Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
ohryan
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Sep 01, 2019 9:16 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by ohryan » Sun Nov 03, 2019 3:59 pm

I know, it seems like a very simple thing that you should be able to hotkey+click to set the playback in the editor. don't know why you cannot.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=204536&p=1763122&hi ... k#p1763122

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=236483&p=1765386&hi ... k#p1765386

Tennor
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2018 1:19 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by Tennor » Thu Mar 12, 2020 10:55 am

When a loop is activated it should start from the beginning of the loop point every time when pressing the space bar and not a selected audio event within the loop.
It's fine to start from a selected event if the loop is not activated.

Christian_R
Posts: 231
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:07 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by Christian_R » Wed Mar 25, 2020 6:46 pm

I also want a solution for this. In Arrangement view you can press Alt + Space anywhere inside the MIDI clip, so I find it very annoying that this option is not in Session view. It's a very effective way to modify notes within the MIDI clip, so there must be a way, I hope.

Anyone got a clue? :)

Chouch21
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:55 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by Chouch21 » Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:52 pm

The Space bar is THE BIGGEST problem in Ableton Live.

Each time I'm selecting a Midi clip to slightly change one note and press the space bar, it starts from the beginning of the clip and not where I was.
First, I need to stop it, then search for where I was in the timeline, then click in the arrangement view, then hit spacebar and listen. If, I have to change another note, I have to re-do the process all over again. It really ruins the workflow.

My question is: who needs the playback to start from the beginning of the clip? In which case this is relevant?

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by jestermgee » Sun Apr 05, 2020 11:49 pm

Chouch21 wrote:
Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:52 pm
My question is: who needs the playback to start from the beginning of the clip? In which case this is relevant?
I do, quite often. I tend to make a lot of edits and want to hear it in context of the whole clip.

If you want to resume play instead of restart play, press SHIFT + SPACE which will resume from where you stopped.

You cannot, however, do what is requested in this thread and that is to place a play marker in a session clip to start from as that would need to shift all clips by that amount in playback and that isn't how Session is designed.

LunaticSound
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 2:32 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by LunaticSound » Sun Jun 21, 2020 2:33 pm

Has this not been improved?

Or is there any progress on this front?

It´s killing my vibe honestly.

mariusgm
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:11 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by mariusgm » Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:11 pm

Chouch21 wrote:
Wed Apr 01, 2020 7:52 pm
The Space bar is THE BIGGEST problem in Ableton Live.

Each time I'm selecting a Midi clip to slightly change one note and press the space bar, it starts from the beginning of the clip and not where I was.
First, I need to stop it, then search for where I was in the timeline, then click in the arrangement view, then hit spacebar and listen. If, I have to change another note, I have to re-do the process all over again. It really ruins the workflow.
My exact thoughts too. My workflow is killed, desperate for a workaround for this

JD313
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:04 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by JD313 » Mon Nov 30, 2020 5:12 am

Seriously Ableton please just make playback in arrangement view as intuitive and easy as other DAWs like FL. It's crazy that I even have to use shift-space.

slinky831
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:45 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by slinky831 » Fri Jan 29, 2021 8:12 pm

I agree. Spacebar should start playback from wherever the cursor is blinking in the midi edit window, regardless of where it was last was in the global edit window. This is how it works in logic pro and extremely inconvenient to have to click with the mouse on the timeline speaker icon or have to click up in the global edit window to get the global cursor in the right place before pushing spacebar.

The global timeline location/cursor should be synced with the midi edit timeline/cursor and you shoudl be able to play with spacebar regardless of whether you are in the global window or the midi edit window.

Greg FitzPatrick
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:04 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by Greg FitzPatrick » Thu Mar 04, 2021 2:03 pm

My current solution which I believe is the best one in lieu of what we are all asking for:


Use the arrangement position counter in the main window. Playback will start from that position in the midi note editor until you change the position counter again. Unfortunately, the measures&beats header in the note editor will not match that of the main window unless your clip starts at 1.1.1. so you will need to keep that in mind.

It is also possible to use the arrangement position cursor to set a playback position in the note editor, but only if you are editing one clip at a time. If you are editing more than one clip you must use the arrangement position counter.





I agree with the complaint. It does play havoc with the workflow.

These are my workarounds - none of which are optimal.

Lets say you have a clip in you editor. You start listening from the beginning, but eventually find a section further along you want to fiddle with and want the space bar to play at a position you choose shortly before that particular point. The little speaker is awkward to get to and doesn't remember where you want to start from.

1. You can move the loop bar in the main window to position your desired starting point. And you can still get back to the beginning of the clip using the speaker ikon.

2. You can use the clip start marker to position your desired starting point, but you won't easily be able to play the whole clip from the beginning without repositioning the start marker (the speaker ikon wont go there)

3 Turn on the clip's loop. Loop the entire clip. Now move the start marker to your desired starting point. With the loop active you can use the speaker ikon to play the entire loop from the beginning.
'
! don't forget to turn off the loop and reposition the start marker when you're done.!
Last edited by Greg FitzPatrick on Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

chabb
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:08 am

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by chabb » Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:42 pm

I completely agree. the little speaker is zero, zero, archi zero. it is not precise and you have to make the gesture with the mouse each time you want to start reading. One good method, which has been adopted in many other DAWs which have midi specific editing windows, is to be able to click anywhere in the bottom of the grid of a midi clip, and that this position is the start of the reading, and this starting position should not change if I edit a note or a controller. It works like that in the arrangement, WHY it doesn't work like that in the midi editor.
It's totally silly, inefficient, annoying.

I know that i can clic in the bottom of the grid of a midi clip and use the Alt (Opt) Spacebar shortcuts to play the midi clip from this point.
BUT Alt spacebar is not easy to do thouthand time a day. Maybe an option in the preference pane could permit to change this behaviour, or maybe a shortcuts panel could permit to change that.

If this is not possible, another solution would be to click somewhere in the midi editor bar of the measures and have that click specify a starting point for the next reading. the space bar starting the reading. This way, I can edit notes or controllers but I still have the same starting point in the midi clip to listen to what I just edited. when I want to go further in the clip, I just have to click once somewhere in the bar of the measures to define a new point of reading in the midi clip.

One thing: if you Cmd Click in the playback bar of a midi clip (where you usually click with the speaker) that moves the start point of the midi clip. But what is annoying is that it lagged all the midi clip compared to the arrangement.
If we change the start point of a clip in the midi editor, this should also move that start in the arrangement, so that the midi clip does not shift away from the arrangement. I don't understand how it is possible for software editors to make such a mistake.

All this is due to the logic of Live which is oriented "loop" and not linear edition. Ableton, Live is a REALLY GREAT MUSIC SOFT, but you must improve the navigation and the management of the linear edition of your software to reach the level of Logic or Protools.

081602
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 1:01 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by 081602 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 1:03 pm

another possible solution....
Just wanted to add that I had the same problem - and I realized someone else who was working on the project had selected "set song start time here" on a marker at the beginning of the song. so whenever i played, the song would start at that marker, which was at the beginning.

gbert
Posts: 66
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2018 6:02 am

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by gbert » Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:21 am

Quite amazing that this thread started 7 years ago and the limitation still remains. This is an obvious UI inconsistency between the track and clip areas in the arrangement view. Clicking in the clip empty space should set the play start point as it does in the track area. Otherwise there doesn’t seem to be a purpose for drawing the vertical line in the clip area when clicking in empty space there. It implies that play will start from that point in the clip.

Change the behavior to have the play start changed for both the track and clip views when clicking in empty space. Easy fix. Matches the behavior of other DAWs, which have this behavior for good reasons.

Raica
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2021 11:14 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by Raica » Thu Mar 18, 2021 11:36 pm

I came from pro tools and cant believe that ableton has this problem. It honestly infuriates me after all the good things I heard about ableton that this problem exists. Pro tools playback is very intuitive. Double click to place the marker where you want and it plays from there . If I want to hear from the beginning of a clip I'm editing I'll place the marker there MYSELF, I don't want to find the spot I want to start from every time I edit a mfkn note. It obviously sucks and I dont know why it would be designed like this. Its soooooo inconvenient and makes me want break things. I had a copy of protools for free and could actually get things done. I paid for Ableton live 10 suite and this one problem makes it almost worthless in my opinion. Makes me think Ableton designers dont even use Ableton or why would they do this??? It blows

grandpianoPHC
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:38 pm

Re: Can't start playback where midi edit marker is (vs. arrgmnt)

Post by grandpianoPHC » Sat Mar 20, 2021 7:39 pm

Go to the first locator. RIght click. Uncheck "Set song start timehere".

Post Reply