Free Weekly Ableton Live Rack – Found Percussion

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Here’s this weeks contribution from AfroDJMac:

Music from noise. This weeks rack was created by sampling various objects from around my kitchen, recording them, chopping them up, and putting them in Ableton’s drum racks.

Download the Live set here: http://bit.ly/freesynth11
it includes two versions, one with Sampler and one with Simpler.

*Non Live Users: The actual samples are included and can be imported into your DAW of choice. Instructions on how to do so are included in the download.

In a sense, music is merely a collection of organized noises.  I’ve always been fascinated when everyday sounds and noises are put into a context that makes them musical.  For a beautiful example of this, give a listen to Jon Brooks’ Music for Dieter Rams; every sound on this album originated from a Braun AB-30 alarm clock.  Create Digital Music did a nice write up here, complete with relevant videos and Bandcamp sites.  This weeks Ableton Live rack/sample pack makes musical instruments out of non-musical items.

A while back, I spent some time in my kitchen, recording percussive sounds using bottles, cans, candy wrappers, cabinet doors, car keys,  the hands of a clock, brooms, guitar picks on plastic caps… literally everything but the kitchen sink. These samples have been chopped and arranged on a drum rack with a variety of effects, most notably an Arpeggiator.  The Arpeggiator allows you to hold down a bunch of notes and create rhythms at a specified musical rate (quarter notes, sixteenth notes, etc. ) Set the rate fast enough (1/48 and above) and glitchy musical tones begin to emerge.  Play around with the filter LFOs and you may just fashion yourself a sort of dubstep wobble bass.

In the digital and electronic realm, it’s nice to inject some “living, breathing” type “instruments.” I find this rack quite useful in creating organic percussion parts.  Often, I route this rack, with the Arpeggiator running, to an audio track, and record it to create many unique bars of percussion.  From there, I pick out some of my favorite bars and trim those bits down for use in a song.   Of course, you can add your own samples to the collection by simply dropping them on the drum rack.

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