MDD SnAkE: A Shape-Driven MIDI Sequencer Worth Learning

September 20, 2026 · max4.live editorial

MDD SnAkE by maximedangles is a MIDI sequencer that sits on a MIDI track ahead of an instrument and generates note data for it. What separates it from the pile of step sequencers in the MIDI Effect category is the way its pattern sources are organised: several independent sequencers (notes, gates and more) plus a set of "Snake Shapes" chosen from a dial, with quantisation, swing and root control layered on top.

It arrived in June 2018 and reached version 3.2.3 in November 2020. That version runs on Live 10.1.25 with Max 8.1.3, which is the practical floor for using it. It carries an Attribution-NonCommercial license.

What the controls actually give you

The feature set is best read through the changelog, because version 3 reorganised most of the surface:

• Shapes as a dial. Earlier versions used a menu; it is now a dial, which means you can sweep through shapes instead of picking from a list. Shapes are MIDI mappable, so a knob or a fader on your controller can move through them during a take.
• Quantisation with Push scales plus a user scale. You can keep the output inside a scale that matches what Push is showing you, or define your own set.
• Root from incoming MIDI. Notes C4 to B4 set the root. This is the single most useful routing detail in the whole device — see below.
• Swing, placed at the top of the gates view.
• Randomisation triggers. Sending C2 randomises all sequencers; sending D2 randomises the notes sequencer only.
• Push ready, with a note display that version 3 reworked, plus two custom parameters added in 3.2.2.

Version 3.2.2 also fixed a crash that occurred when multiple instances of SnAkE were used in user mode, which is worth knowing if you tried the device before late 2020 and shelved it after an unexplained Live crash.

Scenario one: a bassline that follows your chords

Put SnAkE on a MIDI track in front of a mono synth. Set the quantisation to the scale of the track. Now record a MIDI clip on that same track containing only long notes in the C4–B4 octave — one per section of the arrangement.

Those notes do not play the synth; they set SnAkE's root. The sequencer keeps running its own pattern, and the whole thing transposes when the clip moves to a new root note. You have a bassline that follows the harmonic map you drew in the clip, without having to re-enter the pattern for each chord.

This is also how you make SnAkE work inside a Session-view set: one clip per chord change, duplicated across scenes, with the pattern itself left untouched. Launch a different scene, get the same rhythm on a different root.

Scenario two: chance as a lane in the clip

The C2 and D2 triggers turn randomisation into something you can sequence rather than something you have to reach for. Two ways to use them:

1. Full reroll on C2. Drop a single C2 note at the start of every eighth bar in the clip feeding SnAkE. Every eight bars the device throws out a new pattern across all sequencers. Record the output to a new MIDI track, keep the two or three passes that work, delete the rest. It is a fast way to fill a folder with usable material before you commit to anything.
2. Pitch-only reroll on D2. This is the more musical of the two. The gates and swing stay where you set them, so the groove is stable, and only the note sequencer changes. Use it on a percussion-pitched or arpeggio part where the rhythm is the identity and the melody is decoration.

Because these are ordinary MIDI notes, you can also fire them from a pad on a controller, or from another track routed into this one, which gives you a reroll button on stage without mapping anything.

Scenario three: live, on Push, with the shapes on a knob

Version 3 is explicitly Push-ready and its quantisation includes Push scales. That combination makes it a performance device rather than a studio-only generator. Set the scale, map the Shapes dial to a physical encoder, and treat shape sweeps as the main gesture of the part — the way you would treat a filter cutoff on a lead.

Add swing from the gates view to push the part off the grid against the drums, and keep a C2 pad within reach for a hard reset of the material between sections. Two or three instances on different tracks, all locked to the same scale, will stay musically compatible while running unrelated patterns. The multi-instance crash fix in 3.2.2 matters here.

Where it sits next to the other big sequencers

The MIDI Effect category has several sequencers with comparable reach, and they solve different problems.

POLYRHYTHMUS by bennniii is the Euclidean option, with 99,404 downloads and 101 comments. If what you want is interlocking pulse distributions across several rhythmic lanes, that is the tool, and there is a longer look at it in this deep dive. Its last update was 2017 on Live 9.1.2 and Max 6.1.7. SnAkE is the newer build and the one with Push integration.

Advanced Step Sequencer by Rozzer takes a different approach entirely: a live.grid sequencer with notes, gate, tie, velocity and two control-change lanes, and — the important part — independent loop points per lane. If you want the velocity lane to run a different length than the pitch lane, that is the device, not SnAkE. It also has the most recent update of the group, April 2025, on Live 10.0.5 and Max 8.0.0.

ML-185 Stage Controlled Sequencer by 3st is the analogue-style stage sequencer: 8 stages, three layers for pitch, velocity and an aux lane sending Pitch Bend or CC, four play modes per stage and stage lengths from 1 to 8 clock pulses. It dates from 2009 and targets Live 8.1, which is old enough that you should test before building a set around it — but the stage model is genuinely different from a step grid and still has 94,904 downloads behind it. It is also the only one of the four under a plain Attribution license.

The odd entry in the same popularity band is Grain.Freeze by monolake, a granular audio freezer at 68,843 downloads. Not a sequencer at all, but a sensible thing to have on the return when a SnAkE part is playing — there is more on its author in the monolake spotlight.

What the numbers say

96,676 downloads and a 5/5 rating put SnAkE in the top tier of free MIDI devices, and 65 comments suggest an audience that stayed engaged past the first download. The more telling number is the version history: a 2018 release that was still receiving fine-tuning and bug fixes in late 2020, with a documented crash fix and MIDI-mappable parameters added in response to use. That is the profile of a device people actually put in sets, not one that gets tried once.

The last update being November 2020 is worth noting honestly. It is not abandoned-old in the way a Live 8.1 device is, but it has not been touched for newer Live versions either.

Who should skip it

• Anyone below Live 10.1.25 / Max 8.1.3. Version 3.2.3 targets those and you will not get the Push work, the new quantisation or the multi-instance fix on older systems.
• Producers who need per-lane loop lengths. That specific trick belongs to Advanced Step Sequencer.
• Euclidean-first thinkers. If you describe rhythms as "5 in 16", start with POLYRHYTHMUS instead.
• Anyone redistributing devices commercially. The Attribution-NonCommercial license limits what you can do with the device itself in a paid pack or template.
• People who want to draw every note by hand. SnAkE's value is in shapes, quantisation and randomisation triggers. If you never want the machine to propose anything, a plain grid sequencer will frustrate you less.

For everyone else, it is a safe first pick: the download count, the perfect rating and the fixed multi-instance bug all point the same direction. Start with one instance in front of a mono synth, one clip of C4–B4 roots, and a D2 every four bars.