dric: 58 Devices, 107,000 Downloads, Built to Move Things
Fifty-eight devices and 107,441 downloads is a lot of catalogue to walk into cold. The useful thing about dric's output is that it splits cleanly in two: a run of control and loop utilities built around 2010–2012 for Live 8 and Max 5, and a second burst in 2016 for Live 9.7 and Max 7 that is mostly synths and sequencers. Different tools, same instinct. Almost everything here exists to put something in motion — a parameter, a step, a grain, a buffer — and then give you a grid of controls to shape how it moves.
The one device most people download first
Stepper accounts for roughly a fifth of dric's total downloads on its own: 19,591, rated 5/5, with 16 comments on its page. It is a MIDI effect, but its job is modulation. Stepper is described as a cross between a step sequencer and an LFO, aimed at automating any parameter in Live. You set up to 16 steps, and each step can carry a different waveform. Speed per step, number of steps, depth and offset are all adjustable, and you can run it looped or as a one-shot.
That per-step waveform choice is the part worth understanding. A normal LFO gives you one shape and a rate. Stepper lets you write a shape sequence — a ramp here, a hold there, a sine on the fourth step — so the modulation has phrasing rather than a single period. Map it to a filter cutoff and it reads as a written part instead of a wobble. Set it to one-shot and it becomes an envelope you drew by hand, triggerable where you want it.
It sits at version 1.1, added and updated in October 2016, against Live 9.7 and Max 7.3.1. If you only ever install one device from this catalogue, this is the safe pick: the rating is perfect, the download count is the highest here by a wide margin, and the problem it solves — modulation that isn't a plain LFO — comes up in almost every session.
The control layer: filters, macros, and mapping
The earlier devices are unglamorous and that is the point. MiDi FiLTER is exactly what the name says — a simple MIDI filter, at 3,928 downloads and 5/5. Its version history is a good snapshot of how dric works: 1.2 fixed a note-off bug, 1.3 added a program change filter button. Small, specific, requested.
Big MiDi Control folds four of those jobs into one patch: a classic MIDI filter, MIDI control with automatable mute, program change with presets, and a cut-note filter for Drum Racks. That last one is the kind of utility you don't think about until a drum rack is choking on overlapping notes. Note the documented quirk — button labels save with presets, not with the set — so build your presets deliberately.
16 Macros solves the mapping-sprawl problem. Push the small white button, a floating window appears, hit map, click a parameter in Live. Repeat sixteen times. Parameter names load automatically, and a second small button opens a colour picker for each control. For live sets where you want one strip of knobs covering devices spread across several tracks, this is the shortest route to it. 2,117 downloads, 5/5.
3LFO to Midi Cc is the hardware-facing cousin of Stepper: three synced LFOs in series with a chopper, usable as 1, 1+2 or 1+2+3 to build composite shapes. A scale box multiplies the time for longer sweeps, and four reset buttons force the waveforms to restart from zero. If you're modulating an external synth over CC rather than a device parameter in Live, start here.
Sequencers that aren't piano rolls
Zeuclid packs four Euclidean step sequencers into one MIDI effect. Each gets its own size, step count, speed, note out and duration, and the grid displays velocity — default 127, but you can draw custom values or write a full sequence in. Four independent Euclidean voices from one device is enough to build a whole percussion part without touching a clip, and because the note-out is per-sequencer, it maps straight onto a Drum Rack. Be aware of the documented behaviour: changing size or step count affects the custom velocity values, so set your structure before you draw dynamics.
If generative MIDI is the hook for you, Zeuclid pairs well with the kind of workflow covered in the maximedangles spotlight — several independent generators feeding one rack.
TB takes a different approach and builds the sequencer into the instrument. It's a bassline synth with a saw/square oscillator, a sub square one or two octaves down, a 24 dB filter, a filter envelope and a sine LFO on the filter. On top sit four sequencers of up to 16 steps — notes, velocity, and two more — each with independent size and direction. That independence is what makes it interesting: run a 16-step note sequence against a 7-step velocity sequence going backwards and the pattern takes a long time to repeat.
Three synths, three different jobs
Kipercute is a kick synthesizer with a two-oscillator core — a master with a settable base pitch and a slave you detune in semitones — plus a third oscillator for FM with ratio and index controls. The FM envelope works as polar modulation of the index in percentage, which means the modulation amount swings in both directions rather than just decaying. If you're comparing options for synthesized kicks, it's worth reading alongside the AnalogKick deep dive; the two take noticeably different routes to FM.
FM-OP is a four-operator FM synth where only operator 1 reaches the output and the other three exist purely to modulate. Each operator has modulation-in and modulation-out depth. The version history is candid: a freezing function broke in the first release, a user flagged it, and the fix came with improvements attached.
RiceBox is the granular one. Drop a sample, select a region, set parameters. dric's own documentation leans on Live's clue windows — hover over a control and the explanation appears in the status bar — so keep an eye on the bottom of the screen while you learn it. Version 1.1 extended the range of the trigger time parameter in milliseconds, which is the control that decides whether you get texture or stutter.
Loopers and buffers
MicroLoops is the oldest device here with serious traction: 11,065 downloads, 5/5, added October 2010. It's a micro-loop effect with a sequencer and presets, designed around a controller — learn the loop buttons to pads and you can hold several at once. The behaviour to internalise is that releasing any one button stops all the micro-loops, which makes it a performance instrument rather than a set-and-forget effect. Reverse applies to the micro-loops only, not the underlying playback.
BeatLooper covers similar ground — dric describes it as working roughly like Buffer Shuffler — but adds snapshots and is built with automation in mind. It's the only device in this group under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence; everything else listed here is plain Attribution.
Where to start, and what to check
A sensible first session:
- Stepper on a track with a filter or a send level mapped. Draw different waveforms across four steps before you touch anything else — that one move explains the whole device.
- Zeuclid in front of a Drum Rack, four sequencers on four different pads, different step counts on each.
- Kipercute for the kick in that rack, with the FM index envelope pushed hard, then backed off.
- 16 Macros last, to collect the parameters you ended up reaching for.
One practical note on the back catalogue. The 2010–2012 devices — MicroLoops, MiDi FiLTER, Big MiDi Control, 3LFO to Midi Cc, BeatLooper, 16 Macros — list Live 8.x or 8.3 and Max 5.1.8 or Max 6 as their build targets, with their last updates in 2012. The 2016 group targets Live 9.6–9.7 and Max 7.2–7.3. If you're on a recent Live, test the older ones in a scratch set before you build a performance around them.
What ties it all together is a preference for visible, drawable control over hidden intelligence. Stepper shows you every step's waveform. Zeuclid shows velocity as a grid you can paint. TB gives you four sequencer lanes with independent direction. 16 Macros puts names and colours on your mappings. Nothing here decides for you; it just gives you more places to put a decision. For more MIDI-side authors working in that same territory, the bennniii spotlight is a good next stop.