Tomavatars SBAM is a new M4L sample sequencer that gives you the workflow of Ableton Buffer Shuffler but with features on steroids.
Samples are an indispensable part of today’s music production. They can be incorporated directly into tracks, but can also serve as a sound source in synthesizers, grooveboxes, and more for further creative work.
Sequencing samples is particularly popular in both hardware and software workflows. A new Max for Live (M4L) device from Tomavatars called SBAM shows that this can be taken very far.
Tomavatars SBAM
SBAM is a new Max for Live device that is based on the original script Tomavatars made for the UVI Falcon Synthesizer plugin years ago. It takes your samples and transforms them into rhythmic soundscapes.
The core of the SBAM device is a sample sequencer with a total of four independent sample engines. You can either load samples from the factory pool or your content. The engine then automatically slices your samples (slice me nice) based on the slicer sequencer slice quantity.
The moment the sequencing fun begins is here. SBAM has not one but a total of 11 independent, parallel-running sequencers that modify your results. Each sequencer has various controls: length for polymeter and polyrhythmic results, speed, random step, and more.
The first, aka the player, determines which sample is triggered or not by the step. This alone can generate evolving rhythmic patterns from simple four samples. This one alone is fun, but Tomavatars SBAM can do so much more.
Then, you have a dedicated slice sequencer with which you can sequence the slice points of the samples. To make it more evolving, there are eight preset patterns that you can easily recall for instant mix-ups.
In the Basics tab, you can sequence the pitch, pan, and velocity parameters, while the next allows you to animate per step the parameters of an envelope. These include attack, decay, gate, and a transient shaper.
Things get even crazier in the next two sequencer tabs. On the one hand, you can sequence time-based effects per step, including racheting with nine types, modulation speed, and reverse.
On the other hand, just one tab further, you can do animated time-stretching with four parameters until the morning hours. That’s not all. Additionally, you have another set of time-based sequencable parameters, including swing, shaper, and morph.
Ableton Parameter Sequencer
If you let this sequencer travel through the four selected samples, you will certainly have fun for a long time.
As a bonus, Tomavatars also added four sequencers to the SBAM device to modulate any Ableton-mapped parameters. You can map up to four parameters per sequencer, allowing you to animate up to 16 settings.
Further, you have three play modes from MIDI notes
- Classic starts all sequencers with one MIDI note,
- Note mode: each MIDI note plays the same sequence step for all sequencer
- Pattern mode: select which pattern to play
First Impression
The legendary Buffer Shuffler 2.0 device has been part of the Ableton Max for Live Essentials library for many years. It is similar to the SBAM in many ways, as it turns samples into complex rhythms.
However, the new SBAM devices go many steps further and put new sequencing options in the hands of producers. For me, it’s Buffer Shuffler on steroids and its unofficial successor. It’s a must-see for all Buffer Shuffler fans.
Tomavatars SBAM is available now for 29€ and runs on Ableton Live 12 Suite or Live 12 Standard with a Max for Live license.
More information here: Tom Avatars
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