Any way to open a Live set (file) remotely via MIDI?

MashedBuddha · Post by **MashedBuddha** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:00 pm

Basically, can I assign a MIDI function to load Live files? If not, how does one go from song to song without mousing on the laptop to open a file? I'm not doing a DJ set.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 10:03 pm

Load all of your songs into one Live set and launch at will.

I've got over 500 scenes in one Live set and can select and launch any scene via MIDI or remote keystrokes within a few seconds.

MashedBuddha · Post by **MashedBuddha** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:15 am

I don't see how that would work. I'm triggering loops with the Trigger Finger and playing soft synths with my keyboard. Each set will have different synths, loops and scenes.

inis · Post by **inis** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:38 am

Without getting too into it, i think i get what you want to do, and no, you wont be able to do it. Just have to work around it or figure out another way to trigger stuff.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:43 am

MashedBuddha wrote:I don't see how that would work. I'm triggering loops with the Trigger Finger and playing soft synths with my keyboard. Each set will have different synths, loops and scenes.

You can do this and a lot more, especially if you use the IAC drivers. Every scene can be set up to trigger different clips with the same Trigger Finger buttons. I play live percussion like this, and have set up 16 different kits that are triggered from the same 8 drum pads.

If your synth plug-ins allow remote selection of patches, it's a piece of cake. When you launch a new scene, your synth automatically loads the new patch, and your Trigger Finger is automatically set up to trigger a completely different set of clips.

If you think it, you can do it. Sometimes you just gotta think outside the box...

MashedBuddha · Post by **MashedBuddha** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:28 pm

You can do this and a lot more, especially if you use the IAC drivers. Every scene can be set up to trigger different clips with the same Trigger Finger buttons. I play live percussion like this, and have set up 16 different kits that are triggered from the same 8 drum pads.

First off, what are the IAC drivers? Second, I assume I would have to have several scenes to each song if I'm going to trigger similar loops that share the same column. Third, could you post the template that you describe so I can get a better idea of what you're talking about?

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:50 pm

The IAC drivers are Macintosh virtual MIDI ports that allow you to use one clip to launch one or many others. For example, sending a three-note chord to an IAC driver can cause three separate MIDI-mapped clips to fire. I use this all the time for lighting and video. I can trigger one clip, and the appropriate audio, video, and lighting clips all fire without having to use a whole scene.

Regarding firing multiple clips in the same column, you can still have hundreds of scenes and navigate up and down each column without having to load another Live set.

My set wouldn't do you any good. Basically, I've got 82 clips in 82 tracks for audio, lighting, and video, but they're all in the same scene. I launch the scene, but then play live audio, video, and lights from a drum controller. Obviously, the tracks I play are in different columns from the preset ones.

Basically, by setting things up logically, you'll be able to do everything you want to do in a single Live set.

Hope that helps!

ben_blue · Post by **ben_blue** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:17 am

you COULD use Bomes midi translator and midi yoke if you are PC.
http://www.bome.com/midi/translator/
http://www.midiox.com/zip/MidiYokeSetup.msi

it allows you to convert midi messages to keystrokes.

you could assign these to midi pads, maybe a special trigger finger preset u create.

- CTRL - O
- ENTER
- arrow keys
- etc.
its simple and works like a champ. i dont do that but i assgin midi to CTRL -M, F12, TAB, and SHIFT TAB among others.

if you do this, you'll need to run your trigger finger into Bomes instead of Live, and from Bomes into Live. (disable the remote input for trigger finger in Live).

so now your midi is
TF-> LIVE
and now it'd be
TF-> BOMES -> out bomes yoke out 1 -> in Live yoke in 1
make sense?
if youre on Mac, im sure theres a similar app to bomes, and IAC is the same as midi yoke ( virtual midi cable, or, 8 of them.)

/ben

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:42 am

apparently theres a version of bomes for mac on the way. if he gets enough support or something... not entirely sure, but there was a mention recently in the forum of it.

MashedBuddha · Post by **MashedBuddha** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:02 am

BTW I'm on PC. I've been experimenting with both approaches. I found that the Bomes MIDI translator works great, I can send "CTRL O [filename]"

But then I thought what if I wanted to blend any of the songs together... and I would have to make sure it's always opening from the right folder.

So the other approach is considerably more involved, at least for me, at the moment.

I can trigger one clip, and the appropriate audio, video, and lighting clips all fire without having to use a whole scene.

So how do you do that? (I'm using Midi OX/Yoke)

I launch the scene, but then play live audio, video, and lights from a drum controller. Obviously, the tracks I play are in different columns from the preset ones.

How do you launch a scene without it playing all the clips? Sorry, but I'm still confused.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:06 am

Probably didn't explain myself very well...

I whack a pad on the drum controller, which is MIDIed into the Ozonic MIDI in on channel 10. Live fires the corresponding clip, which plays the chord that fires the audio (Hollaback kick sample in this case, can be audio or MIDI), video (Arkaos VJ rewired into Live, in this case plays the live video feed with the 'Earthquake' effect), and lighting clips (MIDI out to MIDI-DMX converter, in this case fires the strobe sweep).

In a Live MIDI track, make a MIDI clip that contains a chord of 3 notes. Give this chord a key or MIDI mapping. Now when you trigger it, instead of sending this chord to an instrument or a real MIDI output, send the output to the IAC driver (or the PC equivalent). On another Live MIDI track, use the same IAC channel as an input, so the 3 note chord is coming right back into Live. However, instead of it playing an instrument on it's way in, it's used for MIDI mapping, just like you'd assigned those three notes to three clips on your MIDI keyboard. It's just like you played the three MIDI mapped notes on your keyboard, but you can do it with one note. It really opens up lots of possibilities and combinations.

So you launch one clip, it goes out to the virtual MIDI out, and right back in as MIDI mapping.

Those three clips it launches can be anywhere, as long as they're not in the same track (column). They can be scenes, too! So you can have lots of 'mini-scenes' set up anywhere, and they don't have to be in the same scene.

I can trigger a whole sequence of audio/lighting/video this way without having to set up hundreds of scenes. The only limitation is that each IAC driver channel output is limited to the 128 MIDI notes. However, there are 16 channels per driver, and you can have more drivers, too!

I don't know if that's any clearer! If not, I'll send a sample Live file.

Hope that helps!

Spaturno · Post by **Spaturno** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:02 am

Hambone, you're THE professionist. I use this method to auto-assign midi signals for complex set-up.
Example: with a 128-notes scale routed back to Live you can make thousands assignments in a minute.

Got a set-up with 4 tracks and 100 scenes last year, with this method I mapped 400 clips in just the time of a coffee (one channel per track, notes from 0 to 99 per row)

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:47 am

Spaturno wrote:Hambone, you're THE professionist.

Not too sure about that!

The IAC driver approach takes some time to understand, but then you can really harness its power.

When I do lighting and video, I make lots of mini-scenes from Live clips that I drag in. For example, each scanner has 6 parameters controlled by 6 tracks of CC curves. All video effects are controlled by CC curves, too, and some of the effects have as many as 10! There are 84 Live tracks, but it runs smoothly, as most of them are MIDI controlling video and lighting.

I set up lots of basic 'building blocks' in session view, then use the IAC driver to assign individual letters on the keyboard to launch multiple clips and/or scenes. Another advantage to using the IAC driver is that you can leave all of your basic clips launch unquantized, then just quantize the IAC note/chord that fires them to whatever you want.

Then I listen to the track, and 'play' the keyboard to record all of the CC clips into arrangement view, consolidate, then drag over to session view.

Then, to save time in the future, I drag the newly recorded blocks into the browser as new Live clips to use again. This way, I'm building up a library of lighting and video Live clips.

Then one day I might get enough sleep...