Ableton Live "chord master track" setup

There is an advanced way to work with MelodicFlow and Ableton Live that requires a little setup effort, but the rewards are great. You will be able to create new tracks faster and better by recycling melodic rhythms and ideas again and again. This is very useful for common basslines, arpeggios, chord rhythms etc.

This is the basic principle:

• One track contains the chord notes.
• These notes are routed to other tracks which contain MelodicFlow plug-ins (or any other MIDI arpeggiators).
• Enter melodic rhythms directly on your MelodicFlow tracks.There is no longer any need to write down the chord notes as these notes are provided by the master track.
• Tip: Export your melodic rhythms as MIDI files. You can import them to new tracks anytime. Chords are provided by the chord track, and you can quickly exchange and test new melodies.

Ableton Live "chord master track" setup

Setup notes:

• The "chord master track" (yellow) contains the chords.
• Put a simple piano instrument on the "chord master track" and turn off the Track Activator (purple). This is important for solo/mute behavior.
• For each instrument, you will need three tracks: A track that contains the notes of the melodic rhythm (in the image: "Piano Melody"), a track which contains a MelodicFlow plug-in ("Piano MelodicFlow"), and a track that contains the "real" instrument and the effects, etc. ("Piano Instrument").
• "Melody" track: Set the Midi To box to the "MelodicFlow" track. This will push the melodic rhythm notes to that track.
• "MelodicFlow" track: This track contains the MelodicFlow plug-in. Set the Midi From box to the "Chords" track. Set the Monitor field to "In". This setup will combine the notes of the chord track and of the melody track into one note stream.
• "Instrument" track: This track contains the instrument and the effects. Set the Midi From box to the "MelodicFlow" track, and set the second box to "MelodicFlow". Set the Monitor field to "In". Now all the notes that are generated by MelodicFlow will come through to the instrument.
• Create a group that contains the "MelodicFlow" and the "Instrument" track.
• (Note: I don't know whether it is possible to reduce this setup to two tracks. Please contact me if you know of a better way to do the routing.)

Some tricks:

• Use the solo button of the Piano group if you want to hear this instrument solo. As the "chord master track" contains an instrument, Ableton Live will continue to generate MIDI notes on the chord track. It won't do this if you don't add an instrument there.
• Solo and unmute the chord track to play around with chord progressions. The instrument on this track will help you to listen to chords without having to use the "pass notes through" feature of MelodicFlow.

Download the project files:
You can download a simple example project here: MelodicFlow_Chord_Master_Track_Project.zip. Open it in Ableton Live and make sure to launch both the "Chords" clip (on track "Chords") and the "Melody" clip (on track "Piano Melody") at once.

Download MelodicFlow here:
http://feelyoursound.com/melodicflow/