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With its latest free update, Ableton has finally turned Note into the app we all always wanted it to be.

With its Offline MIDI editing makes Ableton’s iPhone and iPad app more of a must-have iOS companion for Live users.

Ableton Note launched in late 2022 has always been an app with a lot of potential. Based around a similar workflow to Ableton Live’s clip-launching Session View, Note is designed as a simple platform for sketching musical ideas.

Its minimalist interface and limited selection of instruments and effects are a far cry from being a full DAW for your phone, but with staple Live devices under the hood and a simple app-to-Live workflow, Note arrived looking like it could be the perfect tool for Live users to capture ideas away from the studio.

The early version Of Note – the combination of synths and sampled instruments offers a broad sound selection, which can be expanded by importing your own sounds or sampling directly using your phone or iPad.

Crucially, Ableton offers several simple ways to quickly import ideas into Live, where they can be opened in fully editable form, meaning that those rough melodies or drum patterns you sketched out on the bus can really form the basis of a fully fledged tune.

Given that Apple has removed headphone ports from most of its devices, being unable to work with wireless headphones is a pretty significant hindrance for a tool designed to be used on-the-go.

Moreover, while playing parts in real time is all well and good, it’s not a workflow that suits Live users more used to inputting patterns via a step sequencer or ‘offline’ MIDI editing – i.e., using a mouse and keyboard.

With the release of version 1.3 this month, Ableton has rectified this. The major update, which is free for existing users, introduces offline MIDI input and editing, allowing users to create empty MIDI clips and then tap to input notes, drum patterns or chords. The editing functionality is really nicely implemented.

Holding a note input brings up a menu allowing it to be moved, transposed, quantised or to alter the velocity. Users can pinch to zoom in on the MIDI grid, or turn their device into portrait orientation in order to use the MIDI editor in full screen mode, which is particularly handy on iPhone.

The update also adds the 16 Pitches feature that Ableton introduced with its Note-adjacent hardware device, Move. This lets Drum Sampler instruments be sequenced melodically, allowing 16-pad drum instruments to sequence multiple melodic parts at once.

Ableton has also significantly improved the range of effects in the app.

Note 1.3 is available now on the Apple App Store priced at £8.99/$8.99 and it’s free for all Note users.

Head to the Ableton site for full details.

Erica Synths has announced the Hexinverter Mutant BD9, Hexinverter‘s modular take on the classic TR-909 kick.

A combination of voltage-controlled distortion and the iconic flavor of the TR-909, Hexinverter’s interpretation of this iconic Bass Drum in modular format gives it more power, grit and flexibility. The primary analog VCO offers classic 909-esque sinusoidal bass drums, but can also be switched to generate a square wave bass drum.

Erica Synths x Hexinverter Mutant BD9 demo:

Mutant BD9 Features:

• The primary analog VCO offers classic 909-esque sinusoidal bass drums, but can also be switched to generate a square wave bass drum
• The PITCH of the VCO spans several octaves, from about 30Hz to 240Hz, and can be modulated with voltage control
• A novel PITCH DECAY circuit allows you to adjust the duration and AMOUNT of the pitch-modulation envelope applied to the bassdrum, from short blips to exaggerated tom-like sweeps
• The AMPLITUDE DECAY allows adjustment of the length of the bass drum, from short punchy kicks to massive booms. This parameter is voltage-controlled with a snappy CV response time, allowing you to modulate the duration of your kicks per step.
• The CLICK generator is responsible for the attack intensity of the BD9. A fair amount of circuitry goes into creating this subtle punch at the beginning of the kick. The level of this effect is adjustable up to a fairly dramatic extremity.
• A square wave sub-oscillator derived from the primary oscillator’s pitch can be mixed in (manually and with voltage control) to the BD9. The effect can be subtle deepness or extreme timbre changes.
• The overall timbre of the BD9 varies with the DRIVE control from warm, analog bass drums at low settings to speaker-shattering overdriven sounds at high settings. Output levels are modular-level signals, unlike many classic line-level percussive devices.

Erica Synths x Hexinverter Mutant BD9 bass drum module is available now for €180 from the Erica Synths website.

With a redesigned interface and an upgraded core algorithm, Smooth Operator Pro promises to address common mix issues and improve balance and clarity.

Baby Audio’s Smooth Operator released in 2021, is a dynamic spectral balancing plugin that addresses problematic mixes through a combination of resonance suppression, EQ and spectral compression.

Now, four years later, Baby Audio has released a beefed-up sequel to that plugin: Smooth Operator Pro. Augmented with a variety of new features and an upgraded core algorithm, Smooth Operator Pro promises to tackle common mix issues such as unwanted resonance and frequency masking while enhancing overall clarity.

Unlike similar plugins that apply global processing to the entire signal, Smooth Operator Pro can now make targeted frequency-specific adjustments using individual frequency nodes that each have their own dynamic profile. Each node can be assigned its own optimized settings for parameters such as compression, focus and stereo imaging, so you’re able to precisely target multiple issues across your mix without using several instances of the plugin.

Smooth Operator Pro’s new and improved core algorithm now offers two individual correction algorithms, Even and Skew, its new stereo imaging functionality brings mid/side processing, and sidechaining is now possible too. The plugin’s user interface has also been fully redesigned, offering full control over all dynamic and imaging parameters.