Randomise Arrangements in Live 11

Some days, ideas are flowing and arrangements get sorted by themselves like magic🌌 but more often music ideas stagnates in undeveloped music loops. I often struggle piecing loops together and finish a track. If you are in the same boat, I want to share with you a way to generate arrangements, while you sip a cup of coffee☕️.

If you double click on a clip and click on the top left arrow icon in Clip View we can access the Launch View.

This feature is unknown to many and believes me, I barely use it too. However, if we set the follow action with randomisation we can then create a framework for Ableton to trigger loops automatically. Sound good doesn’t it? Probably it won’t sound particularly good at first but it’s an interesting way to take a break and allow the software to help you consider ideas that you wouldn’t have thought of! Enough rumbling here is a step-by-step guide to set up the tool!

1. Toggle the Follow Action button.
2. Set the action that you want to take (Any will trigger any clip on the Session View).
3. The fader with percentages will dictate the probability of the next action.
4. That’s it play the loop and see Ableton taking the lead. At the end of the loop, Ableton will trigger one of the two actions.
5. The trick works best if you set loops of 8 – 16 bars and for each instrument you have variations. For example, on a drum track, you could have ‘drum break’, ‘main drum beat’, ‘drum beat variation’ etc. Ableton will then trigger the loops at random and produce an arrangement for you.

I hope you found this helpful. See you next time! 👋