It’s the crazy-good acid maker, but more than that: Sting is fun for spinning all kinds of melodic and rhythmic patterns. (I’m constantly putting it on percussion tracks.) Now Iftah’s back with a Sting 2.1 update with new arpeggiator and pattern features. And it’s still pay-what-you-want / pay-what-you-can.
By the way, if you’ve been jealously eyeing all the Max for Live stuff I write about, don’t forget you can snag version and Suite upgrades directly from Ableton, or consider a rent-to-own option for Suite (which includes Max for Live). See their shop:
If you buy something from a CDM link, we may earn a commission.
Arp mode! Play the sequence! Oh yeah!
I got lost in the arp, but there’s more in here than just that:
Toggle Random: toggle buttons for note, accent, gate, octave. You can think of this as a ‘lock’ toggle for particular parameters, so that they aren’t impacted by hitting generate. That’s great if you like one element but not another, and also for playing live, when hitting generate might create something more discontinuous than you want.
Octave low/high limit. That’s perfect for defining low or high ranges for bass or melodies, as well as finding ranges in percussion parts or restricting to the correct range for a kit.
Tie mode. This merges notes in a really clever way, and it’s also great for ambient acid, etc.
Beat divisions up to 32 bars(!) Hello, soundscapes.
Better MIDI clip export. Now includes playing direction, polymeter reset (see below).
Free or paid downloads for access to all.
If you missed it, Scale Awareness and Polymeter reset landed in 2.05. (Polymeter reset is sheer love for me.) But again, while Live’s Scales don’t yet interact with Tuning Systems, you’re free to use Tuning Systems or other tuning setups (via Scala, MTS-ESP, etc.); you just have Sting generate pitch events. The same is true for percussion.
I rave about this for a reason; I’m addicted to this tool. Iftah’s pattern controls are quick and intuitive, so they’re perfect for getting your creative brain into the flow and over that hurdle of decision overload paralysis. I mean that very passionately: sometimes restricting choices, while it might seem to remove agency, means your mind gets into a freer imaginative state and you’re more open to your own ideas. (This is also my problem with some AI, especially genAI, by contrast, but I’ll get back to that later.)
I also just really like the hypnotic qualities here. You can combine them with different tuning systems, too. It is my go-to for when I’m designing patches and need some patterns running to free up my hands for knob tweaks, etc.
Anyway, that’s enough! Enjoy Sting 2.1!
And putting this out there again any time I mention Iftah — I do hope more Max and Max for Live developers adopt the free accessibility toolkit he put out there: