Darwin Grosse

One group of Live devices that I’m most interested in is drum synthesizers. While I’ll often use samples, a synthesized drum sound can often be programmed to have a quirkiness and variability that I’d never be able to wrangle out of a static recording. The Max for Live Essentials pack has a lot of great devices in its DrumSynth set, but I’ve recently become intrigued by a cool little device found on maxforlive.com called 

This single-purpose synth was created for developing some of the most sophisticated hi-hat sounds you can imagine, and it offers several surprises. First, the sound is front-ended with an extreme band-filtering system, allowing you to transform the core noise sound into a variety of tweaked-out hisses and clangs. This is followed by some multi-point envelopes that control amplitude, filtering and even velocity scaling. While simple to operate, the combination of resonant band filters and complex envelopes offers a fantastic playground for percussion sound design.

MIDI-wise, the device is not pitch-sensitive, but it is velocity-sensitive. While I could have placed it in a Drum Rack, I found it easiest to work with as a stand-alone device, creating a simple MIDI track that I “Fold” into a single line.

From there I can add/subtract notes, easily adjust velocity (since there isn’t any complex selection required) and work at top efficiency. I now use DP.HouseHat as part of almost every percussion-based set, and highly recommend it for the designerly device user.

One group of Live devices that I’m most interested in is drum synthesizers. While I’ll often use samples, a synthesized drum sound can often be programmed to have a quirkiness and variability that I’d never be able to wrangle out of a static recording. The Max for Live Essentials pack has a lot of great devices in its DrumSynth set, but I’ve recently become intrigued by a cool little device found on maxforlive.com called DP.HouseHat:

From there I can add/subtract notes, easily adjust velocity (since there isn’t any complex selection required) and work at top efficiency. I now use DP.HouseHat as part of almost every percussion-based set, and highly recommend it for the designerly device user.


my-secret-its-under-my-dp-house-hat

It's really cool and I'm looking forward to exploring it,

but it seems to reset and lose it's settings and go silent when

It's really cool and I'm looking forward to exploring it,
but it seems to reset and lose it's settings and go silent when
I reopen a session. So that's not good.


Nevermind, the solution is when you save the preset inside the device then save the live set

it will live load the project with the correct preset.

Nevermind, the solution is when you save the preset inside the device then save the live set
it will live load the project with the correct preset.


My Secret? It's Under My (dp.house) Hat!