Which approach is right? Which is best? The answers are largely left for you to discover on your own. It is this broad set of capabilities-use it standalone, use it as a plug-in, use its Liquid Clips mode in Ableton Live-that makes the product a bit daunting at first for an Ableton user.
When using Liquid Clips, the underlying drum sounds are handled by Ableton Live whatever drum rack you may have loaded into a track-whether using Ableton library sounds, or perhaps your own-is what Liquid Rhythm is using and controlling, so its focus shifts to becoming a very sophisticated drum programming tool in this mode. Liquid Clips takes advantage of the Max for Live engine that’s now provided with most versions of Ableton Live 9. And for Ableton Live users, the company provides “Liquid Clips,” an innovative bridge that allows tighter Ableton integration than the plug-in route provides. It comes with its own library of sounds, arranged into kits, which can be customized as desired, including the ability to bring in samples you may already have in your library. In any event, Liquid Rhythm is essentially a drum machine-albeit a very unique and powerful one. While it works with any leading DAW, the product’s Ableton Live-specific capabilities were of particular interest to me as an Ableton user this review thus comes from that point-of-view. Used in this manner, you can think of it as a MIDI programmer in some respects, but while it has its standalone mode, most users are likely to drop it into their preferred DAW as a plug-in, which can be accomplished in VST, AU, or RTAS flavors.
#Liquid rhythm windows
The Basics: To set the stage, Liquid Rhythm is a standalone application-available for both Windows and Mac-that you can view as a sort of rhythm construction kit.
I’ve long thought there has to be some better way that’s not as restrictive as, say, using pre-made loops something that lets me use whatever drum samples or libraries I might want something that lets me tinker, but that provides for greater creative expression. It’s satisfying work, but occasionally a bit mind-numbing in a creative sense. I choose the desired sounds from the library, dropping them into the Drum Rack, and then I set about programming the rhythms by hand with MIDI, drawing them out manually, adjusting velocity and timing, and perhaps adding effects or other tweaks on a sound-by-sound basis. The array of options is a bit mind-boggling.Īs a longtime Ableton Live user, my usual workflow is using a Live Drum Rack, coupled with an off-the-shelf rhythm sample library. Some are pre-made, some are programmed, and among those programmed, the programming itself may be MIDI or something else. Samples you arrange yourself through whatever means. Loops of pre-constructed samples and arrangements.
Drum machines (whether physical or their virtual, digital counterparts). Of course, there are many schools of thought and many approaches to laying down rhythms. That city is Toronto, the little company is called WaveDNA, and that neat little piece of software? Well, that’s called Liquid Rhythm.Ī young company-just four years old-WaveDNA has decided to tackle one of the fundamental elements of any EDM music project: beat construction.
#Liquid rhythm software
So it was with the discovery of a neat little piece of software from a little company in the big city. One of the things I love most about reviewing music technology for these pages is stumbling across innovative ideas hanging out at the fringes, kicking the tires, and discovering something really cool in the process.
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