Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Tue May 11, 2010 7:41 am

Hi, sorry, dmg-files are Mac Disk Images. I created a zip-file containing the MIDI Remote Script for Selected Track Control. I updated the webpage accordingly. Here is the direct link:

http://stc.wiffbi.com/stc.zip

P.S.: Sorry, just the compiled python code for now – I somehow managed to misplace the source-code.

JamesBowers
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 2:33 am

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by JamesBowers » Thu May 13, 2010 2:50 am

wiffbi - THANKS! I was pulling my hair out with MidiTranslator and have a solution to almost all my Ableton woes using Selected Track Control and Midistroke. Using a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI floor controller, I'm navigating up and down on a track, sideways to select other tracks and have them auto-arm, starting/stopping, metronome on/off and Overdub. Heaven. I want to send you a donation, but when I logged into paypal to send you a token, the site was in German and it made me a bit uncomfortable. Can you set it up to be in English?

I have one pedal on the floorboard assigned to "UP" in midiStroke. Right now it will select the clip above, but not send it a "Launch Clip" Message.
Is it possible for Selected Track Control to assign a command to work on any clip?

Once I get my scripts for STC and MidiStroke with FCB1010 I want to share them on the Ableton forum. It's such a treat to have my hands free!

I hope to hear from you!

James
http://JamesBowersMusic.com

3dot...
Posts: 9996
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:10 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by 3dot... » Thu May 13, 2010 4:14 am

nice work there wiffbi!

just popped in to pimp my "selected track "m4l device :mrgreen:

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=141895

can be keyboard or midi mapped
or "locked" to a controller (m4l required...)
Image

wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Fri May 14, 2010 5:06 pm

@3dot..., that looks nice too. Hm, m4l is looking like lots of fun…

@ JamesBowers: thanks, I will look into this paypal-language thing and will let you know when I fixed it. As for your "UP" key-command for selection and firing of that clip: yes, that should be possible and I will try to implement this in the upcoming release! :) There is already a command for selecting and fireing the next scene (in the upcoming release), so why not just do the same within one track, e.g. a clip.

Good news for the rest of us without m4l: I made quite some progress these days with the MIDI Remote Script (more controls) as well as the Mac-App (momentary toggles or repeats when keeping the key pressed). I will let you know right here, when things are in a state to be released.

JamesBowers
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 2:33 am

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by JamesBowers » Fri May 14, 2010 6:33 pm

That's awesome. I'll look forward to your next release! Will "select and fire" allow me to work with MIDIStroke to move UP or down and launch a clip in PLAY mode?

DOWN-RETURN works great to move down and record the next clip, but I can't hit pedals for up-launch or down-launch.

Let me know about paypal. Any idea when your next version will be released?

James

wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Mon May 17, 2010 8:18 pm

Hi James,
JamesBowers wrote:That's awesome. I'll look forward to your next release! Will "select and fire" allow me to work with MIDIStroke to move UP or down and launch a clip in PLAY mode?
Actually, you will not need MIDIStroke as I will have a better documentation concerning the MIDI-Implementation-Chart for SelectedTrackControl, so you can directly map the functionality of SelectedTrackControl onto your FCB1010. Of course, MIDIStroke will work too. Basically hitting ALT-DOWN (or ALT-UP accordingly) should select the next (or previous) clip and fire it (in the upcoming version of SelectedTrackControl).
JamesBowers wrote: DOWN-RETURN works great to move down and record the next clip, but I can't hit pedals for up-launch or down-launch.
Not sure I understand correctly, but shouldn't hitting down, then return in PLAY-mode select and fire the next clip in session view? The only problem with this is, that session view needs to have focus for this to work. I have parts of SelectedTrackControl working controlling session view even without it having focus.
JamesBowers wrote: Let me know about paypal. Any idea when your next version will be released?

James
Thanks, I will let you know. Concerning release date: not sure yet, but depending on how I find the time, I might make it until the weekend so you have something to play with. :) Albeit probably without a lot of documentation and just the MIDI-Implementation-Chart.

srcodling
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:55 am

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by srcodling » Thu May 20, 2010 10:35 pm

YES! YES! YES! YES!

This is awesome! Thanks SO much!

Got it working on Windows, mapping my FCB1010 through Bome's Midi Translator, using the midi notes you so kindly identified, and using the Midi Remote Script you wrote (Select Track Control) and gave the code for... I have been wanting to do this for many years, literally, and have always had to do workarounds which were FAR more cumbersome.

For instance I used to previously program my FCB1010 to record/arm different tracks, but it meant having to preprogram the Live set with the right number of tracks, and to use a whole bunch of banks on the FCB1010. NOW I can just add tracks as I want, arm them by foot, mute & solo, and it all takes only THREE buttons on my Behringer!

Thank you VERY much for helping with this... Off to donate some money! This is so great!

srcodling
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:55 am

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by srcodling » Thu May 20, 2010 10:40 pm

Tried to use the paypal link on your site, but it seems like it won't let me log in to my account... Perhaps because it's not the American/English paypal site? I'd really like to send some cash to show my gratitude... Let me know if you can figure this out from your end...

Jekblad
Posts: 2351
Joined: Tue May 13, 2008 2:02 am
Contact:

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by Jekblad » Thu May 20, 2010 11:39 pm

awesome ness!
2.4 ghz Macbook Pro 8gb RAM, SSD, Live 9 Suite, Puremagnetik, Minimal Talent

wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Fri May 21, 2010 3:01 pm

Hi all,

I am happy you like this! Actually, I am even happier, because I think you will like even more what I have got almost ready to release : I added lots more useful controls per track such as switching monitoring modes, resetting pan and volume, control sends, etc. but also added session view control – now you can control session view with your keyboard without it having focus (so keeping focus on the Library-Browser or other element while switching scenes and/or tracks is possible)! Plus a lot of other useful actions. I will rework the website to explain everything better.

But no worries, it is backwards compatible!

It is also a complete rewrite of the MIDI Remote Script, so now it is even faster - I had to do this, because in the original implementation I had to rebuild the MIDI mappings as soon as you switched tracks. Which is okay for a small number of controls, but having added quite a few controls to it, this resulted in a short but noticeable delay sometimes.

I will also release the Python-sources to this on github (probably) so everyone can learn from it and/or improve upon it, etc.


Of course, this time there will be a proper MIDI implementation chart, so you can use whatever controller you want with SelectedTrackControl.



The Mac-App, that fires those MIDI notes on keyboard-input, got better too: temporary buttons (e.g. for temporary mute press and hold turns it into temporary, which undos mute as soon as you release the key) und repeat mode (holding down the key repeats it – useful for scrolling session view or changing volume, etc).




Concerning PayPal: thanks for considering a donation! I will look into this as soon as I have the next release ready. I will let you know here then.


Windows-Users: The MIDI Remote Script will work on Windows too, but you need a MIDI controller for it. For keyboard control (that is what the Mac-App is for) in Windows, I am still looking for ways to accomplish this. I have Parallels now and will try to come up with something. I am happy for any suggestions for apps that can turn keyboard-combos into MIDI.

3dot...
Posts: 9996
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:10 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by 3dot... » Fri May 21, 2010 3:13 pm

amazing stuff !!! so it works for live7 as well?
Image

wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Wed May 26, 2010 11:03 pm

Okay, finally! I uploaded the new webpage for Selected Track Control! Have fun with it and let me know how it works for you.

http://stc.wiffbi.com/

There is so much stuff to tell you about, but the most important updates are:
  • arm, solo and mute the selected track (of course) – new: it respects your config-settings concerning exclusive mute/solo.
  • control volume, pan and send 1-4 of the selected track
  • toggle monitoring mode
  • in-/decrease tempo
  • toggle metronom, overdub, punch-in, punch-out, loop, record without having to manually assign them
  • navigating session view: launch scenes and clips (next/previous, next/previous available clip <- Launches the next/previous clipslot, that is available – i.e. that is filled with a clip to play or – if the track is armed – is empty/ready to record into @srcodling: is that what you wanted?)
A list of every available key command and its MIDI-equivalent is available at http://stc.wiffbi.com/midi-implementation-chart.html


The Mac-app – as already said before – was improved as well: momentary toggles and auto-repeat-buttons are the new additions.


Windows users: the MIDI Remote Script works on Windows, too! You just need a MIDI-controller – or software, that converts keyboard shortcuts into MIDI messages, to use it with. AFAIK Bome’s Midi Translator Pro does transform keyboard shortcuts into MIDI commands on Windows. If you have it and want to try Selected Track Control, have a look at the MIDI implementation chart at http://stc.wiffbi.com/midi-implementation-chart.html

Live 7: I do not have Live 7 to test the MIDI Remote Script on, but I will try if I can get my hands on one. Also, it might just be, that the released MIDI Remote Script is compiled with Live 8 and Live 7’s Python-version does not like that. As soon as I have released the source-code for the MIDI Remote Script we will find out (working on that too – which license, where to put it, etc.).

Changing MIDI notes/CCs: so your MIDI-controller is not programmable and does not match Selected Track Control’s default mappings? You can change the MIDI notes and MIDI CCs in the Python-source-code easily. I will write a short how-to, when I release the source code.

wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Wed May 26, 2010 11:06 pm

Whoops, forgot to add for all those nice people, that wanted to donate:

I updated the PayPal-donation-button to show the donations page in english (it was originally in german, because I am from Germany). I hope it works for you.

wiffbi
Posts: 238
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:53 pm

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by wiffbi » Fri May 28, 2010 2:46 pm

I released the MIDI Remote Script on github. This might help Ableton Live 7 users as the scripts should work in version 7, too – but did not in the previous (compiled only) version as these scripts were compiled in Live 8. I updated the download on http://stc.wiffbi.com/ to include the py-source files, which hopefully compile under Live 7 as well. Let me know, if it works for you!

Also, here is the post concerning the MIDI Remote Script:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... &p=1140411

Cheers!

JamesBowers
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 13, 2010 2:33 am

Re: Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

Post by JamesBowers » Thu Jun 03, 2010 6:17 pm

Hi Wiffbi

Sent you a small donation. Wish it could be more...

I just downloaded your new version of the script. Are there version numbers?
I'm looking forward to monkeying with the "next available clip" function...

a question - I have tv clients that would love to trigger video clips from ableton clip launches. Right now they are going from a music bed into another music bit randomly, and it almost never works rhythmically. Would it be possible to "send" a key command from an ableton clip launch outside of ableton to another program? Perhaps it would require hacking Ableton, but is a script possible? STC or iKey, or....?

Thanks again,

James

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