Ableton Forum

Whenever Im about to assign macros to a synth, I always hesitate trying to think what are the most useful things to assign.

Normally Ill have

!: Filter Cutoff
2: Res
3: Attack
4: Decay
5: Sustain
6: Release

Then.... hm... Ill think - do I need the whole adsr? Or is there a better more creative way to rearrange things? - and in the end - Ill prob not end up with a standard set of macros I can assign to every synth. Maybe I should think more about the rack? Ive still 2 spaces...

Ive seen the "super-racks" people can create, but sometimes I feel - the effects might be too obvious or specific to that style or artist. When I kind of just want a rough and ready layout that has a bit of surprise or excitement to it. Pretty much leaves graindelays and beat repeat out I guess. Maybe a little beat repeat...

It depends on the synth I use. But first I program sounds, then decide to map parameters I would like to change in time with my controler which is auto mapped to 8 rack knobs.
So it could be different.

Another thing are drums. My maping goes something like this: 1. Decay, 2.Tone, 3.Pitch Mod, 4.Pitch decay, 5. FM Level, 6. FM Frequency, 7. FM Decay, 8. Shaper/Distortion/Noise Level

I first create a patch and then assign parameters to macros which make sense and which I´d like to alter on the fly. I don´t think it makes sense doing it the other way around and first assign macros and then create the patch.

for example for an organ-style sound you typically have attack and decay set to minimum and sustain set to max so you´ll probably only want to change the release time -so assign release to macro. on the other hand you´ll probably only need decay assigned to a macro if you have a percussive patch...

my favourite macros are those which are linked to dozens of parameters in different ranges. sometimes i have mapped about 10 parameters to 1 macro
Thats the real fun

stoersignal wrote:my favourite macros are those which are linked to dozens of parameters in different ranges. sometimes i have mapped about 10 parameters to 1 macro
Thats the real fun

yeah that´s cool. and useful too, for example if some modulation causes a big gain increase, you can add an utility right at the end of the chain and map the gain dial to the same macro, that causes the gain increment. then set up the gain range of the utility and invert it and your signal stays constant.

grunzlaut wrote:

stoersignal wrote:my favourite macros are those which are linked to dozens of parameters in different ranges. sometimes i have mapped about 10 parameters to 1 macro
Thats the real fun

yeah that´s cool. and useful too, for example if some modulation causes a big gain increase, you can add an utility right at the end of the chain and map the gain dial to the same macro, that causes the gain increment. then set up the gain range of the utility and invert it and your signal stays constant.

exactly that! because specially if you change many parameters (maybe even from different plugins) the possibility that the volume is changing is very high