Hot-on-the-heels of sharing my melton.drone Reaktor ensembles, it occurred to me I could create something similar with Ableton’s native devices in an instrument rack. So, I’ve uploaded melton.drone.03.adg (zip archive, requires Ableton and the Operator synth instrument). I assigned the main controls for the oscillators as macros in the first instrument rack—but be sure to utilize the volume controls for each oscillator in Operator as well—and grouped controls for the filters and saturator as macros in the effects rack. I added a compressor and limiter on the end for better dynamics control.

For melton.drone.03, the signal path is Operator Oscillators 1-4  > Filter 1 (default Lowpass, but switchable) > Saturator > Filter 2 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Filter 3 (usually Highpass, but switchable) > Compressor > Limiter

I find it helpful to create a clip with a latched note to trigger the rack (one that loops continuously inside of its start and end markers). Follow these instructions to make one:

1. Make a note that starts at 1.0.0, set the note end at 4.0.0
2. Set the clip start marker at 1.0.0
3. Set the loop braces to – start: 2.0.0 , – end 3.0.0

This is still a work-in-progress, so please share your presets and any feedback with me. Here’s the CC license:

melton.drone.03.adg by Jeffrey Melton, aka nofi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.nofi.org.