New to Max – is this workflow possible? (automated clip chopping/exporting/re-naming for Kontakt)
Hi all – long-time Ableton user here, but I've only dabbled with Max in the past. It's recently dawned on me that it could be the solution to a problem I'm currently facing with a particular project. Before I hit the books, so to speak, I wanted to run my idea by the group and see if I'm likely to be running into a dead end with it – or if it's perhaps more complex than I think it is. Any thoughts, hints, tips, or resources would be greatly appreciated.
This project includes building a large number of instruments for NI's Kontakt – picture an orchestral template type of thing, except it's all janky sound-design stuff. My preferred workflow is to create all these samples and process them/do sound design inside Ableton, since I know the software well and have amassed my own library of devices, presets, etc etc.
The most tedious parts of this process include chopping recordings into individual notes, stripping silence, pitch correction, clip naming (Kontakt can identify MIDI note numbers, velocities etc in order to map samples automatically), and exporting clips as individual .wavs. Reaper is often cited as the best software for this type of work, due to all the existing scripts that can automate these functions to a greater or lesser degree – but surely Max For Live is capable of this sort of work too?
Off the top of my head, I'd want to:
Split takes in the arrangement based on a threshold value of silence (could also use a gate to get actual silence). Applying fades would be handy here, but maybe it's better done on export.
Rename the resulting clips, appending each one with the closest note name or MIDI number based on average pitch.
Simple pitch correction based on this sort of analysis is possible with scripts in Reaper. I'd love to have that here, but I currently get by fine by using Melodyne before I start chopping. It'd be a bonus.
Export normalized clips to a pre-determined folder using the above naming convention. Kentaro Suzuki's "Clip Exporter" works beautifully for this already, but it'd be nice to have it all in one place.
I'm already using the aforementioned Clip Exporter as well as Clip Renamer, which have been great, but I'm wondering if I ought to invest some time up front and try to iterate something a bit more bespoke to cover more of this process. I have a couple of other standalone tools that help with the missing steps, though doing it all inside my DAW session would make life a lot easier. Aside from the project in question, Kontakt is really at the core of my workflow, so I'm willing to invest some proper time and effort up front – and if I have to learn something new, I'd rather it be Max than Reaper.
Apologies for the lengthy post – any thoughts at all would be greatly appreciated. I've spent a significant chunk of today poring over forum discussions and checking out existing patches, but I can't quite get my head around the whole thing yet. Thanks!
Edit: Unfortunate auto-correction of a name.
I don't have enough experience to know if the pitch correction is possible, but the others I could imagine being done in Max. It would definitely be an intermediate to advanced project. I would imagine it would take less time to learn the existing Reaper workflow than to build the patch without prior Max knowledge, but I understand the desire to stay within Ableton. If you have prior experience in any coding language (esp Javascript) that would definitely speed things up.
I'd say that it's all very doable in Max although you might have to get a bit imaginative as to how you do some of the things on your list! It's taken me a year from scratch to "complete" my gargantuan project with no prior knowledge of Max although I've written lots of software in other languages before now. I wouldn't describe it as a steep learning curve either once you get to know the basics (do a few tutorials) and some of Max's idiosyncrasies (like the scheduler working from the bottom right to the top left when it decides what to do next!). Just play around with different objects and keep referring to the tutorials, help files and documentation. and get a good handle on how to use the debugging tools! Also, be aware that Max is not the best at handling strings of text although having sprintf in there can be a godsend.
Everything I've seen since posting here supports the idea that, yes, it's a pretty big project – especially for a newcomer like me. Still, I learned enough to really want to dig into Max a bit deeper in general, so maybe I'll revisit this one in a couple of years. I'm off to download Reaper for now though. Thanks for all the input!