how to keep plugin windows open on mac?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Fanu
Posts: 426
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:50 pm
Location: Helsinki

Re: how to keep plugin windows open on mac?

Post by Fanu » Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:21 pm

You mean when you switch to another app, plugins disappear and don't stay on the screen…isn't that kind of logical?
I mean, if plugins stayed while you'd switch to, say, Excel, and you had a big-azz Pro-Q3 there covering that app, wouldn't that be sort of annoying?
I'd guess that would really cause some complaints.

subparuser
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 1:18 pm

Re: how to keep plugin windows open on mac?

Post by subparuser » Fri Dec 18, 2020 8:25 pm

Fanu wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:21 pm
You mean when you switch to another app, plugins disappear and don't stay on the screen…isn't that kind of logical?
I mean, if plugins stayed while you'd switch to, say, Excel, and you had a big-azz Pro-Q3 there covering that app, wouldn't that be sort of annoying?
I'd guess that would really cause some complaints.

Not really. What would be logical is if the plugin windows maintained their z-order in the pushdown z-ordering system instead of disappearing entirely. That is to say, if they're set to always-on-top that that would be constrained to within the Live window hierarchy leaving the OS hierarchy to paint other application windows as desired.

briantully
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:09 pm

Re: how to keep plugin windows open on mac?

Post by briantully » Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:19 pm

Yeah this is really a very strange user experience. I was trying to drag a sample from a Finder window into a third-party plugin window (Rhythmiq), but anytime Live loses focus and the Finder gains focus the Rhytmiq UI window disappears, so there's nothing to drag INTO. There's a setting in Live's preferences under "Plug-ins" to automatically hide plugin windows, so I thought by unchecking that I would be able to accomplish my simple task. NOPE! That setting doesn't seem to do anything or is mislabeled. Apparently Live uses some custom window manager for third-party plugins that will automatically close when Live loses focus, whereas if you open the Live preferences window, it will stay open even when Live loses focus.

So the workaround for my task, and maybe yours, was to add the directory containing the file I wanted to drag in into Ableton's "Places" section within Abelton's file browser. Then I could see the file from within Abelton's file browser and drag it into the plugin window. It's a clunky workaround, but it works

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

bffmike
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:02 am

Re: how to keep plugin windows open on mac?

Post by bffmike » Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:03 am

I know this is a couple years late, but get an app called Yoink! It will pop a little window up when you start dragging files from FInder, and you can drag files into this little window. You can then click on Live to activate it and then drag the file from Yoink! to your plugin.

Alternatively, if the finder window is already visible to the side of LIve, you can drag the file from the Finder window (this will NOT bring the Finder to the front, and therefore Live won't hide the plugin window) directly into Live.

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