HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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Wildabeast007
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:18 am

HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by Wildabeast007 » Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:50 am

So I have encountered this super annoying problem within Ableton. I'll be making music and ill be editing the melody or something. So I'm in the MIDI clip and ill be playing back my music and all of a sudden my notes (Ill use a "C" for example) change pitch way down. All of a sudden the "C" note is still at the C place but it has the pitch of a "A" like three octaves lower! It's the most annoying problem I have ever had and It's not the first time too. When I'm trying to make music, It is extremely difficult to Produce when the notes keep randomly switching.

Sorry if I didn't explain it too well. Has anyone else encountered it? Is there a way to fix it?? Please help!

JoshG567
Posts: 353
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2014 7:42 pm

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by JoshG567 » Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:50 am

I was getting some weird pitches today and it turned out that some pitchbend envelope automation I entered in an arrangement clip wasn't resetting to zero after the clip played. I edited the envelope to go back to zero at the very end and it solved my problems.

If the pitch changes but the notes themselves aren't changing look at your signal chain and see what could affect the pitch? Sorry if it doesn't help.

Wildabeast007
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:18 am

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by Wildabeast007 » Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:43 am

The problem is that it's not a pitch bend automation. I looked believe me. The pitch in general is changing.

Hermanus
Posts: 1659
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:47 pm
Location: Belgium

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by Hermanus » Thu Oct 09, 2014 6:32 am

create a live pack and share.
Blindly, we cannot help as we cannot identify the culprit in your live project

akamed
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 1:16 pm

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by akamed » Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:45 pm

Maybe your pitch wheel is failing, I used to have the same problem.
Try to move the pitch wheel a bit and observe what happens...

CaptainCool
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun May 17, 2020 12:23 am

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by CaptainCool » Sun May 17, 2020 12:29 am

I think you have the same problem I did and I figured it out - definite bug.

I had pitch bends set at a later point in my song. Ableton held onto these bends even when they should no longer have applied because I exited the bend by hitting play to go back to my loop. So if I have 4 bars of a melody, and then another melody with pitch bends - if I hit the play button again to go back to my first 4 bar section (loop set) it holds onto the pitch bend until I enter a new pitch bend and come out of it. Super annoying but I'm fairly certain that's whats occurring at least for me.

So if you hit this problem play until it enters AND exits a bend, then then it should go back to normal.

djkillajewel
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:23 pm

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by djkillajewel » Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:59 pm

I've just encountered the same issue. I have some pitch bend modulation on some midi, followed by a deactivated clip, followed by a second midi clip that isn't supposed to have any modulation. When I play it back in sequence, the modulation continues on that second clip. I seemed to have fixed the issue by, on the first clip, ending the modulation (bringing it back to 0) before the very end of the clip. My sense is that this is a bug and this could be a temporary fix.

TLW
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:37 am

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by TLW » Sat Oct 31, 2020 1:06 am

CaptainCool wrote:
Sun May 17, 2020 12:29 am
I think you have the same problem I did and I figured it out - definite bug.
Not necessarily a bug, could well be a deliberate design decision made for sensible reasons.

For example.

Let’s say I record a clip using a MIDI CC to slowly open a synth’s filter.

When I start recording the next clip do I want that filter CC automatically set to zero or left where I last recorded it? What are the consequences of each option?

1. The CC remains as it was at the end of the first clip so the filter in the new clip starts at the frequency it was set to at the end of the previous clip. If I want it set to a different value I have to edit it.

2. The CC is reset to zero. That command is sent to the synth and as a result the filter is completely closed, meaning I have to reset the CC to where it “should be”. Which would be a complete nuisance and mean having to edit the filter CC in every clip after the first because at the start of every new clip the DAW would be setting the filter to fully closed.

Recording a clip that ends with a pitch bend and wanting the subsequent clip to start with the same amount of pitch bend is also something that happens.

How to implement MIDI CCs and pitch bend across multiple clips - and transport stops and starts - is something every DAW builder has to consider. For Live it’s perhaps a particularly difficult decision because session view in particular tends to encourage thinking in terms of individual clips that may have no direct relationship to the content of clips later on in the same track.

There’s no obvious solution to this that can make everyone happy - and when playing live my experience indicates it’s easier to release the pitch wheel to reset it just as a clip starts than it is to reset pretty much any other controller or several controllers to where it is wanted. One possible solution might be a per-clip setting giving the option to zero all (or some selected) controllers when a clip is recorded or to leave them where they were.
Live 10 Suite, 2020 27" iMac, 3.6 GHz i9, MacOS Catalina, RME UFX, assorted synths, guitars and stuff.

Heuge
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:28 pm

Re: HELP! Weird Ableton Problem (MIDI changing pitch)

Post by Heuge » Tue Sep 14, 2021 12:16 am

the ghost pitch change. happens to my 808s a lot...

scary at first but i quickly learned that if you save the project, quit, and reopen, it will put you right where you were and restore the pitch you expect.

thankfully.

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