Per-note expression is a beautiful thing. It’s beautiful enough that sometimes you might want to use it even without the input hardware that it was developed to facilitate. AudioSlide is here for Ableton Live, an automatic ramp generator with various shapes, time controls, mod matrix, and more.
Tyler Mazaika writes to let us know about this one. I do have some hardware that can generate MPE, and this still looks useful to me, as a way of adding surprise to parts. You can still play live – AutoSlide just creates its own ramps with variations as it receives MIDI, so you can use it with non-MPE controllers.
The video walks through how to use the Device, Mod Matrix, and makes some pleasant kicks and chords with this. Once you do have MPE, it becomes an additional building block and sound design tool, not just a way of wiggling your fingers around for expression.
If you do have something for MPE input, this remains a useful utility thanks to its merge function – and an example of the kind of tools you could build in Max for Live using its MPE facility.
Features:
- Pitch, Pressure, and Slide
- Custom MIDI CC
- Adaptive control layout for Push
- Mod Matrix
- Chance
- Merge (block, add, subtract incoming MPE data)
US$18 on Gumroad.
zoftloud has also created some useful resources for MPE (whether or not you use this M4L Device). Check their nice quick start, which is a bit missing from Ableton themselves: