Free Generative Music Toolkit For Max For Live

Nwdlbots are a free suite of generative music devices for Ableton Live. These devices include MIDI event generators, pitch and velocity choosers and others.

As well as generating events at random, nwdlbots can respond to activity on other MIDI tracks in Live, or to input from a MIDI instrument. In effect, nwdlbots control the density of a piece by reducing their activity when things get too busy. They also have some rudimentary ideas about harmony and can follow a chord sequence.

8 thoughts on “Free Generative Music Toolkit For Max For Live

  1. Its an interesting project since its not very hard to recognize the amount of work which has been put into this to achieve this set of tools.

    However, for an outsider its very hard to get a good grasp on what this stuff is and does, partly because its documentation is a little sparse. For example; you end up with a Liveset which contains an empty midi clip on track 2. You start the main transport and nothing happens; then you fire up the clip and some midi events occur.

    However; empty or not a playing clip is mandatory for the generating devices to work. All in all no big deal; but as said above it is a little rough to get into.

    But all in all this is a very interesting project which shows quite some potential IMO. While the generated midi data maybe random it does manage to come up with some very interesting notes and events. Sure kept me intrigued for a while.

    What I don't like however is the somewhat hidden licensing policy. When you download this livepack you will find no mentioning of a license restriction on that webpage. If you open up the devices you will also find nothing telling you that you're restricted in any way with regarding to using this material. Also in the documentation section there is no mentioning of any licensing.

    However; if you visit the "Terms of use" page on his website (see link below) you'll come across information which makes it quite clear that this project isn't as free as one may think. While people /are/ allowed to copy, distribute and use (even commercially) these patches you may not "alter, transform or build upon this work". Also the "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)." puzzles me to no end.

    See: http://www.sundaydance.co.uk/nwdlbots/terms-of-us

    That is all waay too vague for me. I'm also not impressed that this information isn't being made more clearly available on the download page itself or at the very moment you open up one of the patches.

    I don't think anyone has to worry here. But the problem with vague licenses is that it can always go either way. And well, being a M4L developer myself I tend to avoid such possible confrontations up front.

  2. Its an interesting project since its not very hard to recognize the amount of work which has been put into this to achieve this set of tools.

    However, for an outsider its very hard to get a good grasp on what this stuff is and does, partly because its documentation is a little sparse. For example; you end up with a Liveset which contains an empty midi clip on track 2. You start the main transport and nothing happens; then you fire up the clip and some midi events occur.

    However; empty or not a playing clip is mandatory for the generating devices to work. All in all no big deal; but as said above it is a little rough to get into.

    But all in all this is a very interesting project which shows quite some potential IMO. While the generated midi data maybe random it does manage to come up with some very interesting notes and events. Sure kept me intrigued for a while.

    What I don't like however is the somewhat hidden licensing policy. When you download this livepack you will find no mentioning of a license restriction on that webpage. If you open up the devices you will also find nothing telling you that you're restricted in any way with regarding to using this material. Also in the documentation section there is no mentioning of any licensing.

    However; if you visit the "Terms of use" page on his website (see link below) you'll come across information which makes it quite clear that this project isn't as free as one may think. While people /are/ allowed to copy, distribute and use (even commercially) these patches you may not "alter, transform or build upon this work". Also the "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)." puzzles me to no end.

    See: http://www.sundaydance.co.uk/nwdlbots/terms-of-us

    That is all waay too vague for me. I'm also not impressed that this information isn't being made more clearly available on the download page itself or at the very moment you open up one of the patches.

    I don't think anyone has to worry here. But the problem with vague licenses is that it can always go either way. And well, being a M4L developer myself I tend to avoid such possible confrontations up front.

  3. Its an interesting project since its not very hard to recognize the amount of work which has been put into this to achieve this set of tools.

    However, for an outsider its very hard to get a good grasp on what this stuff is and does, partly because its documentation is a little sparse. For example; you end up with a Liveset which contains an empty midi clip on track 2. You start the main transport and nothing happens; then you fire up the clip and some midi events occur.

    However; empty or not a playing clip is mandatory for the generating devices to work. All in all no big deal; but as said above it is a little rough to get into.

    But all in all this is a very interesting project which shows quite some potential IMO. While the generated midi data maybe random it does manage to come up with some very interesting notes and events. Sure kept me intrigued for a while.

    What I don't like however is the somewhat hidden licensing policy. When you download this livepack you will find no mentioning of a license restriction on that webpage. If you open up the devices you will also find nothing telling you that you're restricted in any way with regarding to using this material. Also in the documentation section there is no mentioning of any licensing.

    However; if you visit the "Terms of use" page on his website (see link below) you'll come across information which makes it quite clear that this project isn't as free as one may think. While people /are/ allowed to copy, distribute and use (even commercially) these patches you may not "alter, transform or build upon this work". Also the "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)." puzzles me to no end.

    See: http://www.sundaydance.co.uk/nwdlbots/terms-of-us

    That is all waay too vague for me. I'm also not impressed that this information isn't being made more clearly available on the download page itself or at the very moment you open up one of the patches.

    I don't think anyone has to worry here. But the problem with vague licenses is that it can always go either way. And well, being a M4L developer myself I tend to avoid such possible confrontations up front.

  4. Its an interesting project since its not very hard to recognize the amount of work which has been put into this to achieve this set of tools.

    However, for an outsider its very hard to get a good grasp on what this stuff is and does, partly because its documentation is a little sparse. For example; you end up with a Liveset which contains an empty midi clip on track 2. You start the main transport and nothing happens; then you fire up the clip and some midi events occur.

    However; empty or not a playing clip is mandatory for the generating devices to work. All in all no big deal; but as said above it is a little rough to get into.

    But all in all this is a very interesting project which shows quite some potential IMO. While the generated midi data maybe random it does manage to come up with some very interesting notes and events. Sure kept me intrigued for a while.

    What I don't like however is the somewhat hidden licensing policy. When you download this livepack you will find no mentioning of a license restriction on that webpage. If you open up the devices you will also find nothing telling you that you're restricted in any way with regarding to using this material. Also in the documentation section there is no mentioning of any licensing.

    However; if you visit the "Terms of use" page on his website (see link below) you'll come across information which makes it quite clear that this project isn't as free as one may think. While people /are/ allowed to copy, distribute and use (even commercially) these patches you may not "alter, transform or build upon this work". Also the "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)." puzzles me to no end.

    See: http://www.sundaydance.co.uk/nwdlbots/terms-of-us

    That is all waay too vague for me. I'm also not impressed that this information isn't being made more clearly available on the download page itself or at the very moment you open up one of the patches.

    I don't think anyone has to worry here. But the problem with vague licenses is that it can always go either way. And well, being a M4L developer myself I tend to avoid such possible confrontations up front.

  5. Its an interesting project since its not very hard to recognize the amount of work which has been put into this to achieve this set of tools.

    However, for an outsider its very hard to get a good grasp on what this stuff is and does, partly because its documentation is a little sparse. For example; you end up with a Liveset which contains an empty midi clip on track 2. You start the main transport and nothing happens; then you fire up the clip and some midi events occur.

    However; empty or not a playing clip is mandatory for the generating devices to work. All in all no big deal; but as said above it is a little rough to get into.

    But all in all this is a very interesting project which shows quite some potential IMO. While the generated midi data maybe random it does manage to come up with some very interesting notes and events. Sure kept me intrigued for a while.

    What I don't like however is the somewhat hidden licensing policy. When you download this livepack you will find no mentioning of a license restriction on that webpage. If you open up the devices you will also find nothing telling you that you're restricted in any way with regarding to using this material. Also in the documentation section there is no mentioning of any licensing.

    However; if you visit the "Terms of use" page on his website (see link below) you'll come across information which makes it quite clear that this project isn't as free as one may think. While people /are/ allowed to copy, distribute and use (even commercially) these patches you may not "alter, transform or build upon this work". Also the "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)." puzzles me to no end.

    See: http://www.sundaydance.co.uk/nwdlbots/terms-of-us

    That is all waay too vague for me. I'm also not impressed that this information isn't being made more clearly available on the download page itself or at the very moment you open up one of the patches.

    I don't think anyone has to worry here. But the problem with vague licenses is that it can always go either way. And well, being a M4L developer myself I tend to avoid such possible confrontations up front.

  6. Its an interesting project since its not very hard to recognize the amount of work which has been put into this to achieve this set of tools.

    However, for an outsider its very hard to get a good grasp on what this stuff is and does, partly because its documentation is a little sparse. For example; you end up with a Liveset which contains an empty midi clip on track 2. You start the main transport and nothing happens; then you fire up the clip and some midi events occur.

    However; empty or not a playing clip is mandatory for the generating devices to work. All in all no big deal; but as said above it is a little rough to get into.

    But all in all this is a very interesting project which shows quite some potential IMO. While the generated midi data maybe random it does manage to come up with some very interesting notes and events. Sure kept me intrigued for a while.

    What I don't like however is the somewhat hidden licensing policy. When you download this livepack you will find no mentioning of a license restriction on that webpage. If you open up the devices you will also find nothing telling you that you're restricted in any way with regarding to using this material. Also in the documentation section there is no mentioning of any licensing.

    However; if you visit the "Terms of use" page on his website (see link below) you'll come across information which makes it quite clear that this project isn't as free as one may think. While people /are/ allowed to copy, distribute and use (even commercially) these patches you may not "alter, transform or build upon this work". Also the "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)." puzzles me to no end.

    See: http://www.sundaydance.co.uk/nwdlbots/terms-of-us

    That is all waay too vague for me. I'm also not impressed that this information isn't being made more clearly available on the download page itself or at the very moment you open up one of the patches.

    I don't think anyone has to worry here. But the problem with vague licenses is that it can always go either way. And well, being a M4L developer myself I tend to avoid such possible confrontations up front.

  7. Some enjoyable parts in the video. It's certainly not rocket science, but it seems to be effective in a way. What I don't dig (apart from the license already mentioned) is that it's not accurately documented like you would expect from a computer program that produces music. Maybe the author expects you to inspect the Max patches but I have a feeling that it's disallowed. So, you're stuck with a piece of software that composes your music without actually knowing (for lack of a more concise term) the maths behind it.

  8. I can see some great uses for this. Sometimes as an artist we run into walls and you can’t seem to come up with anything original. Well get your parameters straight and let this bad boy run for a little while and see if you can’t shatter those barriers. I am really looking forward to where generative music takes us.

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