How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
Post Reply
thinkloop
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 8:19 pm

How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Post by thinkloop » Sat May 13, 2017 8:21 pm

After I press play, I want to use the arrow keys to skip ahead or back by a few seconds, but they don't seem to do anything - what are the keyboard shortcuts to navigate playback?

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Post by Stromkraft » Sat May 13, 2017 11:26 pm

thinkloop wrote:After I press play, I want to use the arrow keys to skip ahead or back by a few seconds, but they don't seem to do anything - what are the keyboard shortcuts to navigate playback?
These should really be listed here in the Live 9 manual under 33. Live Keyboard Shortcuts > 33.5 Transport, but it would seem they're not.

In Arrangement mode the left and right arrow keys move one bar and holding down Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) moves one fourth.

These keys have multiple additional roles in other places, so good idea to look through the short cuts linked above.

Mackie control scripts, and I assume others, can give additional control over transport.
Last edited by Stromkraft on Mon May 15, 2017 1:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Make some music!

thinkloop
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 8:19 pm

Re: How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Post by thinkloop » Sun May 14, 2017 7:17 am

Ah so to skip forward a bit, you move around the marker with arrow keys, then press space bar twice - is that the standard flow?

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Post by Stromkraft » Sun May 14, 2017 8:42 am

thinkloop wrote:Ah so to skip forward a bit, you move around the marker with arrow keys, then press space bar twice - is that the standard flow?
I wouldn't know as I either use my Push, my Alphatrack or the GUI. I also make use of locators in Arrangement view.
Make some music!

thinkloop
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 8:19 pm

Re: How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Post by thinkloop » Mon May 15, 2017 3:40 am

Thanks for your help. I wonder if I could manually map some key combination to skip ahead (or back) 1 bar at a time while playing back. Having to mark a spot then double space bar is proving cumbersome in some situations. I don't have any special hardware, just using a mac - if I did, I would probably want arrow keys that skip back and forth, lol.

Pirkka
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:44 am

Re: How do you advance the playhead using the keyboard?

Post by Pirkka » Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:44 am

The arrow keys do not move the PLAYHEAD, they move the CURSOR or SELECTED AREA (latter in case you have anything selected).

It would be thrilling to have a keyboard shorcut to move the actual playhead, especially 1 bar backwards.

Post Reply