Ableton Forum

Is there a way to have live rescan the available midi devices?

I sometimes forget to plug in a particular device (keyboard, control surface, etc.) and have to restart live for it to see it.

It would be great if I could have it rescan for them.

Ideas?

apparently Macs can do it. Not sure about PC.

this is driving me nuts, bass vibrates the controller on stage - connection is lost - controller useless unless you reboot mid-set.

is there a rescan option for PC?

Push that. What's up with this? Is it possible to rescan midi devices in Lice on a PC?

If not - go for it Ableton. This is a serious leak in the otherwise excellent workflow of Live. And every other Software Firm is able to do it (ie. Native Instruments, Propellerheads, Steinberg and on and on).

plus 1

thread back from the dead. maybe it belongs in the other forum.

+10000

this gets me all the time. i don't have to reboot the whole pc but i still have to restart the program which takes some time with all the vsts and all.

marue wrote:every other Software Firm is able to do it (ie. Native Instruments, Propellerheads, Steinberg and on and on).

I'm calling bullshit on that line. can anyone confirm this?

PCs cannot do this. I've read it has to do with its wonderful API.

Tone Deft wrote: PCs cannot do this.

AH what? When i work with Traktor i can pull the usb-plug from my Computer, turn my controller off, turn it on again, replug the controller to my Computer and about 2 seconds later Traktor has found the control surface again. When i use my Maschine i can pull the plug, replug it to the computer and a few seconds later it works as tight as before. When working with Reason there is a button in the preferences/control surfaces page that is called "auto-detect surfaces" and it recognizes control surfaces that haven't been online when starting Reason.. Shall i proceed or is that enough to proof that it can be done on a PC?

Maybe you are right when you say "PCs can't do it". As far as i have come regarding this problem there is a system tool on the Mac that provides that functionality. But just because Windows doesn't provide such functionality that is no excuse for Ableton to just say "it can't be done on a PC". It can be done and it should be done. This is lame. And Live is - as it's name says - a tool to play LIVE - and guess what: there are unexpected things happening in Live Situations, and a pulled cable is one of the most common. Ableton should fix that in my opinion.

marue wrote:

Tone Deft wrote: PCs cannot do this.

AH what? When i work with Traktor i can pull the usb-plug from my Computer, turn my controller off, turn it on again, replug the controller to my Computer and about 2 seconds later Traktor has found the control surface again. When i use my Maschine i can pull the plug, replug it to the computer and a few seconds later it works as tight as before. When working with Reason there is a button in the preferences/control surfaces page that is called "auto-detect surfaces" and it recognizes control surfaces that haven't been online when starting Reason.. Shall i proceed or is that enough to proof that it can be done on a PC?

but you're doing all that on a Mac, right?

Maybe you are right when you say "PCs can't do it". As far as i have come regarding this problem there is a system tool on the Mac that provides that functionality. But just because Windows doesn't provide such functionality that is no excuse for Ableton to just say "it can't be done on a PC". It can be done and it should be done. This is lame. And Live is - as it's name says - a tool to play LIVE - and guess what: there are unexpected things happening in Live Situations, and a pulled cable is one of the most common. Ableton should fix that in my opinion.

the bold part above is one of the most dumbest things I've ever read on this forum. Live runs on a PC, it's dependent on the limitations of a PC, this is one of them.

NO. What the hell...

Do you really think i would post that as a proof if i would be doing it on a MAC?
I am doing this on a machine running Windows XP.

and by the way:

Tone Deft wrote: the bold part above is one of the most dumbest things I've ever read on this forum. Live runs on a PC, it's dependent on the limitations of a PC, this is one of them.

stop that. relax. no need to call my statements dumb. There often is a workaround for things not provided in an API, and as you can see Propellerheads and Native Instruments found it. By the way: NI is located in Berlin too, maybe those Ableton Guys could grab some beer and ask them for a hint how to do it. But i think it's more likely they just haven't thought about it.

you wrote that "there's a system tool on the mac" which made me ask that question. I'
glad to know I was wrong that was weird.

I'd still say that blaming Windows can be a legit excuse but sometimes excuses are bullshit.

it would be nice to fix this but I just don't do amateur things like pop out cables I tie them down.

Tone Deft wrote:I'd still say that blaming Windows can be a legit excuse but sometimes excuses are bullshit.

Yep, and as you can see it's bullshit in this case. Time to get the Ableton Developers moving.

marue wrote:stop that. relax. no need to call my statements dumb.

he didn't call them dumb... he called them the "most dumbest"!!!

McQ714 wrote:

marue wrote:stop that. relax. no need to call my statements dumb.

he didn't call them dumb... he called them the "most dumbest"!!!

that was the most dumbest grammar mistake! I was on my iPhone, not used to it. goddamnit there should be an iPhone app to fix that.



I might also call these statements the most dumbest:
"NI is located in Berlin too, maybe those Ableton Guys could grab some beer and ask them for a hint how to do it. But i think it's more likely they just haven't thought about it."

1. they're competitors. NI telling Ableton how to fix this would be giving away their IP to the competitor, clear grounds for termination.

2. the people at Ableton use the software FFS!!!! of course they've thought about it, do you think NONE of them have ever had this happen to them? of course it has, but I have noticed a LOT of Macs in their offices in the videos.


you're losing cred on this, I'd like someone else to confirm that other PC applications let you reconnect a USB device.

+1 for fixing. I've always thought this was really weird behaviour for a program for live use.

Tone Deft wrote: you're losing cred on this, I'd like someone else to confirm that other PC applications let you reconnect a USB device.

I'll just let you check for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvRg48QzAaw