We tend to assume that the relationship between the MIDI notes sent into a device and the sounds coming out to be relatively fixed. But in fact, depending on the instrument you’re working with, you can customize the behavior of the instrument to ignore note input completely (and always output the same note) or scale […]
THE ALTERNATOR
So, you’ve probably noticed by now that all of my suggestions for Random are tending towards the percussion side of things. The prior tip was a slight deviation, but so far I’ve been focusing in that area because getting random pitches to do things that are musically coherent opens a whole other can of worms. […]
RANDOM OCTAVES
Another fun way to use Random is to get it to make more dramatic changes, but do it less frequently. For example, try creating some synthetic percussion with Operator (or something else, the important thing is that it not be in a Drum Rack so it responds normally to pitch). Now, program a simple part […]
THE GHOST SHAKER
Spooky, I know. Think you can handle it? Here’s a fun tweak to the setup in the prior tip: All I’ve done here is bump up the Choices to 4. This means that when a random note is chosen, it will sometimes trigger an empty pad: This will interrupt the flow with a brief pause […]
THE SHAKER VARIATIONS
So, here’s one practical use for Random. We begin with a simple MIDI clip: …that’s triggering a Drum Rack with a Random in front of it: The MIDI clip only triggers the first pad (shk1) directly. The other three shakers only get triggered when a random note gets generated. With Chance set to 75%, Random […]
LET’S GET RANDOM, pt. 2
Once you’ve wrapped your mind around the Scale-Chance relationship, the rest of the Random device is pretty easy to understand. The other setting that affects the notes that can get chosen for output is the Sign setting. Both of the examples we looked at in the prior tip assumed a Sign of Add. This simply […]
LET’S GET RANDOM
The last couple of tips have gotten me back into the mindset of thinking about how to generate good musical part, rather than composing them in the traditional sense. Clever use of randomization has always been part of this process for me, and lots of other folks as well. We’re going to take a look […]
EVEN MORE FUN WITH VELOCITY
One reason it’s good to be a master of velocity mapping (with whatever instruments you use, not just Operator) is because randomizing the velocity of an incoming MIDI signal is so darn easy. Once you’ve created a patch that responds in weird and wonderful ways to velocity messages, try dropping the Velocity device in front […]
FUN WITH VELOCITY (AND OPERATOR)
And hey, while you’re at it, why not have some fun with the velocity data that gets generated when you extract a groove… To have this sort of fun, you’ll have to use the MIDI clip to trigger an instrument that offers some flexibility for mapping velocity messages (such as Operator, Sampler, etc.) For example, […]
FUN WITH EXTRACTED GROOVES
Here’s a bit of fun I’ve been having with extracted grooves. Instead of using the resulting groove template in its intended fashion, I’ve been using the MIDI directly. Remember, a groove file is just a MIDI clip – you can grab it out of the pool and drop it into a clip slot. What I’ll […]
