A Collection of Bits and Pieces

Discovering the Move

Challenges and Surprises, 27 October 2024

It's been a week and a half since the Ableton Move arrived.

How's it going?

It's been a mixed bag, with a lot of frustration on my part. But that can be chalked up to operator error and not the device, itself. I'm not sure how much of my note-taking about this will work in a blog post, but I'll give it a try.

This will be very long.

Update 1 - Arrival

Very pleased. It needs 5G wireless access. Fortunately, my new router can accommodate that. My old one could not.

Sturdy device. Hard plastic (which I first mistook for metal until it failed the magnet test). Smooth encoders with zero slop. The jog wheel has audible clicks and scrolls one item at a time. You cannot spin it fast and have it scroll any faster. This is an issue with sample folders that contain lots of files, I later discovered. The encoders at the top have two scan methods - normal scroll values on their own, but more precise scrolling with the shift key. This is very helpful.

There isn't a lot of menu diving in order to get the instrument to play, and I appreciate that. You have eight parameters you can adjust on most things and there are a few extras with the shift key in certain situations, but not a full extra set of eight options. These values can be recorded as automation. The step sequencer buttons along the bottom are where most of the shift options reside, but not on every step. One YouTube video wondered whether there are still hidden functions on the unused buttons. I won’t hold my breath, so if that’s the case it will be a nice surprise in the fullness of time.

The screen is bright and clear but provides limited information for my tastes. Long lines of text do not scroll and I am left to guess what remains hidden beyond the right side of the screen.

It is a simple matter to hook up a piano-style keyboard via USB-A to play notes, but the pads work very well on their own. They are velocity-sensitive and provide polyphonic aftertouch, which is a nice extra feature.

The speakers are on the bottom of the front edge and then two extra ports on the bottom of the instrument. If you use it on your lap, the speakers are quiet but if you put it on a lap desk, the sound bounces up more clearly and is easier to hear. This instrument will not blast music out into the room, but will give a good idea of how things sound without headphones. You may still prefer headphones or earbuds for a more submersive experience, however.

I don't see myself using this device as a controller for Ableton Live, but instead just as the song sketchbook I was hoping it would be.

Update 2 - Pad Practice

I am a slave to the piano roll, it seems. Any other device control paradigm is a struggle. This is an issue that can be chalked up to operator error for not working as smoothly as I would like and will require practice.

There are two keypad layout options available: "in-key" or "chromatic."

For the in-key layout you have the diatonic scale in each row, beginning on the 1 and ending on the 8, so one full octave of notes, inclusive. The next line up is the next octave up. Therefore, you have access to four diatonic octaves with each voice and there is still the ability to shift octaves up and down with a pair of arrow keys.

For the chromatic layout you get access to the entire range of semitones within a key. This layout also responds to the up/down octave buttons. The best way to visualize this grid layout of semitones is to imagine it as a guitar fretboard. In fact, if you set the key to E Major you will have the exact layout of the first eight frets of a guitar fretboard. When the grid is in chromatic mode, the root note has the color of the track and the notes of the scale are brightly lit and the non-diatonic notes are more dimly lit. It becomes a matter of learning new "claw" patterns if I want to play chords in the chromatic layout, but I believe it can be done.

Once I figured out these basics I spent a good chunk of time just having fun banging on the pads and coming up with long sequences of notes.

One of the best features is "MIDI Capture" in which the device "listens" to what you are playing and then dumps that data into your clip. It is able to discern tempo information or at least makes a calculated guess as to the implied tempo you are working at. This is a great option when it works as intended. It means you can just start banging away and after a few moments press the MIDI Capture button and have the basis of something to then edit further if you wish, along with a presumed tempo that you can keep or discard. This is an incredibly helpful boon when improvising. The one drawback to this process is that you may pick up your MIDI improv partway through a bar, thinking it's the start of the phrase, only to be disappointed that it is not so. I understand there is a procedure for trimming the captured MIDI data but I haven't figured it out, yet. However, you can be more intentional than this and simply use the "record" function which gives a four-click pre-roll and then you can record MIDI to your heart's content, knowing that you are starting on the one. Additionally, the device offers access to note repeats and arppeggios and I played around with those settings, as well.

Update 3 - Step Sequencer

As I mentioned, I'm really dependent on the piano roll in the DAW environment to help me keep track of what I'm working on. Just listening to notes does not give me all I need to know. So any problems with the step sequencer really are operator error and no fault of the device, itself.

You need to scroll to the desired bar in the clip, press and hold the desired step, and press the desired note. If you want to do a chord you have to press each individual note one at a time while still holding down the desired step button. But after selecting each note you need to turn the jog wheel to define how long the note will be held. I hope there is a way to change this setting but the default is sixteenth notes, and then tenths of a sixteenth note. I will need to dig deeper in the manual to see if it’s possible to change this default behavior.

When using a drum rack instrument, you can press the SHIFT button and the eighth step sequencer button to enter the pitched note mode. In this mode the second half of the keypad activates and gives you sixteen pitched notes derived from the kepad's sample. When the sixteen pitch opition is activated it follows the selection of in-key or chromatic pad layout. However, you are constrained to monophonic playback using this option. In this way, it is possible to re-purpose the drum rack as a sampler by using non-percussive elements. As a workaround to having only monophonic playback you can load up eight samples in the two lower rows and then duplicate this group in the two rows, above. In this way you can at least play two notes per chord to create a general harmonic outline from your chosen samples. But if you confine your selection to monophonic samples, using this re-purposed drum rack you can have access to sixty-four individual sounds and in thay way bypass the four track, or four sound, default of the device.

Update 4 - Melodic Sampler

I learned that if you use the melodic sampler you only get one sample per track but you can play it polyphonically, which differs from using the drum sampler hack. The trade-off is the ability to make chords versus having up to sixteen independent samples to choose from on a single track.

I'm finding it difficult to browse my sample library on this instrument. I created the library before the device arrived based on how I assumed it would work once loaded into memory. I may opt to go back and re-design it so that it suits the workflow of this device much better. This will mean restricting my selection to a single sample per instrument and naming it properly so the device displays a name that is more informative than simply “C4" with no clue or hint at what the sound is supposed to be.

I'm also having difficulty controlling samples, especially defining envelopes for them. There may be steps in the user manual that explain how to do this better but I haven't reached that point, yet. It is slow going. I have a lot of Mellotron and Fairlight CMI samples on the device and the control options at the top feel more limited than what I am used to when working at the computer inside a DAW.

If I were to pair this device with another, for instance the Dirtywave M8, I would most likely set up four non-percussive or non-bass tracks and use the M8 to drive the Move, and in that way have access to twelve audio tracks between these two devices for writing music. I haven't paired them together, yet, but this is the setup I imagine pursuing if I do so.

I've noticed that the bar length indicator does not persist in the display window. I really wish it did. Sometimes I'm working on a track and do not know exactly where I am in the clip. You can add unlimited bars, it seems. If there is an upper limit I have not yet found it. What this means is that you can sequence very long musical passages if you want to. It might even be possible to step sequence an entire song in one clip, if you could manage to keep everything straight. Also, each track can have an independent number of bars. In this way you can work on songs with multi-length clips and have some fun with that.

As I work with the instrument I’m getting ideas about songs I would like to try to replicate inside the Move. I don't know how successful I will be at creating cover songs with this and, for now at least, I'll keep it to myself which songs I might want to try.

Update 5 - Templates

The device isn't really set up to store project templates. But you can work around that by sacrificing set slots on the grid. Toward that end, I've created four sets that can work as templates and have stored them in the right-most column of the grid. From the main grid you can copy a set and paste it into an empty slot. My current collection of templates are as follows:

• Template 1 - Samples x 4
• Template 2 - Drift x 4
• Template 3 - Wavetable x 4
• Template 4 - Ambient

And then, with those templates defined, I've made a demo set from each one to see how they sound. The difference is enough to justify the work and the space they take up in the grid. But since you cannot copy projects onto the device, I am now limited to 24 empty set slots instead of 32. Once you delete a set from the Move you cannot bring it back in. At least, not at this juncture. This may be a feature they add in later firmware updates, but I am not going to expect that or hold that as a future possibility. Instead, I'm trying to view this device as it is, currently, and expect no feature upgrades at all.

Switching between sets is virtually instantaneous, it seems.

If someone were skilled, they could define multiple sets and then trigger them in successive chains and in this way perhaps work around the four-track limits of the device. You could define four tracks for the verse, four tracks for the chorus and then the bridge (or as many sections as you desire) and in each section define a different set of four instruments. Each section would then need to be triggered at precisely the correct moment to perform the song you've built. Theoretically, you could build a song with all 32 sets but then the device would only ever hold that one single song. There would be no more room for a second one, regardless of how much space was left on the memory card. And then if you transferred the song off of the Move you would never get it back, again.

That is why I don't really expect this to be a performance device, outside of free-flowing one-time jam sessions. If a set were accidentally deleted mid-performance then you would be sunk, having no way to retrieve it. If, instead, there was a storage space for sets that have not been modified by the full version of Live, then you would always be able find a copy of the deleted set in that folder and carry on with the performance after a brief, if embarrassing, glitch.

Update 6 - Conclusions

I think it was a stroke of genius that Move pre-loads all four tracks when you start a new set. In that way, there is no choice paralysis to impede the start of a new project. Knowing that you can swap out instruments at any time and retain the MIDI and (possibly?) automation data, the sound can act as a placeholder for something else you choose later on down the line. This means that once the device is turned on and initialized there are no constraints against diving in and making music. Absolutely brilliant.

I am very glad that I bought the Move, in spite of my difficulties with it in these first few weeks. I still have the bulk of the manual to work my way through and it will take a lot longer for me to wrap my head around it.

Like any instrument, it will take some time to master. Already I have seen videos of people making great music with the Move which go beyond mere sketches. I don't know if, someday, that will be me but it's a goal I can strive for and meanwhile enjoy the journey along that path.

It's possible that I may never make full-blown songs on it. And if that's all I get out of this device I will still be pleased to have purchased it.

I may end up just noodling around on the Move and only rarely transferring sets to Ableton to develop them further inside the DAW. I may just turn it on when I have free time and then delete the set when I'm done, simply for the joy of making music away from the computer. In this way I would approach it like playing around in a sketch pad, just for fun and relaxation.

In conclusion, I have spent many years looking for a portable music sketchpad that allows me to capture and develop ideas which I can then transfer to my primary DAW and continue working on them, should I wish to do so. That the Move integrates seamlessly with Ableton is just the icing on the cake, and makes me doubly-pleased to finally have a device that suits my needs.