Follow actions are an essential tool to have a handle on. Whether or not you use them during a live set is somewhat irrelevant. They are an awesome way to spark creativity with random combinations of firing clips, and can also be helpful in creating a consistent song form, even if the form is spread out among multiple clips.
but first a story…
Not too long ago I was hired to create audio tracks for an ear training course. Most of it was honestly pretty straightforward. Record some intervals, label them and bounce them out. It was a quite robust project, however, and since the sheer amount of recordings that needed to be created were so many, It was a long and tedious job.
Follow actions really came to save me on this project. One of the audio tracks I needed to create was a 4 minutes long repetition track. And when I say, “One” what I really mean is one track for every interval, chord, and direction.
So…
Quite a few recordings.
The only instructions I had was that they should be in a very random order so that the listener could really get a good handle on the intervals/chords/etc in different keys.
I started by doing this manually, which was quite labor intensive as you might imagine.
Until it dawned on me that Ableton was basically built for generating this type of material.
I loaded individual clips of intervals into session view and set them all to the “Other” follow action. Then, by firing one clip, I could sit back and record the randomly firing clips to my arrangement view timeline. It felt like I had discovered a pot of gold.
Not your typical use certainly, but it certainly came in handy for me.
How Do Follow Actions Work?
Follow actions are instructions for what the clip should do after it finishes a number of bars, beats, and 16ths that you set.
Follow actions are set on a clip by clip, or group by group basis.
Follow actions 0nly effect clips that are vertically grouped together in session view. A follow action cannot jump an empty clip slot.
Each clip or group is allowed two different follow actions. The probability that one of the two actions will take place can be manually set by you.
What Follow Actions Are Available To Me?
No action
Stop -Clip stops playing
Play Again- Clip Starts again from the beginning
Previous – The clip vertically above the current playing clip will be fired
Next- The clip vertically below the currently playing clip will be fired
First – The first clip in that group of clips will be fired
Last – The last clip in that group if clips will be fired
Any- Any clip in the group may be fired, including the currently playing clip
Other- Any clip in the group may be fired, except for the currently playing clip
Now as I mentioned, each clip can have two different follow actions set, and you can manually set the likelihood that each will happen. This creates a ton of possibility.
Where To Find Follow Actions
Follow actions can be found in the launch tab below clip quantization.
How To Set Up My Follow Actions
Step one: Double click the first clip you want to effect.
Step Tw0: Set the duration that you want the current clip to play for before moving onto the next action.
It’s important to note here that the duration can be longer than the length of a looping clip. If for example, your clip is 4 bars long, you can set up a follow action to take place after 8 bars if you so desired.
Step 3: Chose your follow action from the drop-down menu. You can choose either one option or two. If you choose one, make sure you are choosing from the left drop-down menu.
Step 4 (Optional): If you opt to have two possibilities for follow actions, set the likely hood that each could happen by entering numbers in the boxes below each action.
Potential Uses For Follow Actions
Develop interesting drum fills
Choose short follow action length, and the follow action options, “Any”, or, “Other” and let them play.
Scroll Through The Form Of A Song
If you have a simple song that has two different progressions, you can scroll back and forth between the two by setting the desired follow action duration and choosing next for the first clip, and previous for the second clip.
If the form has multiple passages, you can set the duration and use the next action to slowly scroll down your set.
Discover Potential Layering Possibilities
Using two different tracks with follow actions, you can discover which parts of musical information may best be used together
Alright, now get out there and make something you’re proud of. You are already taking great steps towards making awesome music, and I’d love to be a continued support to you. The best was to connect with me directly is to head over to my Facebook group. There you will find me, and a whole community of Ableton learners that will be able to help you on your journey. It’s a great place to give and receive support.
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Until next time, happy creating.
-Brett