MacroLab guide: engines, MPE and macro mappings

Install and play

Use Ableton Live with Max for Live: Live Suite, or Live Standard with the Max for Live add-on. The tested desktop environment is Windows Live 12.4.16 with its bundled Max. Other Live/Max versions and macOS have not been verified for this release. Ableton’s Max for Live licensing guide.

1. Extract the ZIP. Copy the two AMXD files to a folder such as User Library → Presets → ElectronicMusic UK.
2. Drag one onto an empty MIDI track. Play a MIDI clip, or select your controller input and arm the track.
3. Start with Output at its default −6 dB. Select an engine and move its four controls. MacroLab’s shared envelope, Tone, Drive and Spread sit to the right; Super groups its shared controls into pages.
4. Save your sound in the Live Set or with Live’s device-preset Save control. A fresh instance is needed when replacing an older AMXD already loaded in a Set.

Each file embeds its Gen DSP and MIDI/UI script. No samples, VST/AU plug-ins, additional Max packages or network service are needed to play it. The two synths are a separate download from the existing eleven-device collection.

Push 3 standalone

Transfer the AMXD files through Live’s Push browser to Push’s User Library, then load a fresh instance on a MIDI track. For a Set containing the devices, use Collect All and Save before transferring the project. A copy in your computer’s User Library is not an automatic copy on Push.

Enable MPE pad behaviour on Push. Its pitch movement, vertical slide and pressure are the three inputs used here. The supplied files have been transferred to Push and read back with matching hashes; that verifies the files, while hands-on standalone MPE response still needs testing with this exact revision. Ableton’s Push MPE setup guide.

Which version?

MacroLab 0.1

Eight engines, one selected at a time; eight-note polyphony. Four engine controls plus ADSR, Tone, Drive, Spread and Output. The smaller architecture is the light option; no internal time-based effects.

MacroLab Super 0.2

Sixteen engines on each of two layers; one to eight notes. Merge, Ring and Phase Mod; three character modes; two LFOs; resonant tone, chorus, echo and room; 24 factory patches.

“Light” and “heavy” describe the architecture, not a published CPU benchmark. In Super, lower Voices on the Play page if a session is busy. Only sounding voices run oscillator branches; a layer at a Blend endpoint can be skipped unless A is still needed to modulate B.

The engine reference

Macro 1–4 are the four controls beside the selected engine, in left-to-right order. All use a 0–1 range. Each engine retains its own settings when you switch away; Super retains them separately for A and B. Selecting a different controller bank does not select an engine. Engine changes affect held notes too.

The first eight engines are in both instruments. The final eight are Super-only. Open an engine below for the control meanings and a suggested starting direction.

Envelope and tail

Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release shape the common amplitude envelope. Times are shown in milliseconds. FM Strike, Glass Modes, String Wire, Kick Body and Noise Foundry also decay inside the engine. A long held key cannot make an internally decaying engine sustain indefinitely. Turn up its Tail, then leave enough shared Release to hear it.

Super: two layers and three interactions

Blend runs from A only at 0 to B only at 1. The two layers each have their own engine and four controls, plus semitone tuning; B also has fine tuning. Cross Mod controls the depth of Ring and Phase Mod. It has no effect in Merge.

Merge

A straight blend of the layers. Use it to hear a new pair before adding interaction.

Ring

Brings the product of A and B into the merged signal. The effect is strongest near Blend 0.5 and falls away at either endpoint. Cross Mod sets the amount.

Phase Mod

A changes B’s carrier phase. Increase Blend towards B to hear it; A can still modulate B at Blend 1. This is one-way A-to-B modulation. Different engines respond differently: string and noise engines show the effect mainly through their tonal components.

Indifferent, Punch and Kiss

Indifferent is the neutral treatment. Punch makes attack, decay and release shorter, lowers sustain slightly, adds drive and a brief transient lift, and reduces chorus and room. Kiss adds a softer attack, darker tone, longer release and more chorus and room. Modes transform the sound without rewriting the stored controls.

Finding the shared controls

Mix

Blend, Interaction, Cross Mod, A/B semitones, B cents and Spread.

Tone

ADSR, Tone Hz, Resonance and Drive.

Motion

A sine LFO and a triangle LFO, each with rate, destination and signed depth. Rates are in Hz, not tempo-synchronised. Macro 1–4 targets move the corresponding controls of both layers. Free keeps the LFOs running; Note restarts both shared LFOs on a new note.

Play

Voices, Glide, ordinary/master Bend Range and wheel, touch, velocity and envelope amounts into Tone. Touch Tone is the legacy ordinary-MIDI pressure path; in MPE modes use Expression. One voice uses the same allocator rather than a last-held-note keyboard stack.

Space

Chorus, Delay, Delay ms, Feedback, Room, Room Size and Damping. Delay time changes bend pitch. These are shared stereo effects after the voices.

Expression / MPE Setup

Per-note mappings and input calibration. Output remains available on every page.

MPE: useful defaults, editable routes

MPE keeps bend, pressure and slide associated with individual notes. It lets you brighten one note in a held chord or bend it against the others. For an external MPE controller, enable MPE for its input in Live’s MIDI settings, keep the track receiving its member channels, and match the controller’s zone and bend range. You can also edit note-expression curves in a MIDI clip. Ableton’s MPE setup and editing guide.

On Folded FM, default slide changes Index. On Analog Stack it changes Shape. On Super, the generic Macro 2 target moves the second control of both selected engines, which may have different meanings. Pressure starts at zero; slide is centred at CC74 value 64. Expression offsets the saved engine settings without overwriting them.

Make a custom mapping

1. Open Expression with the Page menu or its named controller bank.
2. Choose Pressure To, Slide To or Bend To. Select a destination, or Off.
3. Set the corresponding Amount. Positive follows the gesture; negative reverses it. Start small, because destinations are added to the existing settings and can reach their limits.
4. Hold two notes and move only one. Save the Set or device preset when the mapping feels right.

Both instruments offer Off, Tone, Macro 1, Macro 2, Macro 3, Macro 4, Drive, Amplitude, Pan and Pitch. Super adds Blend, Cross Mod, A Macro 1–4 and B Macro 1–4. Generic Macro targets affect both layers; A/B targets address just one. These are fixed destination choices, not a learn function for arbitrary Live devices.

Try Pressure → Blend at +0.4, with Blend initially near A. Then try Slide → B Macro 2 at +0.25, so the second layer changes colour under your finger. Or route Pressure → Tone with a negative amount for a sound that becomes darker as you press.

How much does an Amount of 1 change?

At full positive source value, engine macros, Blend and Cross Mod add up to 0.5 to their 0–1 controls; Tone rises up to four octaves; Drive adds 0.5; Amplitude adds up to 80%; Pan adds 0.45 to its 0–1 position. Pressure/slide → Pitch spans two semitones. Bend → Pitch uses the MPE input range. Negative amounts reverse these offsets, and control limits clamp the result.

Slide and bend are bipolar; pressure is unipolar. Multiple routes aimed at the same destination add together. Character, LFOs, envelope and other modulation can also affect the result. These amounts describe the implemented mappings, not a promise of equal perceived loudness or timbre across engines.

Zones and bend calibration

The default is MPE Lower: channel 1 manages member channels 2–16. MPE Upper uses channel 16 as manager with the lower channels as members. MPE Range defaults to ±48 semitones; Bend Range defaults to ±2 for manager-channel or ordinary MIDI bend. Incoming RPN pitch-bend-sensitivity messages are honoured. Match an external controller to the receiving range; avoid changing only one end of the connection.

MacroLab exposes MPE Range and MIDI Mode on Expression, with the ordinary/master Bend Range in its MPE Setup controller bank. Super places MPE Range on Expression and MIDI Mode on its MPE Setup page; its MPE Setup bank groups the calibration controls. Choose MIDI mode for an ordinary keyboard when you want the ordinary bend range. The devices do not advertise support for Live’s external MPE tuning integration.

The built-in eight-control banks

These banks are already defined in the devices for Live control surfaces such as Push. They are separate from user-created Instrument Rack macros.

MacroLab has 12 named banks: Perform, Expression, MPE Setup, eight engine banks and Envelope. Every engine bank gives you Engine, that engine’s four controls, Tone Hz, Release and Output dB. The Engine selector is still the control that changes which engine sounds.

Super has 40 banks: Perform; Mix, Tone, Motion, Play, Space, Expression and MPE Setup; then 16 engine banks for A and 16 for B. Each engine bank has its layer’s engine selector, four dedicated engine controls, Blend, Cross Mod and Output dB. Bank navigation depends on the control surface; physical operation on each controller remains a hardware check.

An optional eight-macro performance Rack

For a smaller Super performance view, group the instrument into a Live Instrument Rack and map these eight controls. This is a suggested device-only mapping recipe, not a supplied Rack preset. It lets you keep sound-building controls inside the synth and the most useful performance controls on the Rack.

Choose a destination such as Macro 1 for LFO1 before using Motion, and select Ring or Phase Mod before using Cross Mod. Use Live’s Map mode and parameter-unit displays to set the ranges. Tone and envelope controls have curved scaling, so halfway on a Rack macro is not necessarily halfway in milliseconds or hertz. Save the Rack separately when finished.

Rack macros and automation change the shared stored controls; the instrument’s Expression routes operate per note. Mapping a controller’s pressure to an ordinary shared Rack macro does not create a separate macro value for every held note.

Late-night flow: Spew → MacroLab → Shimmer Chops

In Live, place MIDI Spew before either MacroLab instrument in the MIDI chain, and Shimmer Chops after it in the audio chain. Start with a sparse Spew pattern and a longer MacroLab release; bring in Shimmer Chops gradually so its captured, pitched fragments have space around the dry notes. The links open each device’s download and setup entry in the collection.

Factory patches, presets and recall

Super includes 24 factory patches. Selecting a patch name does nothing until you press Load. Loading releases held notes and replaces the sound settings, including unused engines and expression routes. MIDI mode and input bend calibration are retained.

Save edits with the Live Set or as a normal device preset. After reopening, the saved parameters are authoritative: the factory menu is a chooser and can show Init without reloading Init. MacroLab has no factory chooser; its per-engine settings and expression routes also save with Live.

When a sound or gesture surprises you

No sound

Check track input, arming/monitoring, clip notes, Output and the amplitude envelope. A decaying engine needs a fresh note. Use Panic for stuck voices; on Super, old effect feedback is muted for two seconds while the dry synth remains playable.

Bends are too small or too large

Match the MPE zone and member range, and check the separate ordinary/master range. Try a two-note chord with only one note bent.

Slide changes the wrong thing

Check the selected engine’s second control and whether a generic Super target is moving both layers. Select A Macro or B Macro to isolate a layer.

Cross Mod seems inactive

Merge does not use it. In Ring, move Blend towards the middle. In Phase Mod, make B audible; some engines have a subtler response.

A long note dies away

Internally decaying engines have their own Tail. The shared ADSR alone cannot turn them into a continuous oscillator.

Bright high notes sound rough

Strong FM, sync and waveshaping can alias. There is no oversampling. Lower Index/Fold/Edge/Cross Mod, darken Tone, or use a lower register.

What has been checked

For this MPE revision, both MIDI regression suites and 56 native Max audio renders passed at 44.1 kHz. Checks covered the engines, expression destinations, channel reuse, sustain, bend calibration and independent note bending. Both revised devices loaded in Windows Live; custom routes were saved and Super’s mapped performance controls produced the intended parameter changes.

These checks do not establish macOS compatibility, every sample rate, show-length reliability or physical-controller feel. Push transfers were downloaded back and hash-verified; standalone touch performance of this exact revision is still awaiting hands-on feedback. Send useful results with your Live/Max version, controller, MIDI mode and the mapping that caused the problem through the site’s contact form.

Read why MacroLab and Super were made →