Music technology · Max for Live · Free and open source
Rhythm Dice and Cymbal Phrase turn bounded musical rules into MIDI without hiding the result behind random noise. Both run inside Ableton Live 12 as narrow Max for Live Generator Tools. Download the devices, put them in your User Library, and use them on any MIDI clip.
I directed the product design, musical goals, Live testing, and listening decisions. Clarence assisted with research synthesis, code, tests, packaging, documentation, and this report under my direction and review.
Small report
The useful part of a groove is the relationship between events. Anchors hold the identity of a pattern together. Density, timing, velocity, and seeded variation change what happens around them. Rhythm Dice applies that idea across eight rhythm families, including true five-beat bars.
Cymbal Phrase applies the same discipline to hats, crashes, and rides over phrases from 1 to 64 bars. It grew from a 46-record research corpus: 24 human performances, six open-source fixtures, and 16 original analytical MIDI examples. The mixed-license corpus is not bundled here. The device source and compiled tool are.
The musical logic had to survive a very small interface, Live's synchronous MIDI Tool transaction, and a real Drum Rack map. That friction made the tools better.
Eight rhythm families with deterministic seeds, 1 to 4 bars, density, feel, human timing, and bounded fills. Roll the die to move to a new pattern without losing the grammar.
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Deterministic cymbal phrases with Motion, Rate, Density, Air, Accent, Pocket, Evolve, and Length. Click New for a related phrase that can develop for up to 64 bars.
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Requires Ableton Live 12 and Max for Live.
Download the `.amxd` file for the tool you want.
Open Ableton Live 12, then drag the file into User Library in Live's Browser.
Or copy it into Music/Ableton/User Library/MIDI Tools/Max Generators inside your home folder.
Give Live a moment to index the file. If it does not appear right away, let the User Library scan finish before copying it again.
Select a MIDI clip, open the clip's Generate panel, and choose the tool from the User section.
Set the controls, roll or click New, then click Live's Apply icon to write the notes into the clip.
Rhythm Dice's Five Count family writes real five-beat bars. Set the clip to 5/4 and use a loop length of five beats per generated bar.
What still matters
Drum Rack notes depend on the preset. CP-004 targets the stock 16-pad map used during Live testing. It does not claim universal rack compatibility.
The latest hands-on report says it appears stable and works well. Full layout, mapping, New, Push bank, and musical-result acceptance remains open.
Live MIDI Tools do not run on Push Standalone. The eight-parameter bank is for Push controlling Live.
Release verification
Each public package came from a clean checkout. Both clean runs rebuilt and tested both tools, produced byte-identical `.amxd` files and source archives, and passed ZIP integrity checks. The full release checksums are available below.