Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Using Live's Resonator As A Synth With MIDI Note Control - Max for Live Device


 I must confess that I love the resonator device in Ableton Live. However, wouldn't it be nice if the amplitude, course tuning and fine tuning could be controlled via MIDI notes? This Max for Live MIDI effect device solves this issue - for a single resonator, at least - by generating control data from incoming MIDI notes that appropriately converts MIDI pitches to MIDI continuous controller data for use with the resonator. Alongside just the pitch data, the velocity data is also converted and can easily be mapped to resonator gain as well as the pitch bend data (mapped to fine tuning).

To use this device, create one audio track with a resonator device. Create a MIDI track with MIDI data with the ResonatorControlMono device with the output pointing to a virtual MIDI path where the input of that same path is set as a "remote input" in Live's MIDI Sync preferences tab. Loop some MIDI data on the ResonatorControlMono track.

Enable only the "Send Note Data" option in the ResonatorControlMono. Go to the resonator device, and enable MIDI map mode (command m). Select the coarse tuning (pitch) of the first resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Disable MIDI mapping mode.

Enable only the "Send Velocity Data" option in the ResonatorControlMono. Go to the resonator device, and enable MIDI map mode (command m). Select the gain of the first resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the gain of the second resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the gain of the third resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the gain of the fourth resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the gain of the fifth resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the gain of the sixth resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Disable MIDI mapping mode.

Enable only the "Send Pitchbend Data" option in the ResonatorControlMono. Go to the resonator device, and enable MIDI map mode (command m). Select the fine tuning of the first resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the fine tuning of the second resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the fine tuning of the third resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the fine tuning of the fourth resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the fine tuning of the fifth resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Select the fine tuning of the sixth resonator.  You should see a MIDI control mapping for this parameter. Disable MIDI mapping mode. 

Enable the "Send Pitchbend Data", "Send Velocity Data" and "Send Pitch Data" options in the ResonatorControlMono.

Now, the ResonatorControlMono device on the MIDI track will have control over the resonator device on the audio track.



Download here: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downloads/M4L/little-scale.ResonatorControlMono.amxd

Better video here: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downloads/M4L/little-scale.ResonatorControlMono.mov



1 comments:

matilda said...

Hello, this looks great but I'm having trouble implementing it, I wondered if you could help me- I've set up the mac virtual midi routing and installed the max device, but when I go to the resonator instrument there are no midi mappings listed with any of the boxes selected. My midi keyboard is working. Have I missed a part where I need to tell the instrument to receive from the virtual midi channel, or is that what the device is meant to do? Is there something else I have missed?

I've got some screens of my project if that is of use. http://i.imgur.com/gK15e.png
http://i.imgur.com/zdomE.png

Thankyou!!