Swimmer is a extraordinary modulation supply for Ableton Live

Modjaq’s Swimmer is a uncommon, deep-sea creature, trawled up from the depths of the Max for Live world. This shouldn’t be your general-purpose modulation supply. Think of it like an idiosyncratic Eurorack module — a supply of particular gestures and a stupendous, briny present from the ocean.

I like to recommend embracing the oddness, besides, Swimmer’s handbook may use a rewrite or editor. So — let me do my finest right here. If it appears bizarre, that’s form of what makes this enjoyable: it is a totally different method of producing these types of outcomes, however the regularity of the construction, with repeating blocks, makes it straightforward to listen to musically. It’s an exquisite oceanic toy.

Swimmer is split into 4 blocks. These 4 at all times play in sequence from left to proper. You can set every to one in every of 4 sorts in any mixture, and every block kind has a unique conduct and parameters. Those are:

1. Noise (Perlin noise)
2. Linear
3. Saw
4. Sah (pattern and maintain)

The thought is that this: the “swimmers” act as playheads advancing by means of the 4 blocks, with every swimmer assignable to 2 modulation locations in Live gadgets or plug-ins. All 4 function on the identical clock — both free-clocked in Hz or synced to a time division — however you possibly can alter the spacing between them by adjusting the Phase management. Set section to 0, and the swimmers roughly overlap in time. Set section to 1, and so they’ll be evenly spaced from each other. (Sy = “sync”; Hz = free-running.)

In addition to spacing in time, every block will trigger the swimmers to deviate from each other in accordance with outlined shapes and added randomization/noise.

Set paths: Modjaq has launched “pins” and “connections” to allow you to route your swimmers by means of totally different areas of area as they enter and exit every block. That’s this space of the UI:

Determine range/randomization: So that your 4 swimmers don’t all observe precisely the identical path, along with section/spacing in time, you possibly can decide how far they deviate from the grid with randomness and variety. The best method to visualize that is to set section to 0 after which observe how far the swimmers deviate from each other.

So your workflow is one thing like this:

• Assign the 4 swimmers to the parameters you want to management (modulation locations).
• Set the principle clock and regulate spacing.
• Configure every block’s behaviors, setting pin paths and figuring out how every deviates in every.

The modulation locations will be set to “remote” mode, the place they take over parameters, or “mod,” the place they add (or add/subtract) values to wherever you set the controls in your Device. I have a tendency to search out the latter extra helpful. You may also set min/max (distant) or scale quantities and unipolar or bipolar operation (mod).

Put all of it collectively, and you may get some fantastic outcomes:

Here, watch what occurs as I alter timing settings — significantly as you see how all these totally different swimmers can overlap or section, and the way they deviate primarily based on randomization:

What you get is a mixture of envelope/path generator and aleatoric modulation supply. And that’s truly fairly nice. Yes, you could possibly get this through different strategies, but it surely’s atypically straightforward to those some specific variations — a extremely sensible supply of choreographed mayhem.

It’s an amazing match for Beatsurfing’s RANDOM and RANDOM Metal, that are on sale now as a bundle:

If you purchase one thing from a CDM hyperlink, we might earn a fee.

RANDOM Metal + RANDOM Bundle

Swimmer is on the market now from our mates at Isotonik Studios, for each Live 11 and Live 12:

Swimmer by Mudjaq