index.Rmd

---
title: "The Lazy Producer - Making music using randomness and probability in Ableton Live"
author: "Mike K Smith"
date: "`r Sys.Date()`"
site: bookdown::bookdown_site
documentclass: book
description: |
  Making music using randomness and probability in Ableton Live. A guide to creating generative music. With recipes.
---

# Preface {.unnumbered}

## You shouldn't read this book {.unnumbered}

If you're looking for a guide to creating tracks from start to finish in a DAW
then this is not that book.

If you're looking for a description of recording a band or producing genres
outside of electronic or ambient music, this is not that book.

If you're looking for an in-depth guide to Ableton Live Suite, [then you should
read the manual](https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/welcome-to-live/). I'm
assuming you know your way around Ableton Live.

If you are looking for generic tips on creating music I wholeheartedly recommend
reading "Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers" by
Dennis DeSantis[^index-1]. This is a great book and will help you get through
difficulties starting, continuing and finishing your compositions.

[^index-1]: DeSantis, D. *Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic
Music Producers*. Ableton AG,
2015. <https://cdn-resources.ableton.com/resources/uploads/makingmusic/MakingMusic_DennisDeSantis.pdf>.

I also recommend Loopop's "In-complete book of electronic music tips and tricks"
available when you sign up as a Patron (<https://www.patreon.com/loopop>). His
book contains an assortment of tips and tricks for making music including ideas
for generative music.

## But if you DO read this book, what should you expect? {.unnumbered}

But if you're looking for some ways to generate fresh ideas to get you started
and make some nice sounds that you could later build up into finished tracks,
then this ***IS*** that book. What I'm going to try to present here is a
collection of "starter ideas" or recipes for you to follow. I'll also talk a bit
about some specific tools and plugins you might use, and touch on some general
processes that I use in turning the techniques here into ambient, textural and
generative music.

## What do you mean, "Lazy Producer"? {.unnumbered}

Most professional musicians, music creators and producers I know are very hard
working. They spend a LOT of time crafting a tune, song or mix with care and
attention to making the final track as good as it can be. These individuals are
most definitely, categorically NOT lazy.

The typical Ableton Live set I see from most electronic music producers has a
huge number of tracks, precision edits, detailed automation, fills, transitions,
risers, "ear-candy". It's a technicolor riot of clips. In stark contrast, my
typical Live set for a track may have around 12 tracks. I use randomness,
probability and automation to make things change from one bar or section to
another. I start tracks largely by letting the computer make choices by finding
the "best" settings in the randomness and probability parameters or "garden" the
generated random MIDI and audio to create a little more order. I am a Lazy
Producer.

I will use the shorthand "Lazy Producer" in this book meaning that the
techniques described will get you started on tracks, but are probably not
finished tracks in themselves. However, if you're a REALLY Lazy Producer, they
might be. I have been known to do this.

## Lorem Ipsum {.unnumbered}

There's a technique used in developing web pages and other documents where you
can create placeholder text and images to fill space while you concentrate on
layout, functionality of the page, the user experience and so on. This
placeholder text is nonsense and is not there to be read by anyone, but it needs
to take up the right amount of space and have the appearance of genuine content.
It's not enough to mash on the keyboard and write "*reotiuyerwlgkjdfi ughweriugt
hoierug oeriubgioeruhoicr evhgieur hoieruhgoiuewrhgiuerhg coireuh voerwiugh
oewrihg oiwru gh*" because that doesn't have the right breakdown of syllables,
spaces, sentences. Also, as the developer of the page you don't want to have to
take time to write anything to fill the space. As a consequence, developers rely
on Lorem Ipsum text generators like the one at <https://www.lipsum.com>, to
generate paragraphs of text. Here's an example of a paragraph generated from the
site mentioned.

*Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed varius gravida tortor nec dapibus. Donec at viverra dui, sed imperdiet ante. Integer ut dapibus leo. Quisque elementum tristique malesuada. Praesent venenatis elit eget mauris porta, in facilisis arcu aliquam. Phasellus ac leo tempus, pretium felis sit amet, sagittis nibh. Curabitur fermentum et dui in porttitor. Nulla et porta enim. Curabitur bibendum odio nisl, quis placerat lacus sodales quis. Vestibulum ut mollis urna. Mauris nec quam sit amet justo pretium aliquet.*

Many of the techniques I'm describing in this book are like Lorem Ipsum but for
music. You can use them to generate content that is a placeholder in a
production while you work on sound design, or to create musical or rhythm ideas
that you can bounce off in the creation of new parts. Then when the new idea is
created it will be safe to delete the placeholder content and retain the good
bits.

As a Lazy Producer, I often wind up keeping the Lorem Ipsum music if it sounds good.

## Reduce, reuse, recycle {.unnumbered}

It's natural as producers to keep an eye on developers producing sample packs,
plugins and hardware and wondering if ***THIS*** product is going to make a
difference to my next track. What I'd like to propose is that YOU can produce
sample packs that work for YOU and the style of music you make much better than
a third party developer. So while you work through the techniques in this book,
save the results and save the clips (Ableton's Live Clips) to your User Library,
organising by type or feature, so that when you next need a new part or track
starter, you can dip into this library and recycle what you have already
prepared.

As a Lazy Producer I reuse MIDI parts that sound good across MANY tracks. This
doesn't necessarily mean that many parts play the EXACT same MIDI part, but
there are things that can be done with the same MIDI part that recycle it -
making changes, but keeping parts of the original. I will demonstrate techniques
for doing that in subsequent chapters.

## What will I need to be able to use the ideas in this book? {.unnumbered}

You will get most out of this book if you have Ableton Live Suite (from v11
onwards). Some of the ideas could be translated to other DAWs, but there are
some features like note-wise probability which I'm not sure how to replicate in
other DAWs.

Many of the tools and plugins discussed use Max For Live, which comes bundled
with Ableton Suite. If you ***don't*** have Ableton Suite, then you can purchase
Max For Live separately from ableton.com. You ***don't*** have to purchase the
full Max license from Cycling 74 to use Max For Live.

I'm not assuming that you know how to program with Max For Live - you only need
to be aware that plugins we're talking about are programmed with that platform,
so it needs to be available on your computer.

## Why Ableton? {.unnumbered}

I am a long time Ableton user (since Live 4). As I write this guide, I am using
Live 12.1. I have a strong belief that Ableton Suite can be used much like a
modular synthesiser - with the combination of audio and MIDI routing within
Live, coupled with Max For Live devices, this amazing DAW can do so much. In
fact, as you read through the chapters of the book you'll see how many of the
tools, plugins and methods we'll talk about mimic what you would see and how you
might use them for generative music in a modular synthesiser rack.

## Structure of this book {.unnumbered}

If you flick through the book you'll see different types of chapter.

### Recipes {.unnumbered}

Recipes chapters introduce a set of instructions that you can follow to create
your own music using randomness and probability i.e. generative music. If you're
a Lazy Producer like me then you can use these recipes to generate ideas and
sounds that you can then use to start your own process of creating a track. If
you're a lazy reader too, then you can skip straight to these chapters and
follow the recipe. If you're a creatively Lazy Producer then you can tweak the
recipes or combine them with other recipes to make your own creations. That's
OK.

### Process {.unnumbered}

Process chapters talk about general ideas that can be applied within Ableton
Live or potentially to other DAWs or music making processes. I'll try to steer
clear of specific discussion of tools or plugins in these chapters.

### Tools and plugins {.unnumbered}

The chapters for geeks and musicians with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). If
you want to get really nerdy or think about acquiring new plugins then these are
the chapters for you. If you have already purchased Ableton Live then you have
already invested a large amount on music making equipment. My goal here is not
to persuade you to part with significant additional amounts of cash, but some of
the plugins have an associated, although modest, cost.

## Who am I? {.unnumbered}

My name is Mike K Smith. I trained as a statistician and work as a data
scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. I identify as a professional geek.
Since making ambient music is a passion for me and doesn't have to pay the
bills, I have the luxury of being a "Lazy Producer".

I make ambient, textural and sometimes generative music mostly using Ableton
Live. I have released 2 albums collaborating with other musicians - where they
prepared starter audio "stems" of tracks which I then augmented and created
finished tracks. I have also produced an album of drone and textural music under
my own name.

You can find my music here:

<https://mikeksmith.bandcamp.com>

<https://soundcloud.com/mikeksmith>