maximedangles: 15 Devices Built for Generative MIDI
Fifteen devices, 121,068 downloads, and one very clear obsession: getting notes out of Live that you didn't type in yourself. Almost everything maximedangles has published under the MDD prefix is a note generator of some kind — sequencers, arpeggiators, probability engines, step machines with curves instead of grids. The audio-side devices are the exception, not the rule.
What ties the catalogue together isn't a sound. It's a working method. These devices ask you to set up a system, then watch it play, then nudge it. You don't program a melody; you shape the conditions that produce one. That's a different relationship to a MIDI clip, and if it suits how you work it tends to suit you for years.
The one device that carries the catalogue
MDD SnAkE accounts for roughly 80% of the author's total downloads — 96,676 of them, at a 5/5 rating across 65 comments. It's a MIDI effect that drives note generation from shapes rather than from a step grid, and it has been maintained for years: added in June 2018, still being updated in November 2020 at version 3.2.3.
The changelog tells you what kind of developer this is. Version 3.2 brought Push compatibility and new quantisation using Push scales. 3.2.2 added MIDI root control from C4 to B4, two custom parameters, MIDI-mappable Snake shapes, and a fix for a crash that occurred when multiple instances ran in user mode. That last one matters: someone found a real bug in a real session, reported it, and it got fixed. Devices with 65 comments and a 5/5 average usually got there this way.
If you want the long-form breakdown of how the shapes actually behave, there's a dedicated deep dive on SnAkE. For the purposes of this spotlight: it's the safest first install in the whole catalogue, and the rest of the work makes more sense once you've used it.
There's now a companion, too. MDD SnAkE Midi Generator rebuilds the concept for Live 12's MIDI generator feature, producing endless MIDI directly inside a clip rather than in the device chain. It requires Live 12 — the original is unaffected if you're still on 10 or 11. The distinction is worth understanding before you download: the generator version writes notes into the clip, so you get editable material you can commit to; the classic version generates in real time and stays live.
Sequencers that aren't grids
Three devices in the catalogue attack the step sequencer from different angles, and none of them look like a standard 16-button row.
MDD MAUG is the most unusual. It's a drum sequencer driven by LFO speed, where every parameter is controlled by breakpoint lines rather than steps. There are 12 of them: trigger speed, quantised trig, sequencer, pitch, velocity, and eight mappable parameters. Each has its own speed and step count, which is where the interesting drift comes from — set them to different lengths and the pattern takes a long time to repeat. Version 1.2 added copy/paste, an external window for full-size editing, and snapped grid steps. Start it on a drum rack, map two of the eight spare parameters to filter cutoff and a send, and let the line editors do work that automation lanes would make tedious.
MDD MARIONNETTE is described openly as a MIDI answer to the Monome White Whale eurorack module, with the author's own modifications. Sixteen steps, sixteen possible notes per step, and a selection of different notes available on each step. That's the key detail: a step isn't one note, it's a pool. Use it when you want a melodic line that stays inside a defined set but never commits to the same order twice. It's still being maintained — updated March 2023, version 1.3.
MDD Pr8ba is the simplest of the three: eight steps built around probability and repeats. The author's own pitch is that it's easy to understand and use, which is not nothing in a catalogue full of devices with a learning curve. Put it before a percussion rack and use the repeat function for rolls you'd otherwise have to draw by hand.
Two arpeggiators, fifteen years apart in design
MDD ARPOoO2 is explicitly modelled on the arpeggiator behaviour of the Roland Jupiter 6 and the SH-101 sequencer. This is V2, with a rebuilt GUI, minor improvements and built-in help text. It takes notes from any MIDI input and uses a trigger concept the author compares to a rimshot pattern — meaning the rhythm of the arp is something you feed it, not something you pick from a dropdown. 7,091 downloads and a 5/5 rating from a device that's been stable since June 2018.
LF-ARP is the newest thing in the catalogue, added November 2025 for Live 12 and Max 8.6.2. It's an arpeggiator whose melodic variation comes from an LFO applied directly to incoming MIDI notes, and the LFO is draw-your-own — you have full control over its shape. That's the same instinct as SnAkE (shape drives notes) and the same instinct as MAUG (breakpoints drive everything), applied to arpeggiation. Seven years of work and the core idea hasn't moved.
The odd ones: sample instruments, multichannel, CV bridging
MDD GDM — the Granular Drone Machine — is described by the author as their first Max for Live instrument, now in V2 and polyphonic with six voices. It's built on Nathan Wolek's nw.grainpulse~ and nw.gverb~ externals. The workflow is deliberately blunt: load a folder full of samples and play. It's the most recently updated device in the catalogue (December 2023, version 22.3) and runs on Live 11.3.13.
MDD RE LOOP takes the same folder-based approach to loops rather than drones. Point it at a folder of old loops and it builds structured but complex arrangements from them. Version 1.4 added an "off" state for the step sequencer so you can insert a pause; 1.3 added a sample sequencer for mixing different sources and a GUI that scales to any screen. If you have a hard drive of loops you never revisit, this is the device that makes them useful again.
MDD OCTOMORPH is eight knobs you map to anything in Live, sixteen presets of those eight parameters, and a sequencer that steps through the presets. It's a morphing macro bank with a clock attached — genuinely useful on a return chain or across a rack you've already built.
MDD DIAL TO MIDI is small and specific: map any CV Tools device (or anything else with a map function) to its dial and it converts the incoming value into quantised MIDI notes. You can also write automation into the dial directly. Sixteen quantisation presets save with your Live set. If you're running modular gear into Live and want pitch information out the other side, this is the bridge.
MDD Multichannel Tools is five patches for taking stereo material into multichannel systems, anywhere from stereo up to 32 channels, switchable in a few clicks. The author is clear that this isn't the conventional "source and real space" approach but a creative one. Niche, but if you're doing installation or surround work it's a rare thing to find.
Where to start
A sensible order for someone who's never installed an MDD device:
- MDD SnAkE first, always. Ninety-six thousand downloads and a perfect rating across 65 comments is as strong a signal as this catalogue produces. Put it on an empty MIDI track with a simple synth and spend twenty minutes on shapes and quantisation before touching anything else.
- MDD MAUG second, on drums. It's where the breakpoint-line philosophy pays off fastest, because percussion tolerates more chaos than melody does.
- MDD Pr8ba if MAUG feels like too much at once. Same family of results, far fewer decisions.
- MDD GDM if you want sound rather than notes — it's the one instrument here with a decade of iteration behind it.
A practical note on versions: several of these devices were built against Live 10 and Max 7.3.5 and haven't been recompiled since, while LF-ARP and the SnAkE MIDI Generator target Live 12. Check the requirement listed on each device page before you commit a session to one.
If author-level exploration is your thing, the skinnerbox spotlight covers a developer working the hardware-and-chance side of the same territory. Otherwise, the top-rated list is a reasonable place to see how SnAkE sits against its peers.