Ascension: a 16-track MIDI sequencer for melodic techno that builds into the drop and coaches you

Every plugin in the ORIKLE crypt is about death and what comes after. Ascension is the bit in the middle: the rise. It is the sequencer that takes a groove from the intro to the bar before the drop, where Six Feet Under takes it back down.

Why I built it

Melodic techno is a sequencer genre. Rolling basslines between the kicks, arps that follow the chords, hats that shift every 16 bars, a hook that answers the bass. I was building all of that out of separate clips and separate devices, and none of them knew about each other. The arp did not know the chords had changed. The bass did not know where the kick was. And the build into the drop was a weekend of automation lanes.

I wanted one place for the whole groove, where every track knows the song.

What it does

16 tracks, up to 64 steps each, with per-step lanes for velocity, length, shift, probability, ratchet, pitch, octave, CC and feel. Euclidean rhythms, polymeters, swing, step conditions (fills, every second pass, first or last bar of the phrase), alternative notes, 16 scenes and live rolls. It plays your Ableton instruments over MIDI, one channel per track.

Then the three things I could not find elsewhere:

• It knows the song. Tracks follow your chord track, so the arp and the bass play chord tones when the chord changes. Start it from a song in Yorick and it takes the key, chords and build length straight from there.
• It writes in my genres. Melodic techno (kick on every beat, claps on 2 and 4, rolling 16th hats, a bass between the kicks) or techno (accented 16ths, off-beat bass, rides, odd-length percussion loops). Learn my rhythms reads my own MIDI clips, and Like me leans new patterns towards how I place each part.
• It builds. One Ascension control raises the whole pattern: more hits, more ratchets, open probability, rising pitch, filters opening, a fill on the last bar and a gap on the last beat. Set a length and a shape (even, or a rush into the drop), press Build now, and it drops on the bar.

The Coach

Borrowed from Vocal Doctor: a page of cards that tell you when something will not sound right, and how to fix it.

A bass that wanders up to E5. A stab down where only subwoofers live. A chord outside the key that five tracks are following. Each card says which tracks and steps, what is wrong, and offers Apply, Show, Listen, Why? and Keep it (for when the “mistake” is the point).

The benefits

• The whole groove in one place, every track aware of the chords and the kick.
• The build is a control, not a weekend. Intro to drop with one gesture, in time.
• Patterns that sound like me. It learns my rhythms from my own clips and my taste from my ratings.
• Mistakes caught before the mixdown. The Coach is the friend who says “that bass note is a bit high, mate” before you have bounced it.
• Drag out tracks or whole scenes as MIDI when it is time to commit to the arrangement.
• The drop kit. Drag build gives the build plus 8 bars of the drop, with Six Feet Under and Lazarus notes placed for you.

How I use it on a track

I start from the song in Yorick, generate a melodic techno scene, and lock the kick and clap. Then I mutate the bass and arp until they roll, teach it with Like and Not for me, and set a 16 bar build with Rush. Coach on, clear the FIX cards, and Drag build onto the arrangement.

The honest bit

It is a big instrument with a lot of buttons. It rewards a couple of evenings of exploring. Think of it as a skeleton crew of sixteen session players: very obedient, never tired, and only as tasteful as the producer telling them what to play.