MutationStation

I built MutationStation because I wasn't happy with the mutation tools in Live's piano roll, and because most sequencers won't let you lock some notes and mutate only the rest.

The lock works the way it does on an Elektron. Click a note to lock it and nothing touches it, while everything around it can still move. Each mutation device also works on its own, so you can re-roll only the accents, or only the octave jumps.

Auto-Lock picks the notes to lock for you. By default it looks at how often a note repeats, where it falls in the bar, its accent and its length. You can also have it rank by one thing only, like downbeats or long notes.

Or mark a range. Drag across part of the piano roll and only the notes inside it can change. Esc clears it.

Rolls are seeded, so a take you liked comes back exactly. You can also re-roll one panel at a time.

Pitch Mutation picks the new notes. Scale, root and range limit where they can land, and there are two ways to use it.

To write a new sequence, leave Adaptive off and pick an algorithm. Whole line ones write a full phrase at once, like a hook that turns at the end or a call and answer. Note by note ones re-pick single notes, from plain Random and Walk to Acid Trip and Offbeat Anchor. Amount sets how many notes change.

To vary a sequence you already have, switch Adaptive on, right under the Algo menu. Its algorithms read your notes first and change only a few, the same way in every bar, with things like passing notes and octave jumps. About four in five notes stay as you played them.

Phrase Length and End Bias. In house and techno a sequence often plays the same for a few bars, then does something different just before it comes round again. These two controls, under Scale, let MutationStation write sequences like that.

Phrase Length cuts the loop into phrases of 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars and sets which part of each one can change: all of it, the last bar or the last beat. Two bars with Last beat gives you a two-bar sequence with a new ending each time.

End Bias works on the odds instead. The last notes of each phrase get more likely to change and the rest less likely. Turn it up and the start of the sequence mostly stays put while the end keeps moving.

You can also vary only every 2nd or 4th phrase, or give one device its own length, like a melody that changes every 2 bars over accents that change every bar.

Octaves, Accents and Slides. Each gets its own amount, step pattern and lock, so you can keep your accents and re-roll just the slides. Connect Notes fills gaps with passing notes, in scale or chromatic.

↓ Rhythm Import takes the timing of the clip selected in Live and puts it in the roll as one line on the root note. Then mutate the pitches over it.

It works on audio clips too. MutationStation reads the sample from disk and finds the hits itself, and how hard each hit is becomes its velocity.

≈ Similar to Live sorts the Pattern list by how close each pattern is to the clip Live is showing.

My rhythms. Press + beside the Pattern menu to save the roll's rhythm with a name and a family. Chordinator and PhraseMaker list it too, so a groove you build here is there for your chords and melodies. − removes one.