ACTUAL Multi-Clip Editing—Editing notes from different clips

[Wicks6]

Hi there! I'm a long-time Logic Pro X user, recently turned Ableton-er.


There's one feature I'm really missing from Logic Pro that, in my opinion, should've been included with Ableton's introduction of Multiple MIDI Clip Editing.

Simply put, Logic allows the user to not only select multiple 'clips' and VIEW the MIDI notes from each—Logic allows the user to actually edit MIDI notes from the selected clips.

I'll provide a contextual example—I produce a lot of melodic glitch hop, melodic dubstep, and electro house. So, to make my supersaws (like many other producers), I often have 2-3 layers of saw chords playing the same chords—often across multiple octaves, containing 4-5 notes each, plus a bass layer.

I'd also have an additional 2 layers containing a mid-bass and a sub bass.

What happens when I need to make ALL of the chords 1/16th longer? What if I want to slice multiple midi notes across multiple clips simultaneously? (<—MIDI note slicing is another feature request I have.) What about erasing a small, quick chord hit that once happened with a kick drum that I now want erased?

In Logic, this was simple. I only had to:
-Select all MIDI Clips I wanted to edit in the timeline, and double-click
-Select the notes in the "detail view"
-Make my edits

In that workflow, ALL MIDI clips across ALL chord layers—including the two, simpler bass
layers—could be edited simultaneously. Shortened, lengthened, moved, etc.

In Ableton, to achieve the same result, I have to:
-Edit ONE of the chord layer clips
-Erase all other chord layers
-Copy and paste from the single edited layer to the previously erased chord layers

-Edit ONE of the bass layers
-Erase all other bass layers
-Copy and paste from the single edited layer
-(most times) change the octave of the subbass

This is incredibly tedious. In my opinion, what Ableton calls Multi-Clip Editing is in fact, not Multi-Clip Editing. Rather, it is Multi-Clip Viewing.

In other words, it's not helpful that I can see all of the layers involved—I need to be able to edit them all simultaneously to actually improve my workflow.

If you have any questions, or would like so see what I mean, I would be more than happy to provide a screen-capture video in Logic to display the functionality I'm talking about. I'd even be willing to voice it over, and keep it succinct (under a minute).

[S4racen]

Maybe it's coming.... It's already there with MaxforLive...

Cheers
D

[Wicks6]

Maybe it's coming.... It's already there with MaxforLive...

Cheers
D

Really? I have Live 10 Suite, and therefore Max. Is this something I'd have to program myself, or does such a thing already exist?

[Stromkraft]

Maybe it's coming.... It's already there with MaxforLive...

Cheers
D

Really? I have Live 10 Suite, and therefore Max. Is this something I'd have to program myself, or does such a thing already exist?

There's a commercial product predating Live 10, is what he means. What you ask for is possible in MFL I think, therefore likely will be implemented by Ableton. Please correct me s4racen, if there are some limitations in that product in this area, that I'm missing.

I agree that viewing the other notes only helps a little. There should be no boundaries for multi-clip editing. All select combos should work always, unless it makes sense to add restrictions.

[S4racen]

"What you ask for is possible in MFL I think, therefore likely will be implemented by Ableton"

That would be my betting... The MultiClip Editor contains many more MIDI editing capabilities though than you can even do on a singular clip.

Cheers
D

[Wicks6]

"What you ask for is possible in MFL I think, therefore likely will be implemented by Ableton"

That would be my betting... The MultiClip Editor contains many more MIDI editing capabilities though than you can even do on a singular clip.

Cheers
D

I'm sure it has more capabilities, but like I said in my original post, it's a big missing feature.

The ability to actually edit multiple clips speeds up workflow tenfold. It's very frustrating to not have this functionality in a program I've been told is "better" than Logic a hundred times over.

[S4racen]

"I'm sure it has more capabilities, but like I said in my original post, it's a big missing feature."

But if they only implement the current MIDI editing features then it'll still be lacking...

https://isotonikstudios.com/product/mid ... ip-editor/

Cheers
D

[Idonotlikebroccoli]

Yes! I was incredibly disappointed to see it marketed as multi clip *editing*, when -as you say- it's just multi clip *viewing*.

Bitwig's piano roll works the way I was expecting from Live 10, and it lets you lock clips for editing.
By locking every clip except the one in the foreground, you get Live's current way of doing things.



In Live 10, It's really frustrating when I decide to transpose one chord, played by multiple clips, and I have the option of *seeing* all the clips' contents, but I still have to enter each individual clip and move its notes.

I would either like something like Bitwig's implementation, or the option of using a modifier key to have the selection applied to all clips, when in multi clip viewing mode.

https://isotonikstudios.com/product/mid ... ip-editor/

I have used this solution, and it works for now, but I still want proper native multi clip editing. I will gladly pay the upgrade price if that's the only new feature.