- Type
- MIDI Generator
- Author
- im9
- Version
- 1.0
- License
- None
- Live version
- 12.3.8
- Max version
- 8.6.2
- Downloads
- 83
- Updated
- 2026-05-10
Oedipa is a MIDI Generator for Ableton Live by im9, distributed as freeware, with no license specified by the author. It targets Live 12.3.8 and Max 8.6.2. On maxforlive.com it has 83 downloads. First published 2026-05-01, last updated 2026-05-10. 6 user comments below.
New to Max for Live? Read what MIDI Generators do, how device licenses work, how to install a device.
Description
⚠️ The download link below is currently broken (server-side issue). Please grab the latest release from GitHub: https://github.com/im9/oedipa/releases
Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgzQ71y7ijE
Oedipa is a MIDI effect that walks a Tonnetz — the 2D triangular lattice of triads connected by neo-Riemannian transforms (P / L / R) — and emits the chords it finds. Instead of writing a chord progression, you write a short cyclic program of P / L / R / hold / rest operations and let the walker turn it into harmony.
What you control:
- Start chord — click a triangle on the lattice or play notes into the device.
- Cell program — a short cyclic array of 1–8 cells. Each cell carries an op plus per-cell velocity, gate, probability, and timing. The default [P, L, R, hold] walks C → Cm → A♭ → Fm → F → Am → C over 8 cells — chromatic mediants and mode mixture, the territory NR transforms make easy.
- Jitter + seed — per-step probability of replacing the cell's op with a uniform-random one. Reproducible from the seed. 0 = strict program; 1 = random walk on the lattice.
- Rate — cell length in 16th-note steps (1–64; default 4 = 1 quarter note). Small values = arpeggio territory; larger values = long-form pad / drift.
- Voicing — close / spread / drop2, with optional 7th extension.
- Rhythm + motion — rhythm preset (legato / onbeat / offbeat / syncopated / all / turing), arp mode, step direction (forward / reverse / pingpong / random), and a Turing-machine random source for live-steered variation.
Deterministic. For a fixed configuration the walk is reproducible — scrubbing the transport or restarting playback produces the same MIDI bit-for-bit. Every cell field is independently host-automatable; the program is meant to be steered live rather than re-edited.
Steering philosophy inspired by Ornament & Crime's Automatonnetz — a small repeating program steered live, rather than a long-form sequence. Mechanics differ (4 cells of P/L/R/hold/rest with per-cell expression, vs. a 5×5 chord grid); the design intent is shared.
Requires: Live 12, Max 8.6+ (Max for Live).
Free under MIT. Source and latest release: https://github.com/im9/oedipa/releases/tag/m4l-v0.1.1
Comments (6)
Quick note on downloads — the maxforlive admin's suggestion for the 0-byte upload issue was to "host it elsewhere, such as Gumroad, and link it from maxforlive.com," so the GitHub release is the canonical download going forward:
https://github.com/im9/oedipa/releases/tag/v0.1.0