Christian Volmari has released Nylon, Pong, and Velo, three freely downloadable MIDI devices for Ableton Live (made with Max for Live).
Christian contacted us earlier today to let us know about his Max for Live creations which are being offered for free download through GitHub. I don’t have access to Ableton Live nor Max for Live at the moment, unfortunately, so wasn’t able to test them before writing this article. Still, they seem quite useful based on the descriptions available on the product page.
Nylon emulates the chord strokes of a 6-string guitar. The user can adjust the speed, acceleration, and velocity of the stroke, as well as to add a certain degree of randomness to each parameter in order to make the performance sound more “human”. The device also features a handy visual display of the stroke which shows the velocity and the timing of each note. It is possible to define up to four different chord types and use them to create an 8-step sequence.
Pong creates logarithmic or exponential repeats of a triggered MIDI note. The user can adjust the speed of the repeated sequence, the velocity and decay of each repeat, define the note pitch range between the first and the last repeated note, as well as modulate multiple devices using Pong’s MIDI output. Although I haven’t tested Pong yet, I’m guessing that it could work very well for emulating modulated delay effects.
Velo allows the user to map the MIDI note velocity data to aftertouch, pitch bend, and various CC parameters simultaneously. The velocity value can be inverted (so that higher velocities trigger lower pitch bend values, for example) or delayed by note values from 1/64 to 1/2. The user can also adjust the intensity of the “effect” and use the note off event to trigger data output.
The devices are well documented and seem to be very well made. I’d love to see these converted to VST/AU plugins at some point. For now, you can download and use Christian Volmari’s devices if you own Ableton Live and Max for Live.
Free download via GitHub (AMXD file format for Ableton Live).
