Tutorial 02: The Basics

This tutorial shows you how to add FlowfalMaster to a track, and then add FlowfalMap, such that you can map movements from your device to the cut-off frequency in a sampler.

Open The Tutorial

Expand the Flowfal Tutorials folder that will be visible when you select Flowfal from the Places list on the left hand side.

Open the 02_The_Basics.als Ableton Set and a set with a single track will appear.

Start the track running

Press the Play button top centre to start the track running. You will hear a simple arpeggiated loop playing.

Press the Stop button top centre to stop this loop for now.

Add The FlowfalMaster Plugin

In the same places you found the 02_The_Basics.als file, scroll down the Flowfal folder till all the Flowfal plugins are visible. Find the FlowfalMaster plugin and drag this into the devices area for track one, to the right of the Sampler that is already there loaded with the Reverberant sound.

FlowfalMaster controls the connection to one or more devices running the Flowfal App that are going to provide the movement data. The FlowfalMaster plugin needs to be added somewhere in any Ableton Live set that wants to use Flowfal - but don't add it more that once as that will confuse the system.

For now, we will just leave the FlowfalMaster settings at the default. This provides a set of four channels names One, Two, Three and Four.

Add FlowfalMap Plugin

From the same place you found FlowfalMaster, find the FlowfalMap plugin and drag that into the track 1 device area between the Sampler and the FlowfalMaster plugin you just added.

FlowfalMap will allow us to map movement from a phone or watch to any mappable Live parameter.

Firstly, set the Channel on FlowfalMap to be 1 - this means that when you select the channel named One on your phone or watch then movement data will be sent to this plugin (and any other plugin set to Channel 1).

Secondly, select the Attitude option from the drop-down list on the left-had side of FlowfalMap. This tells the plugin that we want to react to the attitude of the input device: the roll, pitch or yaw position of the device.

The drop down list at the top of FlowfalMap will have Roll selected by default. This tells the FlowfalMap plugin to use roll data from the device to control the output.

Start a Flowfal Client

Start the Flowfal app on your Apple or Android phone and it should find the FlowfalMaster running inside this set and connect to it.

Once connected, the Flowfal App will display a choice of One, Two, Three and Four as the channels you can select. The number and names of these channels are set inside the FlowfalMaster plugin.

For this tutorial we are only going to use the One channel, so select One on your phone or watch.

The blue indicator next to Channel 1 on FlowfalMap will now start flashing. This shows movement data is being received by the plugin.

Roll the device 45 degrees clockwise and then back to 45 degrees anti-clockwise from where you started. If you look at the scope display at the bottom of the FlowfalMap plugin you will notice it moves to from the top to the bottom of the range as you rotate the device.

Mapping A Parameter

We are now going to map the roll input to the cut-off frequency of the Sampler.

On the FlowfalMap plugin press the top Map button. The Map button will start flashing. Now find the Frequency control on the Sampler to the left of the FlowfalMap plugin and click on that. The Frequency control on the sampler will grey out to show it is being controlled by a mapped input. The Map button in FlowfalMap will change to Filter Freq.

You can use this process to map the output of FlowfalMap to any mappable element in Live. If you want to remove a mapped parameter, press the associated cross button.

Press the Play button top centre to start the track running again.

Roll the device 45 degrees clockwise and then back to 45 degrees anti-clockwise from where you started, and you will hear the cut-off frequency of the Sampler being changed and be able to see the Frequency knob moving as you roll the device back and forth.

Adjusting The Range

The range of the output is not quite right. When at the minimum, the filter cuts off completely, and some of the maximum range has little effect. So we will alter the Min and Max outputs of the mapping signal to allow for this.

On the FlowfalMap plugin alter the Min and Max values next to the mapped button so they are about 25% and 85% respectively.

Roll the device again and you will hear the cut-off frequency range is now much more usable.

Using Pitch

We can change the kind of movement that controls the cut-off frequency very easily.

On the FlowfalMap plugin click on the drop down list that says Roll and change it to Pitch.

Now to control the frequency you tip your phone or watch up or down.

Using Acceleration and Rotation

We don't have to just use the static position of the device to control the mapped parameter - we can use dynamic movements as well.

Select the Accel/Rot option from the drop-down list on the left-had side of the plugin to switch to using Acceleration and Rotation as inputs. By default the drop-down list at the top says Accel+Rot. This selects a combined signal made up of the magnitude of Acceleration and Rotation of the device in any direction.

Now any kind of movement will change the Frequency signal. Long flowing movements will keep the Frequency control high for as long as you keep the movement going. Short movements will create short rises and falls in the Frequency control.