garageCube

[centralnexus]

Hey,

I'm testing this program out to be able to use midi signalling to modify variables in modul8.

The issue that I have hit is that I can map midi to the lay on off button, but I'm not sure how to switch the layer off after the midi turns this on.

Does anyone know how to do this?

[centralnexus]

sorry had a solution to this, but I have accidentally deleted the module from my mac help!

[JoelDittrich.se]

I´m on the exact same problem. Help?!

[anomad]

. did you try sending a velocity of 0 to turn the layer off?

. if that doesn't work, you might want to write a module to do it for you.


-james
(a nomad. )

[paddyfree]

If you use the Layer Selector module, you can assign the layers to MIDI notes. The layer will stay switched on for as long as the MIDI note is held down, and switch off when the note is released.



However, this "layer-plays-only-while-note-is-held-down" might not be the behaviour you want. You might prefer "MIDI-note-toggles-layer-on-and-off".

To do this, create a one bar MIDI clip in Live that contains the MIDI note you have assigned to the Layer Selector. Make the MIDI note one bar in length. In the pic below it's MIDI note 1 (C#-2), you can see it in the piano-roll editor. Switch ON loop for this MIDI clip, in the Notes Pane of Live's Clip View.

In the Launch Pane of Live's Clip View, set the launch parameters to Launch Mode=Toggle and Quantization=None.

When you trigger the clip inside Live it will turn the layer on, and when you trigger it again, it will turn the layer off.

In the pic below I have assigned this "triggering clip" to receive another MIDI note from my Xio keyboard (channel 1/C3), so that I can have this "toggle" behaviour live under my fingertips.



Hope this all makes sense! I'm new to M8 but old with Live, so there might be a simpler way to do this in M8!

[JoelDittrich.se]

paddyfree: Many thanks! ^^ Looks like this solves it, I´ll give it a try and post here ASAP!

[The Midi Thief]

I have another question regarding CC messages:

According to my understanding, when you tweak Ableton Live using a Midi controller you could map in two ways, either route the midi messages from live to Modul8 or have the a Midi controller mapped to both Live and M8 at the same time. The latter works if you don't need to manipulate the values (like inverting) and you get a rather smooth animation (as smooth as Midi allows). But if i route Midi from Live to M8 the values gets really crude since it seems that Live won't send the Midi message until I let go of the fader. It's the same crudeness when I playback recorded CC messages. Is this a behavior I can change in Ableton Live?

I guess there's a third way if I just need to manipulate the midi value and that is going through a pipe app like Midi pipe. But still, it would be nice to get smoother values comming out of Live.

[paddyfree]

My immediate thought is either: use a MIDI translation app like you describe, or use a more "intelligent" MIDI controller as the source. I'm a fan of Novation controllers for this reason, because you can scale/limit/invert the CC that is sent right at the source i.e. for each knob/fader/button.

I haven't used Ableton to send CCs to M8 yet, but I'll look into it and post back.

[The Midi Thief]

Ah, so true about the controllers. I have the Nocturn and also the very configurable BCR2000. I just tend to use what's taking up the least space on my desktop. But I really think it's an issue with the output of the Midi from Live. Since the animation of the fader in Live is just fine, it's just the CC values that Live sends to Modul8 that are crude.

I remember having the same problems when using Live a couple of times when I was working with musicians. Both times we solved it by mapping hte same control straight to M8 or going through a pipe. But it really feels like it should be a setting in Live. I will have to do some digging in the manual.

[paddyfree]

hmm... I can't seem to get the "crude" "non-smooth" behaviour you describe.



I've made a ramped CC#1 (modulation) clip in Live and routed it to M8 via the IAC bus. I've tried it mapped to various parameters in M8 (Z-rotation in the pic above), and they seem to animate/change smoothly.

I wonder if there is possibly a MIDI-feedback issue in your setup, for example, if you have the BRC also receiving MIDI from Live for LED-ring feedback.

Could you post a screengrab of you MIDI preferences from Live? Here's mine for this test:



If you were to disable all other MIDI inputs and outputs, including Control Surfaces in the upper area of the MIDI window, do you still get the problem?

I never use Control Surface-type MIDI mapping with Live, just "plain-vanilla" MIDI mapping.

If we can get it proving smooth on your system from a basic setup, hopefully we can add complexity until we find the problem...!!

Please, post a pic of your usual Live MIDI pref's and also try this basic test and let us know how you get on.

cheers
paddy

[The Midi Thief]

Ok, I will try it tomrrow. I've gotta crash now. But just for the record: I'm not doing envelope for this (haven't had time to try that just yet). It's when I'm getting live input from a Midi controller and when I'm playing back Midi CC that I've recorded live. If you program a nice envelope I'm sure it will send a smooth value.

I do have something fishy in my midi network settings but I don't think it's causing this (but never say never). As I've seen this behavior before, way before my midi network settings got fishy.

[paddyfree]

Sleep well!

.
.
.

Good morning!

I tried recording CC#1 modulation into Live from my Xio's joystick, and it still seems smooth when routed to M8.



Zoomed in, I can see the controller stepping between consecutive values, but this is clunky 0-127 MIDI, so pretty much as you'd expect.



I tried some slow mod and some fast mod, both going "thru" Live and playing back from Live and the changes in M8 still seem smooth.

Please try this stripped-down test when you get the chance. Also, let us know some more details about how your MIDI network is set up. Are you using Live and M8 on one machine, on separate machines? etc.

HTH

[The Midi Thief]

Ok, here are my current Midi settings in Live:



Before I had it set up sending over a Midi network, but I switched to the IAC bus but there it is not behaving any differently. I'm using M8 and Live on the same machine.

The problem I'm I'm having is that Live is not sending any CC data over the IAC bus. I get the note data just fine. Another problem is that I don't know how to set the envelope using a midi controller. So maybe I'm just having a mapping problem?! Here's my Live comp:

[paddyfree]

Your picture is showing a MID track containing a softsynth in Live, not a plain MIDI track. To record notes and modulation in Live and then send this to M8, you need to use a MIDI track with no instrument.

Once you have created a MIDI track in Live, please do the following:
Assign the MIDI track's output to the IAC Bus. Thats the "MIDI TO" field in the track's input/output selector (which is not currently visible in your pic - click the little circle with I.O written in it, on the far right hand side of the Live window, to make this visible)

i.e. make it look like this:


In Live's MIDI preferences, enable "Track" as well as "Remote" in the inputs for your MIDI controllers - this is why you haven't been able to record modulation into Live.

You should now have communication between Live and M8.[/b]

[The Midi Thief]

Thanks for sticking with me. Ok so far so good, worked fine with the naked Midi track and I can draw a curve for whatever I CC I need. But I couldn't figure out how to record the curve from the midi controller, I can only draw the curve at this point. (I seriously need to do some more tutorials on Live!).