MIDI Tools Volume One by Philip Meyer
PHILIP MEYER LIVE 12 MIDI TOOLS
The first pack of MIDI Tools from Philip features 4 MIDI Generators:
- Blocks
- Phase Pattern
- Turing Machine
- Polyrhythm
and 8 MIDI Transformers:
- Condition Transform
- Develop
- Divs
- Draw
- Pattern Transformer
- Segment
- Shift
- Feel
USER GUIDE: Philip Meyer MIDI Tools Manual Isotonik
MIDI Tools Volume One by Philip Meyer
PHILIP MEYER LIVE 12 MIDI TOOLS
The first pack of MIDI Tools from Philip features 4 MIDI Generators:
- Blocks
- Phase Pattern
- Turing Machine
- Polyrhythm
and 8 MIDI Transformers:
- Condition Transform
- Develop
- Divs
- Draw
- Pattern Transformer
- Segment
- Shift
- Feel
USER GUIDE: Philip Meyer MIDI Tools Manual Isotonik
Additional information
| MaxforLive | Live 12 MIDI Tools Bundles |
|---|---|
| Ableton Live Compatibility | Ableton Live 12 Standard with MaxforLive, Ableton Live 12 Suite |
| OS | Mac, Windows |
PRICE: £31.00
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5 out of 5
3 reviews
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August 30, 2024
This reviewer bought this product from our store.
Among all the new midi tools for Live 12 these are easily some of the most inventive and creatively inspiring. They make it easy to take simple musical ideas and transform them into something unique that you'd never think to make otherwise.
August 23, 2024
This reviewer bought this product from our store.
A new way to approach the creation of midi clips. A necessary completion for anyone. It is practically an encyclopedia of inspiration and action for the creation of complex immediate and empathetic structures. Recommended.
Walter wattabass Sguazzin Ableton CT Italia
May 3, 2024
This reviewer bought this product from our store.
The bar is high!
MIDI Tools Volume One by Philip Meyer
This is a collection of 12 devices for making rhythmic music in Ableton Live 12. They are some of the first Max for Live MIDI Tools, which is a new class of Live device that generates and transforms MIDI clips.
I’ve always liked to make complex rhythmic music, but in the past I found the piano roll in Live to be clunky and tedious to use. MIDI Tools resolve this problem by allowing us to create simple devices that automate processes that would be tedious or impossible to execute manually. Every device in this collection is designed to help you make exciting, novel rhythmic music quickly and playfully.
The “quickly and playfully” is really important to me. For me, making electronic music has always been about getting a pattern running, listening to it, then tweaking it with whatever knobs and sliders are available to me. Working this way puts you in a sort of dialog with the machine, where you’re acting, then listening, then acting, then listening, and so forth. This process works best when the cycles are fast, which means that the tools have to be fun and easy to use. They have to deliver results quickly.
I could summarize the practical value of these tools with three statements:
- They generate ideas to get my creativity flowing
- They all you to create rhythms (such as nested rhythms, rallentandos, and polyrhythms) that are very difficult to create using the piano roll interface
- They help you create variations on rhythmic and melodic ideas, to make your music varied and interesting.
I’ve also found that the power of these devices really emerges when you use them in serial workflows. By this I mean that you start with some initial MIDI (maybe from a Generator, or maybe not), then process the MIDI with several different transformers.
You can see an example of a serial process in this video, in which I create some rhythmic containers using the Blocks generator, then used the Divs transformer to subdivide those containers to create a new rhythm, then used Feel to dial in the groove. There’s tons of ways to mix and match the devices, which means lots of space to develop your own favorite approaches.
These devices all work with Ableton 12’s new Scales feature. When a scale is enabled on the MIDI clip, the device will only produce notes that are in key. If you disable the scale, then you can work chromatically. The devices are also aware of Live’s themes, so your devices will always match the look and feel of your Live set.
Philip Meyer’s MIDI TOOLS VOLUME ONE can also be purchased in smaller bundles based on requirements, or as individual tools where you can build your own bundle
Frequently Asked Questions
These devices require Ableton Live 12, as MIDI Tools is a new class of device introduced in that version. Earlier versions of Live are not supported.
Max for Live is included with Ableton Live Suite. If you are running Live Standard or Intro, you will need to either upgrade to Suite or purchase a separate Max for Live licence.
MIDI Tools are a new device type in Live 12 that work directly on MIDI clips, either generating new clip content or transforming existing notes within the clip. Unlike standard MIDI effects, which process MIDI in real time during playback, MIDI Tools operate on the clip itself before playback, giving you a more hands-on, compositional workflow.
The pack includes 12 devices in total: 4 MIDI Generators (Blocks, Phase Pattern, Turing Machine, and Polyrhythm) and 8 MIDI Transformers (Condition, Transform, Develop, Divs, Draw, Pattern Transformer, Segment Shift, and Feel).
Not at all. Philip has designed every device in this collection to be picked up quickly and used in a playful, intuitive way. The focus is on getting interesting rhythmic patterns running fast, then tweaking and exploring from there.
They are primarily designed for rhythmic and electronic music, covering anything from groove-based production to more complex polyrhythmic and generative patterns. If you work with drums, percussion, or any rhythm-driven arrangement in Live, these tools will fit right into your process.
After purchase, you will receive the pack files which can be added directly to your Ableton Live library. Once installed, the devices will appear in your browser under MIDI Tools, ready to drag onto any MIDI clip.
Important Information
V1.1 – Released Oct 2024
Philip Meyer MIDI Tools Release Notes 2024-10-09
Initial Release – April 2024
To install MIDI Tools, first double-click to decompress the ZIP archive it arrived in. !
In Live’s Browser, navigate to the User Library in Places
Then find the MIDI Tools folder located there (2). If you don’t see a folder called MIDI Tools in your User Library, simply create it yourself.
We’d advice adding two subfolders for Generators and Transformers for neatness.
Finally, drag our Generators to the Generators subfolder and our Transformers to the Transformers subfolder
Live should automatically detect them and within the next few minutes, they should appear in the dropdown chooser of Live’s Generators or Transformers in the corresponding tab of any MIDI Clip’s Note Editor.
PLEASE NOTE: Once installed MIDI Tools, since they are not Max MIDI Effects, cannot be dragged and dropped onto MIDI tracks: they can only be loaded by the Generator and Transformer tabs of the MIDI clip editor.
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