negative value puts that many gaps after each note. Pattern toggles show the result and let you add or remove gaps by hand, which sets Gaps to a dash.
- Emphasis toggles pick notes or gaps to lengthen by the Stretch Chunk(s) factor, 2 to 8 times. Variation randomizes note starts and ends.
- Fills the gaps between notes with new notes at random positions.
- Spread limits how far their pitch can stray from the originals; Density sets what share of each gap is filled, all of it at 100%. Rate sets their length; Tie is the chance a note extends to the next original note.
- An MPE tool that bends from one note's pitch to the next, tying them; needs at least two notes.
- Start sets where the bend begins as a share of the note; Curve shapes it. Drag the yellow breakpoint or the line in the display.
- The bend shows only in the MPE Editor, or in the Pitch Bend expression lane when notes are folded.
- An MPE tool that writes a low-frequency oscillator into pitch bend, slide or pressure, chosen with Target.
- Envelope Attack and Decay shape the amplitude across the oscillation and trade off against each other. Shape Type is Sine, Square, Triangle or Random (with Reseed), and Shape adjusts it.
- Rate runs from 1 (four beats) to 1/128; Time Shift delays the start or shifts phase.
- Amount sets depth: up to twice the clip's pitch bend range for pitch, for example ±120 semitones for a ±60 range, or -127 to 127 for slide and pressure. Amplitude Base sets the centre value within the same kinds of limits.
- Results show in the MPE Editor and its expression lanes, not in the Note Editor.
- Adds ornamental notes before the selected notes; applying again adds more.
- Flam adds one note. Flam Position, as a share of a grid step, places it over the note's start (positive) or before it (negative); Flam Velocity sets its velocity relative to the original.
- Grace Notes adds several equal notes. Pitch: High or Low alternates a semitone or scale degree above or below, Same keeps the pitch. Position, Velocity and Chance work like Flam's, relative to the original note; Amount sets how many.
- Moves or stretches selected notes to the grid or a chosen value, including triplets, quantizing starts, ends, or both. Amount moves notes only part of the way. Audio clips have a matching tool.
- Edit → Quantize Settings… opens it;
Cmd+Shift+U (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+U (Win) quantizes without opening the panel.
- Swaps one property among the selected notes, chosen with Dimension: Position, Pitch, Duration or Velocity.
- Shuffle permutes at random, a new result each Apply; Mirror reverses the order; Rotate shifts values around by Rotation Steps, set in the display or with the arrows, up to one less than the note count. Positive rotates clockwise.
- For Position, Rotate on Grid counts grid cells instead of notes.
- The three combine in the order Shuffle, Mirror, Rotate.
- Sets note lengths by articulation:
- Legato: each note reaches the next; the last reaches the end of the selection or loop.
- Tenuto: lengths stay as they are.
- Staccato: every note becomes half the shortest gap between note starts.
- Offset lengthens or shortens note ends by up to a grid step. Variation shortens (positive) or lengthens (negative) notes at random, anew each time.
- Staggers the start times of a chord's notes, like strumming.
- Strum Low offsets from the lowest note and Strum High from the highest, each up to a grid step forward (positive) or back (negative); at least one must be non-zero. Set them in the Strum Position display or by typing.
- Tension curves the spacing: positive values start wide and narrow; negative values start tight and widen. At 0 the spacing is even.
- Stretches selected notes along a speed curve, for accelerando or ritardando. The curve spans the time selection and has one to three breakpoints, dragged in the display or set with Breakpoint Time and Speed.
- Quantize snaps results to the grid; Preserve Time Range keeps them within the original span; Include Note End lets the curve change note lengths too.
- A Max for Live tool that shapes the selected notes' velocities with an envelope; click to add breakpoints and drag them.
- Minimum and Maximum Velocity set the range. Loop repeats the shape across the selection; Rotate shifts it by steps of Division, for example one grid step.
- The generators included with Live.
- Generates a repeating rhythm on one pitch or drum pad, chosen with Pitch or by
Option-clicking (Mac) / Alt-clicking (Win) the piano ruler. - Steps (up to 16), Pattern (the arrangement of hits; choices depend on Steps and Density), and Density (how many notes).
- Step Duration sets the step length and so how often the pattern repeats in the selection: in one bar, 8 steps of 1/8 play once, of 1/16 twice. Split is the chance a step divides in two; Shift moves the pattern by steps.
- Velocity and Accent set normal and accented velocity; Accent Frequency sets how many notes apart accents fall (1 accents every note), and Accent Offset moves them.
- Deselect the result and run it again on another pitch or pad to layer rhythms.
- Generates random notes within ranges. Set the pitch range with its sliders or handles, or
Option-drag (Mac) / Alt-drag (Win) on the piano ruler; overlapping the handles gives a single pitch. The slider is purple when a scale is active. - Duration (1/128 to a whole note) and Velocity (1 to 127) ranges work the same way.
- Voices caps simultaneous notes; Density sets how many notes, as a share of the pitch range.
- Generates a run of notes that follows a shape, chosen from Shape Presets or drawn in the display, within a pitch range set by sliders or by
Option-dragging (Mac) / Alt-dragging (Win) the piano ruler. Purple means a scale is active. - Rate sets the shortest note; Tie is the chance a note extends to the next; Density sets how much of the shape is filled.
- Jitter randomizes pitch away from the shape while staying within the range.
- Adds chords or progressions within the scale, filling the time selection or loop.
- Choose a chord by dragging on the Chord Selector Pad or with
Cmd (Mac) / Ctrl (Win) and up or down; diagrams follow the Tonnetz, and the Status Bar names the chord. - Custom chord banks are JSON
.stacks files. Put one in a folder in Places and double-click it to load; the Stacks tag finds them. Saved banks live in the User Library's Chord Banks folder. - Add Chord (+) and Delete Chord (−) build a progression; the display shows the selected chord's settings.
- Chord Root sets the root, limited to the clip scale's notes and defaulting to its root;
Option-click (Mac) / Alt-click (Win) the piano ruler or use the arrow keys. Chord Inversion cycles inversions, negative values an octave lower. Chord Duration and Offset adjust length and position in eighths of the chord.
- A Max for Live generator for Euclidean rhythms on up to four voices, in the time selection or loop.
- Pattern tab: a picture of the rhythm, on/off toggles and a Rotation slider per voice, and a button that randomizes rotations.
- Voices tab: on/off toggles, a pitch or drum pad per voice (arrows shift them all), and per-voice Velocity.
- Steps sets the pattern length, repeating and wrapping across the selection; Density sets how often it repeats; Division sets the step length.