Ableton

A section to store my limited Ableton Live stuff.

Scratcher

Download Max for Live instrument: File:scratcher_v1_0.zip

A scratch instrument I put together in Max for Live. It's rough, but I figure I may as well release it and others can play with it, hopefully improve it.
If you like it, please support me via patreon or paypal.

Here's a video of it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJKptAVHGwE

And a little tutorial of how to use it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtiqltH64Uo

At some point I'll write up how it works under the hood. It's my first Max patch so it's pretty ugly, but it works.

Features

• Drag and drop samples
• Easy (ish) automation recording and editing using standard Ableton tools
• Speed and repitch controls
• Visual turntable indicator (not interactive yet)
• Smoothness control, which both controls deck 'intertia', and graininess of the sample playback

Installation

1. Unzip the instrument, save it in Documents\Ableton\User Library\Presets\Instruments\Max Instrument

Workflow from scratch

1. Drag this instrument onto a new track, append an EQ3 and take out all the bass
2. Drag a sample into the drop zone
3. Press any midi note to open the fader, you'll hear the sample
4. Drag and let go of the playback head on the sample waveform to scratch
5. Slow the track tempo down to something you're comfortable scratching over
6. Set the speed control to match
7. Record with automation
8. Set the scratch/automation control to 2
9. Right click on the number under the automation line beneath the waveform, choose 're enable automation'
10. Enjoy your scratching
11. Open the automation waveform, select it all, right click, 'simplify envelope'

Example project

Download example project: File:scratcher Project.zip

This is my first Max project, I've found that while the example project loads fine for me, it needs some massaging to work on a new machine. The steps are similar to the ones outlined above, relink the sample, relink the automation.

1. If the plugin doesn't appear when the project is launched, drag it in from your User Library
2. Drag the aaaah.wav sample into the drop zone
3. Set the scratch/automation mode to 2
4. Right click on the number under the automation line beneath the waveform, choose 're enable automation'

For some reason the scratch is delayed, so you can see I've moved the clips earlier by a small amount. It might be due to adding the repitch controls. Something to fix at a later date...

Todo

• tidy up the internals, its a mess
• add a relative location mode, so if you click on the waveform it stops playback wherever the playhead is. Right now its absolute, so will jump the playhead to your cursor. Handy for some things (makes fast cuts easy), but hampers other tricks
• set more behaviors via midi notes, eg one octave might flip the fader so its press-to-close instead of press-to-open
• ability to expand and zoom the waveform window. Can Max for Live do this?