Motion
Documentation
Free Max for Live device for Ableton Live 12. Last updated 19 October 2026.
Free Max for Live device · Live 12
Four slow, free-running modulators
Motion moves up to eight parameters of your set, slowly and never quite the same: four lanes, each with one of twenty shapes, its own warp and speed, and two targets. You see every curve move.
It comes from the MOTION module of our dub techno suite for VCV Rack. Like Live's own LFO it modulates around the value you set and writes no automation. Motion is free.
Download Motion for free → Enter your email and we send you a download link, for the device now and for every update.
Install
You need Ableton Live 12 with Max for Live (Live 12 Suite, or Live 12 Standard with the Max for Live add-on), on Mac or Windows. Drag Thoow Motion.amxd onto any track, or into your User Library to keep it at hand. Motion is an audio effect that lets the sound pass unchanged, so it works anywhere, also inside instrument and effect racks.
Lanes
Each of the four rows is one lane:
| Control | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | 20 shapes | The curve of the lane, see the 20 shapes. |
| Motion | The curve itself, with a dot that shows where the lane is now. | |
| Warp | ±100 % | Bends the time inside each cycle: a slow start and a fast end, or the other way round. Start and end stay where they are. |
| Time | ×¼ … ×4 | Speeds this lane up or slows it down, on top of Cycle. |
| Depth | ±100 % | How far the lane moves its targets. Negative values turn the movement upside down. Factory setting 50 %. |
| Target | two per lane | Map / × fields, see Mapping. |
The four lanes run at uneven ratios of the cycle: 1, 1.37, 1.93 and 2.71. So they almost never line up, and the movement does not repeat for a long time.
Mapping
Click Map in a target field, then click the knob, slider or button you want to move: Live devices, VST and AU plugins, rack macros, the mixer. The field shows the device and the parameter; × removes the mapping. Each lane has two targets, and both get the same movement.
Motion moves the parameter around the value it has. You can still turn the knob by hand; it sets the centre of the movement. Removing the mapping leaves the knob where it was. The mapping is saved with your set.
Cycle, Hold, Restart on Play
| Control | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle | 2 s – 10 min | How long lane 1 takes for one cycle. The other lanes follow at their ratios and their Time. |
| Hold | on / off | Freezes all lanes where they are, for a break. Off: they go on from there. |
| Restart on Play | on / off | On (factory setting): every time you press play, all lanes start from the top with the same random values. Every playback and every bounce sounds like the take you heard. |
Motion does not follow the tempo on purpose: its movements are slower than bars and phrases. The random shapes draw their values from a seed that is saved with the device, so a set sounds the same when you open it again.
The 20 shapes
| Shape | Character |
|---|---|
| Sine, Triangle | The classics, smooth and even. |
| Ramp up, Ramp down | Slow rise with a drop back, or the other way round. |
| Breath | A long rise and a quicker fall, with a short rest at the bottom. |
| Tide | A big wave with a smaller second wave on top: flood and ebb. |
| Wow | A lopsided wave, like a tape that never runs quite even. |
| Siren | Winds up, dips, climbs higher and falls back, then rests. |
| Drop | Starts at the top and falls, fast at first, then slower towards the bottom. |
| Swell | Grows slowly, then faster and faster, and starts again from the bottom. |
| Pendulum | Swings back and forth, each swing smaller, like a pendulum coming to rest. |
| Heartbeat | Two short beats and a rest. |
| Bounce | A ball bouncing four times, each bounce lower and shorter. |
| Plateau | Rises, holds for a while, falls. |
| Stairs, Stairs up-down | Four steps up, or steps up and down again, instead of a curve. |
| Ripple | A wave with fine ripples on top. |
| Smooth random | New random values every cycle, joined by soft curves. |
| Drunk walk | Wanders up and down in small random steps. |
| Sample & hold | A new random value every cycle, held until the next. |
Factory setting: Sine, Breath, Tide and Smooth random.
Tips
- Dub chords that breathe: one lane on Breath at a long cycle to the cutoff of your chord synth, a second one on Drunk walk to the feedback of a delay.
- Slow mix: map Depth −20 % of a Tide lane to the send of a reverb: the space opens and closes over minutes.
- Rhythmicon: let a lane move Density or Swing of Rhythmicon.
- Stereo movement: two targets on the same lane with opposite Depth signs, for example the pan of two tracks.
Changelog
Early Access 1.0.0 · 17 October 2026
- First release for Ableton Live 12: four lanes, twenty shapes, two targets per lane, Hold and Restart on Play.
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Credits
Thoow Motion, from the MOTION module of our dub techno suite for VCV Rack. Design, code and display by thoow, Hamburg. Ableton and Live are trademarks of Ableton AG. Max is a trademark of Cycling '74.
Questions or feedback: service@thoow.com