Ableton Live + Modul8 = MIDI madness
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    The Midi Thief
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    Ableton Live + Modul8 = MIDI madness

    by The Midi Thief » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:40 am

    I just came back from the PixelACHE VJ festival in Helsinki, Finland (http://www.pixelache.ac) where I had a great time! I made two performances, the 2nd one together with the DJ duo Konstruction. I wanted to share some experiences and then end up with a question.

    I was using a M-Audio X-Session pro and a Edirol V4 for Modul8 and
    the DJs where using Ableton Live, a Faderfox LC2, a MPC and a DR. Sample sampler and a Novation station MIDI keyboard.

    We had it set up so that the Novation Station was controlling some sound effects in Live. Each sound effect had a graphic representation that was achieved with simple modules;

    Beat repeater = Shake (the standard Garagecube version)
    Beat crusher = Scale down the comp
    Muffler (Don't know what it's called in Live. It cuts frequencies) = decrease alpha of the whole comp.

    Two main issues with these techniques were*:

    1.Live doesn't route the midi values to modul8 until you're done rotating a knob or moving a slider, therefore the reaction comes to late. We split the MIDI signal in MidiPipe (freeware) so that I could get the MIDI-values straight from the Novation Station.

    2.The values Live sends doesn't match the master Scale and Alpha controls, so I had to make simple modules to sort that out.

    * Disclaimer: My DJ buddies are fairly new to Live, there might still be stuff they haven't figured out yet.

    The MPC sampler was set up with a module so it toggled the visibility and size of the layers in my B-bus. I had to pull the MIDI cable from the MPC for parts of the performance since the signal made the B-Bus go nuts even when the module was turned off. Might be sloppy programming from my part, but having the possibility to switch MIDI-sets in Modul8 is starting to top my wish list.

    Now, ending with a question: How do you guys solve different kinds of MIDI confilcts in Modul8? Pulling the MIDI cable seems like a sloppy solution. I'm looking for an option to filter midi messages in a way that also works during a gig. Filtering the MIDI clock for instance.

    Another thing i discovered was that if you switch from internal microphone to an external you have to restart Modul8 to make it work. It would be nice to either have Modul8 change the sound input when ever the input is changed it the control panel or have the option to choose input source within Modul8.
  • Emer
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    by Emer » Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:16 pm

    Heh, Picelache was fun indeed. Just wanted to say hello ;)
  • bighairmusic
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    by bighairmusic » Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:47 pm

    I agree that you should be able to adjust sound input and sound output directly within Modul8, plus also which midi inputs/outputs you're using, just like you can in ableton live.

    thanks for telling your experiences.. i'm having a few issues with ableton>modul8 also which i'm discovering...
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    The Midi Thief
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    by The Midi Thief » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:03 am

    Emer wrote:Heh, Picelache was fun indeed. Just wanted to say hello ;)


    Big up Emer! And congrats to the higlight award thing (was it an award? I wasn't there for the final gathering, just saw it on the Pixelache website). See you in Tallin in may hopefully (if Jaagup hooks us up).
  • sonicslice
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    by sonicslice » Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:19 pm

    You can probably use sound flower to sort out your audio input problems - just change the routings from core audio and set the default input to the sound flower output.

    http://www.cycling74.com/products/soundflower

    Your midi issues sound very odd indeed, the lack of midi filtering can be solved by filtering the midi information at the output of the info (i.e. on the mpc or whatever) Dr sample wont have filtering. Midi patchbay http://pete.yandell.com/software/ will probably be quite helpful for your midi filtering and patching.

    You live based midi woes sound like inexperience, there are ways of setting things up to make it work in a very workable way, take a look around for AV tutorials using ableton (I think there is a good one on vj kung fu.)

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