Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Ableton Live, Beap and Max for Live Basics 3: Beap as Audio Effects Chain

This post covers the basics of using Beap with Max for Live and Ableton Live. Max for Live is a bridge between Ableton Live and Cycling 74's Max. Max for Live allows for the creation of user-generated content in terms of Instruments, MIDI effects and Audio effects in Live. Beap is a set of modular devices / patches in Max by Stretta.




This tutorial will demonstrate how to build a simple audio effects chain within Beap and Max for Live.

Download the device created in this tutorial here: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downloads/M4L/beap/BEAP%20Example-%20Reverb%20Chorus%20LFO.amxd


Let's start off with a Live set that contains a MIDI track, a virtual instrument and some MIDI data, as shown below. Just something that can be used as a source for audio manipulation.


Add a Max for Live Audio Effects device to the output of the virtual instrument or audio track. Click on the edit button of the Audio Effects device.


Delete the comments and the connections between plugin~ and plugout~


Create a p object, and create two inlets and two outlets within the p object. Go back to the main patch, and connect the two outlets of the plugin~ to the p object and the two outlets of the p object to the two inlets of the plugout~ object. In this way, the p object will intercept and process any incoming audio, and send the processed audio out through the plugout~ object to the rest of the channel path within Live.


It is between the two inlets and the two outlets within the p object that the audio effects should be placed. These represent left and right signals. The following is one example, however please experiment to create your own examples. In this example, the L and R signal will be processed by a reverb, a chorus and a stereo filter controlled by an LFO. Please take this as an example; there are many, many different combinations that could be created.


Go to Beap > Effects > Gigaverb to add a gigaverb device. This is a reverb device with two inlets and two outlets, for left and right signals. Connect the two inlets within the p object to the left and right inlets of the gigaverb device respectively.


Go to Beap > Effects > Chorus to add a chorus device. Connect both of the inlets within the p object to the chorus signal input.


Go to Beap > LFO > CV LFO to add a CV LFO device.


Go to Beap > Filter > Ladder to add a ladder filter device. Connect the L outlet of the gigaverb device to the signal inlet of the ladder filter device. Connect the L outlet of the chrous device to the signal inlet of the ladder filter device. Connect the signal outlet of the CV LFO to the CV3 inlet of the ladder filter device. This is the left side of the stereo filter.


Create a second ladder filter. Go to Beap > Filter > Ladder to add a ladder filter device. Connect the R outlet of the gigaverb device to the signal inlet of the ladder filter device. Connect the R outlet of the chrous device to the signal inlet of the ladder filter device. Connect the signal outlet of the CV LFO to the CV3 inlet of the ladder filter device. This is the right side of the stereo filter.


Go to Beap > Mixer > Stereo Mixer to add a stereo mixer device. Connect the output of the stereo mixer to the outlets inside of the p object.


Save your main patch, and close it.

Return to Live, and the changes made to the Max Audio Effect device will be reflected. In Live, open the p object and change the parameters to alter how the sound is processed. 

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