PALETTE — User Manual
A 4-slot serial multi-effect for Ableton Move (Schwung), with a shared palette of 24 effects. Inspired by the Hologram Electronics Chroma Console — reorderable-module soul + DRIFT instability philosophy — but with more live flexibility, a genuinely stereo signal path, and four new originals the Chroma doesn’t have.
Status: v0.1.5, in testing. Shared for feedback before public release. The GLOBAL page (feedback + tempo sync) is the newest addition and still being validated on hardware. Tell me what to add or change — that’s exactly what this build is for.
1. The idea
The Chroma Console locks each of its four modules to one effect category, so you can’t run a delay and a reverb at once, can’t stack two drives, etc. PALETTE removes that constraint: four generic serial slots, each loading any of 24 effects (or Off). Want delay → reverb? Put a delay in one slot and a reverb in another. “Reorder” isn’t a special mode — it’s just which effect sits in which slot, switchable live.
IN → [Input Vol] → SLOT a → SLOT b → SLOT c → SLOT d → [Mix] → OUT (stereo, in FX-Reorder order)
↑___________ Global Feedback send ___________|
Each effect occupies at most one slot — selecting an effect another slot already holds skips past it. Every effect has three knobs: Amount · Macro · Drift.
- Amount — how much. At 0% the effect is essentially bypassed (loaded but inaudible), so you can keep four effects on standby and dial them in live.
- Macro — the secondary control; its meaning changes per effect (tone, rate, size, pitch…), exactly like the Chroma’s Tilt/Rate/Time.
- Drift — a per-effect instability macro. Tasteful at every position; never unusable.
2. Pages
PALETTE has five menu pages. The landing screen mirrors the PALETTE console knobs.
| Page | Knobs |
|---|---|
| PALETTE | FX1–4 Amount/Macro pairs — the Chroma-style 8-knob console |
| PRESETS&RND | Current Preset · Rnd Patch/Effect/Amount/Macro/Drift · Input Vol · Mix · (menu) FX Reorder |
| FX 1&2 | FX1 Select/Amount/Macro/Drift · FX2 Select/Amount/Macro/Drift |
| FX 3&4 | same for slots 3 & 4 |
| GLOBAL | Feedback · Tempo Src · Tempo · Time Division |
Amount and Macro are the same parameters shown on the PALETTE console and the FX pages. All knob moves and preset loads are 20 ms smoothed (no zipper), and switching an effect crossfades over 25 ms (click-free).
3. The 24 effects
Grouped only for organisation; any effect fits any slot. Each row lists Amount · Macro · Drift.
Character
| Effect | Amount · Macro · Drift | Notes | |——–|————————|——-| | Drive | drive · tone tilt · bias wander | tube-ish overdrive (super-boom voicing) | | Sweeten | comp+sat · tone (dark↔air) · level drift | console preamp (Airwindows Density + Air tilt) | | Fuzz | intensity · bias/tone · bias instability | vintage fuzz (super-boom) | | Howl | drive+resonance · resonant freq · freq wander | resonant filter-fuzz / synth stab (stable TPT SVF) | | Fold ★ | fold depth · offset/symmetry · fold wobble | West-Coast wavefolder (authentic Warps fold curve) | | Swell | swell time · sensitivity · threshold jitter | auto volume-swell (Airwindows Swell) |
Movement
| Effect | Amount · Macro · Drift | Notes | |——–|————————|——-| | Doubler | mix · time · momentary detune | ADT / slapback double-track | | Vibrato | depth · rate · waveshape + FM | fully-stereo modulated delay | | Phaser | stages/intensity · rate · sweep randomness | frequency-accurate allpass phaser | | Tremolo | depth · rate · AutoPan | Airwindows skew/density; Drift pans across the field | | Pitch | mix · pitch (±1 oct) · resolution drop | dual-tap pitch shifter | | Shift ★ | mix · shift Hz (±) · shift wander | Bode single-sideband frequency shifter (Warps Hilbert) |
Diffusion
| Effect | Amount · Macro · Drift | Notes | |——–|————————|——-| | Cascade | feedback · time · degrade | BBD bucket-brigade delay — bright, fast clock warble | | Reels | feedback (self-osc) · time · tape degrade | worn tape echo (RE-201) — warm, wow+flutter+hiss | | Collage | feedback · loop time · glitch grains | granular looping delay | | Reverse | mix · segment time · pitch mod | reverse delay | | Space | wet · size · tone wander | lush reverb (Mutable Clouds) | | Bloom ★ | wet · size · shimmer/tone | granular shimmer reverb (Clouds + octave-up regen) |
Texture
| Effect | Amount · Macro · Drift | Notes | |——–|————————|——-| | Filter | HP↔LP sweep (centre = open) · resonance · cutoff wander | DJ-style filter (stable TPT SVF) | | Squash | compression · mu character · threshold jitter | vari-mu compressor + overdrive (Airwindows Pressure4) | | Cassette | degrade · tone · warble depth | wow + flutter + tape compression + saturation | | Broken | breakdown · rate · dropout randomness | motor-failure pitch drops + AM/FM | | Interference | crush · carrier/tone · static | telecom/radio bit-crush (Airwindows DeRez2) | | Halo ★ | resonance/sustain · root + brightness · voice detune | ethereal harmonic resonator pad — Karplus chord bank (Walrus Qi / OBNE Dark-Star vibe) |
★ = the four originals not in the Chroma: Fold, Shift, Bloom, Halo.
4. GLOBAL page — performance layer
The newest additions, for live use and feedback experimentation.
- Feedback — a global send: the chain’s wet output is fed back into its input, low-pass damped and soft-limited so it can drone, build infinite reverbs, and self-oscillate without squealing. 0% = none. A little goes a long way; it interacts with whatever’s in the slots.
- Tempo Src — Move (lock to the Move’s clock) or Int (use the Tempo knob).
- Tempo — 10–500 BPM (when Src = Int, or as a fallback).
- Time Division — Free (continuous, per-effect Macro time) or a musical division
(1/1 … 1/32, with triplet
Tand dottedD). When set, the time-based effects snap to the grid: delays (Cascade, Reels, Doubler, Reverse, Collage) and LFOs (Vibrato, Tremolo, Phaser).
Tempo Src = Move depends on the Move forwarding MIDI clock to audio-FX; if it doesn’t, PALETTE falls back to the Int tempo automatically. Int sync always works.
5. Presets & randomizers (PRESETS&RND page)
50 factory presets, organised utilitarian → character → weird → experimental, each a chain the Chroma can’t do. Every preset loads four distinct effects — the ones it features are turned up, the rest sit at 0% (loaded, silent, ready to bring in live). Tempo and Feedback are global, so changing presets keeps your performance settings.
The PALETTE / Init preset is the classic starting chain — Drive → Doubler → Cascade → Filter, all transparent by default (Filter centred/open), ready to dial in.
Six randomizers (momentary — one tap fires once), all across the four slots at once:
- Rnd Patch — completely new patch (4 distinct effects + all params)
- Rnd Effect — new effect types, keep current params
- Rnd Amount / Macro / Drift — randomise just that knob across all slots
FX Reorder (menu-only) chooses any of the 24 chain permutations in real time.
6. Live-use tips
- Keep four effects loaded at 0% and ride the Amount knobs on the PALETTE console — that’s the Chroma performance feel.
- Tremolo Drift = AutoPan, Filter is a DJ HP/LP sweep, Halo rings out a tuned harmonic chord pad — all great for hands-on moves.
- A touch of GLOBAL → Feedback turns any delay/reverb into a self-building texture; back it off before it runs away.
- Use Rnd Effect to discover combinations, then tweak.
7. Install / build
./scripts/build.sh # Docker ARM64 cross-compile (Docker Desktop must be running)
./scripts/install.sh # SCP to ableton@move.local, then power-cycle the Move
Or grab the release tarball, unpack into
/data/UserData/schwung/modules/audio_fx/palette/, and power-cycle.
8. What I’m looking for feedback on
This is shared for the Schwung community’s input. Especially curious about:
- Which effects need re-voicing? Levels, character, the four originals (Fold/Shift/Bloom/Halo).
- Performance layer — is a global Feedback + tempo sync the right direction, or would you rather have pad control (momentary freeze/capture, scene launch), an A/B morph, CV-style expression, etc.?
- Missing effects? The palette is full at 24, but if something obvious is absent, say so.
- Workflow — does the 5-page layout feel right on the Move? Anything awkward?
Open an issue, or ping me on Discord.
Credits & license
MIT © Filliformes. Built on MIT-licensed DSP from Mutable Instruments (Clouds, Warps —
Émilie Gillet), Airwindows (Chris Johnson), Signalsmith Audio (Geraint Luff), and the
Filliformes Move-plugin family (super-boom, mello, krautdrums). Inspired by the Hologram
Electronics Chroma Console. See vendor/SOURCES.md for the per-effect sourcing record.