ALSM by User Friendly is a collection of experimental Drum Racks for Ableton Live 12 Suite. Essentially the idea behind them is to help artists quickly inject abstract heavily modulated synthesis into their projects. The racks will not always sync with the tempo or be perfectly level matched. Certain parts of the rack will influence other parts. Whether it be by direct control, a triggered envelope or even just the different sounds competing with one and other further down the chain.

ALSM includes 4 racks. All of the racks are made up of the same blocks. The bottom four pads are the main synth engines and these sounds are the only thing that is different between the first 3 racks. The fourth rack is made up of the same elements, but includes all of the sounds in one rack. This sounds a bit silly at first, but is actually quite handy as you understand the entire concept of the racks more broadly. These sounds are all controlled by one Macro on the rack labeled ALSM. This Macro will changes many different aspects of each of the synth sounds at the same time. Some times the changes are subtle, sometimes they are extreme.

Above the main sound making elements of the rack is 2 Modulation envelopes. When these pads are triggered all of the synth pads are modulated. This modulation is independent from any of the controls on the rack UI.

Next is the Reverb and Delay gates. When these pads are gated high, all synth sounds are sent to the effect (the drums pads do not go through these sends). So if you have a reverb or delay gate in the pattern, all of the synth sounds are sent through the reverb or delay until the gate goes low. The bottom four Macros on the drum rack are the limited control you have over these effects. (The feedback Time Macro is not the feedback for the delay send.)

All of the synth sounds are sent through a Roar. The pads labeled Low Thump, Mid Thump and High Click, essentially just boost the low, mid or high band of Roar. The FeedBack pad increases the feedback of Roar and the amount of feedback is controlled by the Feedback Time Macro. The idea behind these pads are to add subtle context to the glitchy synth sounds. For example, if you had some sort of crazy glitchy pattern of madness, it can be hard to hold on to any rhythmic element…well, because there isn’t really any there. But with these pads you could put a Low Thump where the kick should be, a High Click where the hat should be, and maybe all three where the snare should be. These boosts can help give the pattern a bit more context.

The Side Chain pad isn’t actually side chain. But works the way you think when you hear side chain pumping. This pad is tied to envelope that lowers the volume for the four synth pads as well as the Reverb and Delay sends. The S/C Attack and S/C Release Macros control the attack and release of this envelope. This is another way to add subtle context to the chaos.

The last three pads are the Kick Snare and Hat. These three pads are controlled via the Drums Macro. While they would certainly be fine to use for a complete track, there are mostly intended to be a place holder for a completely new drum track, your own samples and instruments, or just something to help you work out the rhythm.

What makes these racks interesting to use is the interaction. For example you could have the one synth pad making interesting sound from a combination of the Mod envelopes, effects and side chaining. From there you could have a completely different pattern with a slight turn of the ALSM knob or some adjustments to the attack and release of the Side Chain. From there you could simple move all of the MIDI notes for that pad up or down to another one of the pads, but leave everything else the same and once again have something that sounds completely different. And thats all before adding your own automation, modulation, and effects.

PLEASE NOTE: ALSM also includes over 400 1 shot samples, and 26 different loops for use in any DAW.