Creating Ambient Loops - Set Master Sequence length

As if that wasn't enough, one more thing - envelope followers, 16 of them. In addition to taking their input from audio, they can work as LFOs, with rates not locked to bars/beats, and they can control basically anything in the whole project. And they even have random curve modes. The only problem is, they're a bit buggy and you may sometimes have to wiggle them on/off to get them to start working.

All in all, the Force has a wide arsenal of tools for evolving ambient soundscapes, even without using any external gear. A lot of it is things that MPCs don't have, except if you install the Force software.

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:As if that wasn't enough, one more thing - envelope followers, 16 of them. In addition to taking their input from audio, they can work as LFOs, with rates not locked to bars/beats, and they can control basically anything in the whole project. And they even have random curve modes. The only problem is, they're a bit buggy and you may sometimes have to wiggle them on/off to get them to start working.

All in all, the Force has a wide arsenal of tools for evolving ambient soundscapes, even without using any external gear. A lot of it is things that MPCs don't have, except if you install the Force software.

I want to create evolving ambient soundscapes so I’ll be working how to use the envelope followers. Currently I’m still working on your first suggestion a couple of posts ago about the submixes on the plugin track.

Speaking of evolving ambient soundscapes. I was thinking about picking up an Elektron Digitone to do them but after watching Joe Filbrun’s video about generative patches using the OPx-4 plugin on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPexADof-dc?si=cIaWPLyQC-2cNyhd I don’t think I need a Digitone anymore. What do you think?

I’d prefer to do everything in the box if I can accomplish the same goal of evolving soundscapes.

I don't think you need any specific product, not even the Force. Start from a sound and ask yourself, "how can I make this sound evolve".

HouseWithoutMouse wrote:I don't think you need any specific product, not even the Force. Start from a sound and ask yourself, "how can I make this sound evolve".

Will do.

One more trick. Use a synth with limited polyphony like 1, and send MIDI to it from a whole bunch of MIDI tracks where you have this cyclic source material. Only a limited number of voices, maybe even just one if you use a mono synth, can play at any given time, so this creates a "melody". Add probability and ratchets on the notes. Or use envelope followers to automate mutes on the MIDI tracks.

The target parameter list for envelope followers doesn't list MIDI track mutes, but you can add it with the Learn function. And you can copy a learned target, which allows having multiple track mutes controlled by the same env follower, and you can flip one around, which effectively means a flip/flop, toggling between tracks.

I haven't found a way to control MIDI transposition with the env followers, but that would be nice. Particularly with snap-to-scale etc. The Hype plugin has transposition, but it's chromatic and just gets messy without scale snapping.