The Ableton Q&A Thread

[Aphile]

I bet you that view is really helpful in the limited space of ableton's revolutionary one monitor gui.

==

So I've got a Q and I think I already know the answer to it, but god, I hope I don't:

DUMMY CLIPS:

Okay, so I've got a buss with a dummy clip in it. The dummy clip is designed to turn up or down the first macro of the fx rack on the buss.

Make sense?

Okay, so (hard to explain) the dummy clip's automation only affects the total range of where the actual macro knob is set... does that make sense? So if the Macro knob is set to 127, the dummy clip can modulate the parameter controlled by the macro knob from 0 to 127. Now I turn the macro knob down to say 64, the automation within the dummy clip only can modulate the value controlled by the macro knob from 0 to 64.

This is not really the behavior I want here.

I'd like the dummy clip automation to actually affect the value of the macro knob, not operate within the range of the macro knob. Gnaw what I'm saying?

==

Ultimately what I'm trying to achieve is: I'm trying to structure this freeform kind of jam song. I'm trying to do this with scenes. So I can get into and out of sections of the song by launching a scene. Pretty reasonable, right? So the thing is, I'm doing all kinds of fucked up knob tweaking and fx chain modulating, and I just can't reset everything by hand to drop into the next scene/section of the song. So I'd like to use dummy clips (or something else, please let me know!) to reset various parameters back to their basic levels for that section... which I can then begin to play/tweak as the section develops.

Soo... the net problem that I'm having is... the intro dummy clip, sets macro knob 1 (which is a wet mix) to max value, right, so a really wet intro. But I've got to have the actual macro knob at 127 to allow the automation to go all the way up to the max.

At the end of the intro section, I'd like to cut the wet down to zero. So, I've got an dummy clip with the value of macro one knob, or the wet, down to 0. Now the thing here is: The actual macro one knob is at 127, but the dummy clip sets the value to 0. It is dry now. Okay, that is good, BUT, I can no longer turn the actual macro knob one and have it affect the wetness of the audio effect rack.

Again, what I think would resolve my problem is have the dummy clip affect the actual value of the macro one knob, rather than the potential range of the macro one knob's value.

Holy carp that is a long winded inarticulate post.

TL;DR: I'm fucked?

Anyone know what I'm talking about, know a way to get the behavior I'm looking for?

you can't use clip envelopes to do that. you can only use a clip envelope to modulate within a percentage of the position of the knob.

i honestly cannot think of a way to do this workaround. you could try and rack your entire mix into one track and use one big giant macro? or map all the macros to some external controller?

[nowaysj]

Yeah I have the macro mapped to a controller. Thing is to go into the next section of the song I need to reset quite a few parameters. I couldn't possibly do them all by hand. I cannot understand why live has this limitation, it is pretty profound. This is something they are fixing in 9, yeah?

[RandoRando]

So I'm running FL ableton and nexus all on a new comp cause y old one broke. Nexus installed the expansions I have for it in FL fine. But when I open nexus in ableton the expansions arent there and when I Try to import them an error pops up. So ideas on how to rewire FL and use it for nexus. I was thinking a midi out in ableton or each instance of nexus . Then Bounce all to audio in ableton. Only thing is FLs rewire "template" is annoying

[Ldizzy]

im using fm8 arpegiators to come out with crazy techy patterns and i love the things i come out with... but i want to tweak one parameter (The same) through every single instance of my duplicated fm8 channels (im up to 7 now)

i want to find a way to control a parameter for multiple instances of the same vst.. with one configured knob/slider

i keep finding info about ways to set a macro control through ONE channel. like stacking 3 plugins in one channel and controling multiple parameters with one knob.. but i want to control say... portamento for 7 instances of Fm8 all with one knob ..

is there a way to set a macro to control parameters (the same for me) in multiple midi channels... id put it in its separate automation lane and stuff and id be nice.. n stuff..

!?!?!

(thx)

[nowaysj]

Was trying to put an instrument rack inside of an instrument rack, and excuse me if I'm wrong, but you can't do that? That's how you should do it.

[Disco Nutter]

Ableton 8.4 - 64bit, interesting decision.

Was trying to put an instrument rack inside of an instrument rack, and excuse me if I'm wrong, but you can't do that? That's how you should do it.

I'm quite sure this is possible!

[nowaysj]

Haha, what was I trying to do then, that was totally obvious? Really thought it was instrument rack inside of instrument rack.

So can you have the parent instrument rack's macro control the child's instrument macro?

[RandoRando]

Haha, what was I trying to do then, that was totally obvious? Really thought it was instrument rack inside of instrument rack.

So can you have the parent instrument rack's macro control the child's instrument macro?

thats what i was gonna say to try, im pretty sure you can do rackception. and when the little midi map values window pops up, make sure its set range is from 1 to 127

[nowaysj]

I musta really been doing this wrong, cause I really wanted to do it.

[Ldizzy]

so you're telling me there's no way a knob could control several channel midi values in ableton!?!?

[Muncey]

Proper noob question but this is pissing me right off and I can't fucking find an answer anywhere. Got an oxygen 25 and use it with ableton.. the midi was automapped so worked fine straight away, only just started playing around with ableton and had exams so haven't even opened it in about 5 months. Went to play about on it today and the knobs were working.. its recognised by ableton but they don't actually do anything. So I put a few bits together into an instrument rack and set up the macro controls then pressed midi in the top right and manually set each knob to each macro control.. but then copied the instrument rack over and it stopped working, I have to manually set each knob to each macro every time. It sounds like a really simple problem but ive spent 2 days playing around trying to figure out why the pissing automapping has stopped working.. Ive found no solutions online. This is my last resort before the fucking thing goes out the window lol.

[nowaysj]

so you're telling me there's no way a knob could control several channel midi values in ableton!?!?

Wait, what are we talking about? A hardware knob? Yeah, that can control anything and everything, simultaneously. Now a software macro knob... I'll believe it when I see it.

[OfficialDAPT]

so you're telling me there's no way a knob could control several channel midi values in ableton!?!?

Wait, what are we talking about? A hardware knob? Yeah, that can control anything and everything, simultaneously. Now a software macro knob... I'll believe it when I see it.

I thought macros could control anything and everything or do they just control stuff in the specific channel? I haven't really messed around with macros outside of just assigning random same-channel crap to them.

[Ldizzy]

^my question.

can that software macro control knobs thru more then one channel

would be awesome thanks :')

[RandoRando]

^my question.

can that software macro control knobs thru more then one channel

would be awesome thanks :')

Pretty sure they can jnky control within their "group".

Dont see it a problem at all though with Max for live.

[RandoRando]

is there anyway to add envelopes to knob within abelton?

like in massive when i hit a note the envelope automatically resets everytime i hit a key (a basic envelope in any synth basically)

what if i want a macro knob within a instr rack to modulate a certain way everytime i hit a key on my keyboard?

[bkwsk]

Retrigger options?

[dubesteppe]

is there anyway to add envelopes to knob within abelton?

like in massive when i hit a note the envelope automatically resets everytime i hit a key (a basic envelope in any synth basically)

what if i want a macro knob within a instr rack to modulate a certain way everytime i hit a key on my keyboard?

you can either automate it to do that, or get a m4l envelope/lfo that will re trig every time u press a key

[Perej]

Hey

So I'm having a bit of trouble chopping up and using vocals in a fun melodic way in Ableton. Normally I'd just put the vocal into an audio channel then start fiddling with it in arrangement view but I want to know how to be able to do this more effectively in sampler / simpler.

How do I get the sampler to trigger different bits of the vocal? Obviously when you load it in, it just plays from the start time you've set to the end, but what if I want to have that change a lot too? Is automation the only way? Say I want it to speak the first part of a chorus, then go back to the very beginning, how would I do this in sampler / simpler?

Not sure if this makes a lot of sense.

[OfficialDAPT]

Hey

So I'm having a bit of trouble chopping up and using vocals in a fun melodic way in Ableton. Normally I'd just put the vocal into an audio channel then start fiddling with it in arrangement view but I want to know how to be able to do this more effectively in sampler / simpler.

How do I get the sampler to trigger different bits of the vocal? Obviously when you load it in, it just plays from the start time you've set to the end, but what if I want to have that change a lot too? Is automation the only way? Say I want it to speak the first part of a chorus, then go back to the very beginning, how would I do this in sampler / simpler?

Not sure if this makes a lot of sense.

right click on the audio clip you want to chop up and select slice to MIDI and then you can arrange the slices however you want in MIDI form in the track below.