Tracks wont play when I am in arrangement view?

[Anomaly777]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to Ableton and I am having a little trouble.

I spent four hours working on my first song and I am very impressed with Abletons user friendly environment. I have used Fruity Loops and Pro Tools in the past and I was not as impressed as I am with Ableton 8. For being the first time I have used Ableton I have created an entire song with ease save for the issue which I am about to bring up. I have Ableton Live Lite 8 and I want to upgrade right now, this software is awesome.

I am not sure exactly what I am doing to cause the issue but for some reason after extended periods of editing in the arrangement view and the session view, switching back and forth between the two with no problems, I finally do something which causes the tracks to turn off. In the arrangement view the words Device On is a pale grey indicating that the device is not on. There is no little red light next to the pale grey Device On display.

I click the Back to Arrangement button while in arrangement view and all of the device's displays read that the devices are in fact on but when I press play I have no audio.

After this doesnt work, I switch back to the session view and all of the devices shut off. When I double click next to the track play button as though I were loading a new track and then click the play button itself, three of the devices will become active again in the arrangement view but the remainder of the devices show the pale grey Device On display. This happens if I just press the play button on the track too.

I have tried arming all of the tracks from both the session view and arrangement view with no luck. I have gone through every tutorial I could find and nothing seems to cover this issue.

Please Help,
Anomaly777

[doghouse]

Tell us what your tracks are (audio, MIDI?) and what "devices" you are using.

Are you using any of the demo instruments?

[Anomaly777]

The tracks are audio, I am not using any midi.

The instruments I am using are:

Dub Delay
synth mindreader
rythmic imminent finger ark
Bass-big
muted fm guitar
guitar wide acoustic
Dirty Keys

When I press the play button after pressing the return to arrangement button I get no sound and the devices are on. The yellow button which has the track number is on in arrangement view when I press play but then when I switch over to session view all of the tracks turn off. I have started each track individualy and used the master play button to start all of the tracks at once, neither of these actions have been a solution.

When I press play in session view after using the master play button or playing each track individually all tracks play but in a continuous loop rather than the stops and starts I have set up in the arrangement view.

I can choose "Device On" in the control chooser which is underneath the fades/device chooser but this is the only option which is a pale grey. before I had this issue the "Device On" option in the control chooser had solid black text and a little red square next to it.

I'm sorry if these questions are simple but I have asked all of my friends who use ableton and they are unable to help. Hopefully one of you experienced users can enlighten me.


All help is appreciated.
Anomaly777

[C2010]

Looks like the red square 'back to arrangement' is on...

[Anomaly777]

I have tried everything that involves the "Return to Arrangement" button.

I had an idea when I first encountered this problem that the issue resided with the "Return to Arrangement" button but I have had no idea how to correct the issue. I have turned it off by stopping all tracks with the master and I have also even attempted to start recording when in the arrangement view, stopping it and deleting the recording. This causes all of the tracks to read "Device On" in the control chooser but I have no audio and when I switch from arrangement view to session view all of the tracks turn off.

Has this ever happened to anyone?

Please remember that I am a newbie here, I have been working with Ableton for about a week.

Thanks,
Anomaly777

[Anomaly777]

Alright, I have been playing with Ableton a little more and I discovered that the problem is in fact with the Red "Back to Arrangement" button.

I loaded a brand new set to check the settings of everything and it seems once I push the red "back to arrangement" button any changes I make in the arrangement view have no effect. I am not sure how to fix this and I can't even get all of the devices to work now.

Is there a way to reverse this once you have pushed this button? I have literally tried everything at this point. It seems silly to me that you wouldn't be able to fix this. There has to be a cure.

Hopefully this is just my ignorance and not something I should have read into before creating this set.

Anomaly777

[Hermanus]

If you don't record what's happening in the session view nothing will be recorded in arrangement!

So if you don't record what you're doing in session to add in your song [represented in the arrangement view],
then clicking the back to A button will behave as usual. You will Stop any clip playing in session.

If I well understood your case, hope it helps

best
oh and welcome to Ableton Live

[Anomaly777]

Hi Hermanus,

I have been reading the manual as well as different posts for a few hours and I have not found this stated anywhere, or I over looked it.

I am going to try this out and see whats up.

Will I be able to use the break points in the arrangement view to turn different tracks on and off once I have the clip recorded?

Thanks,
Anomaly777

[Hermanus]

Edit: yes you can also record pushed buttons [not SOLO buttons unfortunately] within the arrangement.

You can record by slice in a sense
you first record a midi clip, then maybe you will want to record some audio fx to it, then some mutes or whatever and so forth

One options:

You should use punch in and outs to aim specific areas.
You set a desired loop section in arrangement and clip punch in and out, thus you record only in the loop section.

Maybe also try overdub_ this way you can avoid replacing midi clip or even audio clips you want to keep.
For midi overdub will simply add your recorded notes to the ones still there in the clip

best.

[Anomaly777]

It works!!! Very cool.

I just bought an m-audio fast track so now I can do live recording with my guitar and mic, this advice comes in handy, thank you.

I wonder why it was letting me switch between the two before? Sadly, all of the settings I had worked out with the breakpoints were lost when I recorded the song. But either way I am happy that I can advance beyond this point.

Thanks again,
Anomaly777

[Anomaly777]

I have already used the punch in and out to record specific areas, this function is very useful.

I am running Ableton Live 8 Lite which means I am only able to load 8 tracks, I can already foresee this being the reason I spend the money on the full version of the software. I can also only load 6 devices

Until I can afford to do this, is it possible to record over a track which has already been recorded, using the overdub and the second scene of the same track and then possibly turn one on and one off? I am thinking this might be useful if I wanted to change the bass during a chorus. In my mind I would use the breakpoints to turn one off and the other on in the arrangement. I'm very pessimistic about this because this seems like to easy of a solution but who knows, I have been wrong before.

Thanks
A

[Hermanus]

As long as it is a midi clip you can record with overdub to add notes to it

Glad my little words were right.

I was like you a lite user for a little long while.
I first upgraded to ableton live then I took advantage of the 20% discount for the 10years of ableton.

I surely not regret the buying, live is great, suite is awesome.

Lite versions always come with hardware [audio card or else] and it's a gentle way to benefit from a discount if you wanna go further with Live.

They knew what they did with live lite
For our great pleasure.

Best and have fun

EDIT: go for the 30days demo, you'll be able to save and export like the real MacCoy