Assignment #5

Assignment 5: Sound Installation / Auto DJ

Due March 1, before class

The techniques we are going to explore in this exercise are useful for automatic DJing or creating sound installations that create a constantly varying flow of sounds.
This also introduces several more advanced aspects of algorithmic composition and controllerism.

One of the interesting phenomena in remix / mashup culture is that great deal of the composition and creative work are done by manipulating control parameters rather then the more traditional process of creation of sounds or composing note sequences. This is where automation, midi remote assignment and control curves play an important role.

Imagine:
Imagine a situation where you are a DJ in gig. You go on stage and all you have to do is drop into Ableton a couple of songs, and the rest is done automatically - the filter parameters are moving, songs are cross fading, glitches, stutters, all are automatically triggered. And next time you start the program or drop new sounds in, the sound results are different and are constantly changing.

There are great ways of introducing variation on clips by grouping related clips and using Follow Actions in Legato Mode. In our pervious examples we have seen how automation can be used to modify a recording to create variations, "give life" or naturalness to a fixed drum loop or audio clip. Follow Actions are also great for sound installations, as they allow you to create music that constantly varies. A good explanation on how to create variations and non-repeating structures can be found in sections 12.6.4 - 12.6.6 of the Ableton manual.

Two advanced techniques:
One problem with the follow method is that the control envelopes and the audio recording are bundled together into one clip. So if you want to drop in a new clip and apply the same processing to it you would have to record or draw the envelopes over and over again.
We can use the technique of dummy clips to separate effects from clips in session view. We will explore this technique in first par of this exercise.
However, clip envelopes can not be used to automate master controls, such as crossfade between A and B clips that are essential for DJing. Automation using MIDI controls will be the done in the second part of this exercise.

Follow the Instructions:
A. Dummy clips

Initial Setting of Audio Tracks
• Create two audio tracks. On track 1 drop several audio clips. In Launch Box turn on Legato and set follow actions to every 4 bars and Any.
• Set "Audio To" to 2-Audio and turn Monitor Off
• On track 2 set "From" to 1-Audio and Monitor In

Dummy Clips
• On track 2 drop a beat repeat effect.
• Record a silent clip into first slot on track 2.
• Double click on the clip slot. This will open an audio clip on the bottom. Display the Envelope Box (button E in Clip View) and select in the top chooser box "Beat Repeat" and "Chance".
• Optional: click on the Linked button (Region/Loop) to turn linking off / should shows now "Unlinked" and In drag the right loop end in the envelope editor and extend it to 8 or 16 bars.
• Use a pencil (Click on Draw Mode or Control - B (Win) / Command - B (Mac)) to draw an envelope shape. For instance you can choose to start with a rising line.
• In Launch Box turn on Legato and select Follow Actions to Play Again and Other with equal chances (type 1:1 in the bottom box).
• Alt-drag (copy) the clip 3 times to create 4 dummy clips. Draw new envelope for each dummy clip to get a different behavior or automate a different control parameter.

Run it:
• Turn on the first scene and see and listen to how the clips switch and the effects change.

B. MIDI Ctrl clips

In this part of the assignment we will show an advanced technique that uses MIDI clips as controls of Audio clips in the same live set. This is achieved by special routing of MIDI from Ableton to itself by setting it in the Preferences. This is not a normal way of routing MIDI across tracks. In Ableton MIDI can not be routed to Audio track without converting it to sound through an instrument. So somewhat like "side chaining" that uses audio from one channel to control and effect on another channel, we will be using MIDI to control effects on another channel through the unique Remote control facility of Ableton.

Setting the preferences.
• Go to: Live -> Preferences -> MIDI Sync tab. Set MIDI Ports sections as:
• Input: IAC Driver (Bus 1), Track "Off", Sync "Off", Remote "On"
• Output: Track "On", Sync "On", Remote "Off"

Note - In some cases you might not have IAC Driver enabled on your mac. (If you are on Windows, email me to find out what is the equivalent).
On Mac: Go to Applications -> Utilities -> double click Audio Midi Setup
Double click IAC Driver and check the "online" box
Now you should be able to go back to Live Preferences and set the Midi routing as described.

Creating the set:
• Create two audio tracks with 2 effects each. For the purpose of the exercise choose Redux, and Beat Repeat. Set Audio 1 to A and Audio 2 to B crossfade.
• Create three midi tracks. Name the Midi tracks - redux, tempo and xfade. Show the I/O section and set MIDI To to IAC Driver.

Create a remote control midi map for the following parameters on each audio track (in other words click on MIDI Map Switch, select a parameters, and move a midi button or slider):
• redux downsample
• project tempo
• master track crossfader

You will need to consult the MIDI Mappings table in the next step to assign the MIDI Clip Envelopes to the correct devices.
In the first MIDI track (redux) do the following:
• Double click on a clip slot. This will open a MIDI clip on the bottom.
• Show the Envelope Box (button E in Clip View) and select in the top chooser box "MIDI Ctrl" as the device to automate.
• Select in the bottom box Clip Envelope Control number that is appropriate for that track according to your MIDI Mappings table that you created before.
• Optional: click on the Linked button (Region/Loop) to turn linking off / should shows now "Unlinked". In the envelope editor drag the right loop end and extend it to 8 or 16 bars.
• Use a pencil (Click on Draw Mode or Control - B (Win) / Command - B (Mac)) to draw an envelope shape.
• In Launch Box turn on Legato and select Follow Actions to Play Again and Other with equal chances (type 1:1 in the bottom box).
• Copy this clip down the same track several times. Edit the envelope in each of the copied clips by drawing different curves such as zigzag, rise and fall, step up and down, or some random change.

Repeat this process for each one of the remaining MIDI tracks (tempo, xfade) choosing each time a MIDI Ctrl envelope according to the MIDI mapping table.
Remember that the way we organized our set is that MIDI track names represent the devices they control, so all clips in one track should operate on the same MIDI Ctrl.

At this point you should have the control tracks programmed with alternative envelope curves ready to start modifying the effects on the audio tracks by random triggering of MIDI clips.

Drop two different songs into the Audio tracks 1 and 2. You might want to experiment with Re-Pitch versus Complex Warping in the audio clips. Make sure that these tracks have correct warping by testing them with a metronome, like we did in Ex. 2 and set the tracks to loop so that the songs do not stop when they reach their end (set the loop braces to beginning and end of the songs).

Now when everything is set. Press play button and ...!!! After a while, just drop other clips into the Audio tracks and keep on the fun :)
Another option is dropping multiple clips in each audio track and setting the Follow Actions to jump between the songs (like we did in part A).

Submission: This time we want to see the ableton set. Save your set, with couple of midi and audio clips to try it out with and package it into a live pack.
This is done by going to File -> Manage Files and following the instructions from there. Section 5.12 in the manual helps with that as well.
We will not judge the artistic quality of the assignment, but please, no nonsense...
If you have done all correctly, you get full grade. FYI, the questions in the second quiz will be about A4 and A5.