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Iterator: MIDI Variation Generator for Ableton Live

ITERATOR

MIDI Variation Generator

$19
+ applicable taxes
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Iterator is an Ableton Live Extension that generates mutated variations of any MIDI clip. Right-click any clip on a MIDI track and Iterator applies randomised changes to pitch, velocity, length, timing offset, octave, note probability, and note activation, each controlled independently, to produce a set of related but distinct clips in one pass. How many variations, how they relate to each other, where they land, and which notes are even eligible for a given mutation are all configurable before you click generate.



CONTROLLED EVOLUTION

  • Generates up to 64 variations of a source MIDI clip in one operation, each named with a version suffix (v1, v2, v3...) so the source is always identifiable and never touched
  • Randomises Pitch, Velocity, Length, Offset, Octave, Probability, and Activation, with every parameter operating independently of the others
  • Sets a Min/Max range per parameter that a mutation value is drawn from uniformly at random when it fires
  • Sets a Chance per parameter controlling the probability that an eligible note receives that mutation at all
  • Restricts eligibility with Count (every-Nth note) and Offset (which subset), with an Invert toggle to flip the selection per parameter
  • Links notes sharing a beat position so chords and stacked notes get a single shared mutation roll instead of diverging note by note
  • Switches between Mutate mode, where every variation branches independently from the source, and Evolve mode, where each variation derives from the one before it, drifting progressively further with each step

The same five sub-controls (Min, Max, Chance, Count, Offset, plus Invert) appear on every parameter, which means once you understand how Pitch behaves, Velocity and Length work identically, just acting on a different note property. The one deliberate exception is Activation: since muting a note is a binary toggle with nothing to randomise a range over, its Min and Max fields are simply absent. Consistency where it helps, and a parameter dropped entirely where it wouldn't mean anything.

Mutate and Evolve exist as separate modes rather than one blended behavior because they answer genuinely different musical questions. Mutate gives you a set of siblings, all roughly the same distance from the source, useful when you want several takes to choose from. Evolve gives you a lineage, where v16 can be meaningfully more transformed than v2 even with identical parameter settings, because each step compounds on the last. Building Evolve as a chain rather than scaling the mutation range over iterations was the more honest way to represent gradual drift, since a chain can wander in any direction over time, while a scaled range only ever gets more extreme in one predetermined direction.


GLOBAL CONTROLS

  • Pushes a single Intensity value across all seven parameters' Chance settings simultaneously, without altering each parameter's own setting underneath it
  • Pushes uniform Chance, Count, or Offset values to every parameter at once from the global row, as a fast starting point before fine-tuning individually
  • Sets the rhythmic grid for the Offset parameter's timing displacement with a global Interval control, from 1/2 down to 1/64 in straight, dotted, and triplet variants
  • Shows a real-time visualiser strip where each stripe represents a beat position in the source clip, with brightness and color encoding which parameters are active and which notes are eligible under the current Count settings
Tool Tip Annotated
Learn all you need to know directly in Live - just click the [?] icon in the Extension and hover your mouse over any parameter.
Scale Aware
Natively integrated with Live 12's scale and key for seamless workflow.
Already comes included in:
Extensions Bundle 001 · Ultra Bundle

Requires:
Ableton Live Suite 12.4.5 or above.
Not available in Live Standard, Intro, or Lite.

EXTENSION
Melodic · Rhythmic · Transformation · Generator