MIDI Notes to switches - only toggle mode?

[benj_sp]

Hi guys,

I want to use MIDI notes to switch some features on and off (say, Beat Repeat "Repeat" function).

Currently, the only behaviour I can see is a toggle - hit the mapped note once to turn your control on, hit the note again to turn it off. Is it possible to have a GATE mode, or assign the note ons and note offs separately, so that when you hit/hold a note it turns Repeat on, and when I let go of the note if turns it off again?

This is much better for spontaneous jamming and you never get in a state where you don't know the current status of the control etc...

Cheers,

[exaltron]

Hi guys,

I want to use MIDI notes to switch some features on and off (say, Beat Repeat "Repeat" function).

Currently, the only behaviour I can see is a toggle - hit the mapped note once to turn your control on, hit the note again to turn it off. Is it possible to have a GATE mode, or assign the note ons and note offs separately, so that when you hit/hold a note it turns Repeat on, and when I let go of the note if turns it off again?

This is much better for spontaneous jamming and you never get in a state where you don't know the current status of the control etc...

Cheers,

Pff, I know!! I've been trying to figure a way to do this forever. Seems EVERYTHING in Live is toggle only, though why they can't add a "gate" option is beyond me. I know many people from Warper who have tried and failed. The only guy who figured out a solution was Moldover: he runs Live as a plugin in Reaktor.

[Machinate]

I just assign midi cc#s instead - they gate, afai remember.

[ejectorset]

yeah send a CC it works for me for most stuff i have tried.

[benj_sp]

Yeah, I know I can use CC's, I do already.

However, the *keyboard* on my controller gives me 37 extra switches - ie the keys, and I'd like to use them in other ways than playing melodies or triggering clips.

I'm trying to develop and maximise the fingertip control I have, hence the request, and it's a shame it's currently not possible, by the looks of it, without rigging up some intermediate MIDI driver/processor/host/etc.

Live is supposed to make things simpler, not *more* complicated...

[exaltron]

What about a translator to achieve this, I know a lot of people are using the Bome (PC only though, so no translator for me). I would think it could be configured to turn each depression/let-up into a toggle.

Anyone achieve this? Are there MIDI translators for Mac?

[Johnisfaster]

using midipipe you can use a simple message converter to change note off into note on, that way when you hit the note it toggles the swich and when you release the note midipipe tells ableton that you're actually hitting the note for a second time.

it's somewhat useful.

[benj_sp]

I'll look into Midipipe, thanks for the link (I've downloaded it before, but I don't think I'd played with it..)

Edit: Ok, it seems to work well. I simply capture the notes coming in from my controller port, convert the note offs into note ons, and output them to an IAC driver, which is a "remote" port in Live, and it does the trick - note events are now effectively gates (ie, as soon as I let go on the note, the controlled switch turns off again.)

It's a bit of a pain to have the run the Midipipe utllity and load my script beforehand, and if you want to set up more complicated keyboard functionality where some things are toggles and some things are gate, it would require a more complicated MIDIpipe script (converting some notes, leaving others alone etc) - it would obviously be preferable to have this functionality in Live and stored with the set.

But most importantly it works, and offers some flexibility, so thanks for the tip!