Ableton Forum

I wanted to activate the Red Box (feature of APC40, Launchpad, etc.) in Live so I could use it with my own custom controller. I modified a script from http://remotescripts.blogspot.com/ to make a generic 'red box script' for any MIDI controller. I am sharing it here in case it helps anyone else out, because i did not find another simple solution out there.

The script activates the red box and sets the box size, starting position, and which midi channel and midi notes that it responds to. you send it midi notes to move the box around and to launch the clips that it is highlighting.

I configured it to have a 4x4 size box, but the script can be modified to have a different grid size. This added the red box functionality and did not interfere with any of my existing MIDI functionality or mappings. Your mileage may vary! I have tried this only on Windows Vista with Live 7.0.18. I am not sure how it will work with other versions, but you are welcome to try it!

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download RedBox.zip
[ http://www.sendspace.com/file/vtldfi ]

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installation:

- Copy RedBox folder to Ableton's MIDI Remote Scripts folder (example: C:\Program Files\Ableton\Live 7.0.18\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts)

- Launch Ableton and open Preferences > MIDI Sync Tab

- In drop-down Box under 'Control Surface', select 'RedBox'

- In next drop-down Box under 'Input', select MIDI device that your controller is sending MIDI data on.

- *IF you want Ableton to send visual feedback to your controller: In next drop-down Box under 'Output', select MIDI device that your controller is receiving MIDI data on.

instructions:

- 4x4 red box should appear and should be controllable by MIDI.

- default MIDI channel 1

- default MIDI notes to move the red box left/right/up/down are 52/53/58/59

- default MIDI notes to launch clips are:
48,49,50,51
54,55,56,57
60,61,62,63
64,65,66,67

- configure your controller to send those values to ableton to control the red box and to launch clips, or modify the script to change those values to suit your needs.

- i noticed that sending Midi Note ON to move the box will make the box scroll until you send the Note OFF. when I send the On and Off together it just moves it one space.

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modifying the script:

- edit the Variables section of the file RedBox.py to change:
box size (width and height)
box offset (start position)
MIDI channel that your controller uses
midi notes for left/right/up/down buttons
midi notes for clip launch buttons

see the notes in the file for tips on changing the size of the box, because you will need to add or remove and change a couple lines of code if you change the box size.

add multiple highlight boxes if you want to access different sets of clips with different controllers! copy the script to a new folder, call it 'RedBox2' or whatever, and set it up in ableton just like the first one. you can have multiple boxes, and each new box is a different color... red, yellow, purple, etc. i think each box has to be set to a different midi channel. you'll have to experiment with it.

Excellent! Always wondered about someone making a generic one.

This is great
ive just got it working but not sure how to launch scenes?
I can move the box up down left and right and launch the individual clips just not the scenes in the box on the right
I see it says clip_notes = [clip_launch_row_1_notes, clip_launch_row_2_notes, clip_launch_row_3_notes, clip_launch_row_4_notes] so how do I assign these to 68 69 70 71?

any help would be much appreciated thanks

another easy option is this
http://modern.dj/app/

First of all, major kudos for the effort. I've been looking for this since I first started using Ableton and although I've been the owner of a Launchpad for quite some time now, I've always wanted to do this with my MPD.

I've got some questions though;

how could you emulate the launch scene button like on the Launchpad/APC? One button to start all the clips in a scene/row.

And maybe a more complex question, how would you script the up/down buttons to move down [the whole grid size].
This is something I want to do with the launchpad as well, one button to move down 8 clips so with one press you've got a whole new set of clips.

Would really appreciate a solution, but much thanks for putting this script together in the first place

how could you emulate the launch scene button like on the Launchpad/APC? One button to start all the clips in a scene/row.

I don't know about that, but maybe this page helps.

And maybe a more complex question, how would you script the up/down buttons to move down [the whole grid size].
This is something I want to do with the launchpad as well, one button to move down 8 clips so with one press you've got a whole new set of clips.

While on the session page press the session button and select one of the lightened clip buttons or the direction buttons to jump 8 steps in the desired direction.

How would I map the move left and right to a knob or encoder?

the script is looking for a MIDI piano key press to move the box left or right, like "Note 52 ON". The defaults are MIDI channel 1, Notes 52 and 53. If you can configure your Encoder to output MIDI notes when it is turned left or right, then you just need to set it to output notes 52 and 53 on channel 1. That would be done in the configuration utility of your midi controller. If your encoder can only output some other message, then you could use some type of MIDI translator like Bome's to take the output from your encoder and translate it to the desired MIDI note(s) that the red box script is looking for. A knob might be more difficult, as you would have to come up with a way to convert or translate the knobs range of 128 values into the 2 midi notes that we want. I'm sure it is possible, just depends how much work you want to put into it to get the desired result.

Hi, this isn't working in Live 9, any idea on what to update?

Hi,

This is a great effort; really appreciate it. I'm having some trouble getting it to play nice with my Livid Cntrl:r. I've set up the central grid to send the default note values as you've suggested. For some reason, I'm getting visual feedback for a playing clip only on the bottom two rows of buttons, but not on top -- the entire grid launches clips as it should, however.

I was also wondering how I can get visual feedback to show that a clip is loaded in one of those slots; at the moment the buttons are off until a clip is launched. And finally, I'd love to change the colors. Different LED colors on the Cntrl:r are associated with different ranges of velocity values. Huge thanks in advance, I'm relatively clueless when it comes to scripting but I'd love to put in the effort to understand how this works.

/Arkady

SquidHelmet wrote:Hi,

This is a great effort; really appreciate it. I'm having some trouble getting it to play nice with my Livid Cntrl:r. I've set up the central grid to send the default note values as you've suggested. For some reason, I'm getting visual feedback for a playing clip only on the bottom two rows of buttons, but not on top -- the entire grid launches clips as it should, however.

I was also wondering how I can get visual feedback to show that a clip is loaded in one of those slots; at the moment the buttons are off until a clip is launched. And finally, I'd love to change the colors. Different LED colors on the Cntrl:r are associated with different ranges of velocity values. Huge thanks in advance, I'm relatively clueless when it comes to scripting but I'd love to put in the effort to understand how this works.

/Arkady

Didnt livid proided custom scripts?

Just one that's too intricate for me to edit to suit my needs; reading up on Python scripting as much as I can in the interim but any guidance would be great. That component of the Livid Remote Script works perfectly but I'm not entirely fond of the rest of it.

login wrote:Hi, this isn't working in Live 9, any idea on what to update?

Same question. There's not a lot inside the script, so maybe it's just a line or 2. But which and what?

How would you get this to work with Emulator by Smithson Martin? For some reason, no matter which controller I try to use, the red box doesn't appear...

I copied the folder as is into the remote scripts folder (in /appdata, on windows), placed the standard UserConfiguration.txt file in the folder with the scripts, ran ableton, chose RedBox in preferences, selected Emulator Midi and it didn't work, nothing happens, even with all the midi mapped correctly.

Any help would be much appreciated, I've been trying to get this to work for ages now..

Thanks!
Dev

UserConfiguration.txt does not use the red box.

It also does not use python directly.

It is a reference file. You plop in a bunch of data, and then the user code in the appdata remote surfaces folder uses the data you saved to suit its own code and then use it with a controller.

So if you save UserConfiguration.txt files, those go into your User folder.


If you have python scripts, those go into Program Data I think. Program-something. Basically, there was 'Program Files', whichever one comes after that in your root directory (not at my computer right now). It is where Live is installed and will have a Resources folder. With that you find the appropriate folder. There will be a list of other devices. Drop your folder amongst them and you should be in luck.