Irys | Max for Live Rhythm Designer
Irys is a Generative Rhythm Designer
with a flair for delightfully detailed rhythms.
Instead of programming rhythms note by note, rhythms in Irys are shaped in terms of desired musical behaviours, embellished and punctuated in response to Kick and Snare MIDI notes, in real-time.
Key Features
Irys is driven by 5 distinct types of generative rhythm modules. Instead of emulating genre-specific rhythms, modules are characterised by the kind of rhythmic behaviours they specialise in:
Pattern Mode
Produces human-like base rhythmic phrases using a specialised equation capable of producing natural, human-like rhythms with realistic velocity dynamics in any time signature.
Spring Mode
Produces elastic rhythms by applying various forms of motion to Pulse Speed in response to Kicks and Snares. Create hyper physical, time-bending rhythms that transcend the grid yet remain anchored to the underlying rhythmic context.
Flourishes
Introduce detailed embellishments in response to significant rhythmic events. Rhythmic intricacy is achieved by cascading probabiliy weighted clusters with varying pulse counts and subdivisions up to 1/128, with phrasing assistance for rhythmic coherence.
Accents and Rests
Create deliberate moments of tension and release with convincing musical phrasing. Accents are introduced at musically meaningful intervals in response to Kick, Snare, and Pattern pulses.
Across all modules, velocity values are automatically generated to emulate the feeling of human drumming without tedious micro-editing of each note. This produces stylish, realistic rhythms that are adaptable to a wide range of musical styles and rhythmic contexts, in real-time, in any time signature.
Every parameter in Irys is MIDI-mappable and up to 16 Snapshots can be saved.
Read the User Guide here for more detailed information
Note : Irys is a Max for Live MIDI Device, it does not generate sound on its own; it is meant to be inserted before a Drum Rack.
By default, Irys recognises notes C1 and C#1 as Kicks and Snares and generates 4 streams of MIDI notes that are routed to E1 | F1 | F#1 | G1 — ready to animate your sound palette.
Requirements :
Ableton Live 12 and above
Max 8.6 and above
Irys is compatible with both macOS and Windows.
Pricing & Updates
Irys is currently available at an introductory price of 28 USD with the intention of making it accessible for independent artists and music producers. The price will increase with V2, but all updates remain free for users who have purchased V1, as a gesture of gratitude for your early support.
Irys V1 is a stable, feature-complete release and will only receive essential maintenance updates where necessary.
New major features will be implemented in V2.
Your support not only gives you early access to Irys, but also allows me to deepen my research in real time music composition which will allow me to create more delightful and expressive tools that blur the line between creation and performance.
If you make something cool with Irys or have any questions or suggestions for improvements, feel free to reach out whenever, I'd love to hear from you!
Irys V1.amxd + User Guide