change arrangement view shading

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struknes
Posts: 172
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 3:52 pm

change arrangement view shading

Post by struknes » Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:39 am

How do you change the shading of the arrangement view? Right now it alternates dark grey and light grey every four bars.

I want that alteration to start and stop in different places than it does by default, if you follow me.
DAW: Ableton Live 9 Standard
OS: Windows 10
CPU: Intel i7

HRI: Scarlett 6i6

chrk
Posts: 1728
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by chrk » Sat Jul 08, 2017 5:40 am

struknes wrote:Right now it alternates dark grey and light grey every four bars.
Depending on how deep you zoom into your arrangment through tha arrangement overview or beat-time ruler the alternation dynamically changes, also infuenced by your grid options.

You're not telling what you want to achieve, but you may want to look at 6.3 Launching the Arrangement with Locators.

struknes
Posts: 172
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 3:52 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by struknes » Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:07 am

Thanks for the response chrk. What I'm trying to achieve is a symmetry between where my song begins and where the dark grey or light grey begins. I like to move the entire arrangement 1 or 2 bars to the right (so i can record on the first downbeat without clipping the recorded audio by recording on very first downbeat available in the arrangement view). Problem is that by moving the entire arrangement just 1 or 2 bars, I end up having location markers in the middle of light grey and dark grey sections, which is confusing for me.

One workaround is obviously to move my entire arrangement to the 5th bar of the Arrangement View, instead of just the 2nd or 3rd, but I'd rather not have that long of a count-in every time I play the song back.
DAW: Ableton Live 9 Standard
OS: Windows 10
CPU: Intel i7

HRI: Scarlett 6i6

yurki
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:22 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by yurki » Sat May 23, 2020 2:02 pm

I second this question. sometimes I have an odd number of bars and then the grey shades are not logical anymore.
A workaround is to make some extra long/short bars with time signature changes, but it's not optimal.

Gnarly Murphy
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Oct 29, 2020 6:49 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by Gnarly Murphy » Thu Oct 29, 2020 6:52 pm

Bumping this as I'm curious on this as well.

Current shading implies that you're working an 8-bar or 12-bar structure (or really anything divisible by 4.....) What if I wanted a 5 bar loop? How can the shading be adjusted to reflect this?

scg
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:14 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by scg » Fri Mar 17, 2023 1:17 am

I know this isn't the best 'official' place to make feature requests, but since this forum (and thread) exists, I'll offer my +1 here. As others have mentioned, if an arrangement's formal structure happens not to align with 4- or 16-bar increments, the shading can be more distracting/confusing than helpful. It seems an option for this could be added under Preferences->Look/Feel->Display Customization, either just on/off, or an intensity value like for grid lines. (I've read this can be addressed via custom themes, but it'd nice if the option were available directly in Ableton.)

There are certainly other feature requests that are more important, but this seems like something that would be easy to implement. Of course it's easy for outside observers to say something would be 'easy to implement', but this seems like it really could be easy to implement (an on/off option at least).

So, +1!

[Edit: Oops, I mistakenly thought this thread was in the 'Feature Wishlist' forum - this would be more on-topic there.]

orionka
Posts: 99
Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2013 11:42 pm
Location: Chemnitz Germany

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by orionka » Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:25 am

just set a signature change on the top of the arrangement window where you also place locators. Live will reset it‘s shading at this mark based on this local time signature. That‘s the intended workflow.

scg
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:14 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by scg » Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:52 am

orionka wrote:
Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:25 am
just set a signature change on the top of the arrangement window where you also place locators. Live will reset it‘s shading at this mark based on this local time signature. That‘s the intended workflow.
I assume you mean add a redundant time signature (i.e. the same as the current time signature at that location) to 'reset' the shading? That works, but I'm not sure it really addresses the issue. Again though, it's not very important (from my perspective at least) - just more of a 'wish list' kind of thing.

orionka
Posts: 99
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Location: Chemnitz Germany

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by orionka » Fri Mar 17, 2023 8:24 am

I see your point, but it makes sense for a standardized implementation.
It addresses the issue in so far, that this workflow reflects (exactly) what you are trying to achieve: inserting a pause or an irregular gap in the global time signature of your song.
If your structure has local definitions you can define them via a signature start locator. This is simple and an elegant solution, I think.

orionka
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Location: Chemnitz Germany

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by orionka » Fri Mar 17, 2023 8:33 am

ok, fair enough… if you just want to disable this shading, this could be considered as a feature.

scg
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:14 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by scg » Fri Mar 17, 2023 8:37 am

ok, fair enough… if you just want to disable this shading, this could be considered as a feature.
Personally I think it'd be a nice option to have, and would be better than having to add redundant time signatures to the project. But really, it's super minor - there are many things I'd like to see implemented more than this. It's just a 'wish list' kind of thing :)

Rivanni
Posts: 400
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:30 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by Rivanni » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:01 pm

You can disable the alternating color in the theme file.
Make a copy of the theme you use the most (so it's not overwritten when Live updates).
Open the file in a text editor, search for the tag ArrangerGridTiles and set its value to zero.
You can do the same for the clip detail view by adjusting DetailGridTiles.


The location of the theme files on Windows is C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 11 Suite\Resources\Themes
(change 'Suite' to the Live version you are using. )

On MacOS, go to the Applications folder, right or ctrl click on the Live app, and select ‘Show Package Contents’. Then head to Content > App Resources > Themes.
Last edited by Rivanni on Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

scg
Posts: 136
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:14 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by scg » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:24 pm

Rivanni wrote:
Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:01 pm
You can disable the alternating color in the theme file.
Make a copy of the theme you use the most (so it's not overwritten when Live updates).
Open the file in a text editor, search for the tag ArrangerGridTiles and set its value to zero.
You can do the same for the clip detail view by adjusting DetailGridTiles.


The location of the theme files on Windows is C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 11 Suite\Resources\Themes
(change 'Suite' to the Live version to what you're using. )

On MacOS, go to the Applications folder, right or ctrl click on the Live app, and select ‘Show Package Contents’. Then head to Content > App Resources > Themes.
Thanks! I'd been hesitant to mess with the themes for fear of breaking something, but I went ahead and did it, and it worked. Very nice.

venti09
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Apr 14, 2023 2:25 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by venti09 » Fri Apr 14, 2023 2:47 pm

Rivanni wrote:
Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:01 pm
You can disable the alternating color in the theme file.
Make a copy of the theme you use the most (so it's not overwritten when Live updates).
Open the file in a text editor, search for the tag ArrangerGridTiles and set its value to zero.
You can do the same for the clip detail view by adjusting DetailGridTiles.


The location of the theme files on Windows is C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 11 Suite\Resources\Themes
(change 'Suite' to the Live version you are using. )

On MacOS, go to the Applications folder, right or ctrl click on the Live app, and select ‘Show Package Contents’. Then head to Content > App Resources > Themes.
I had to login to say thank you!

i would like to keep this shadow, but any idea if possible to keep the same shadow ratio when zooming in/out ? It's so annoying if you know what i mean. Like in Fl Studio.

Detailed what i mean:

If you fully zoom out at Arrangement view, you’re seeing 16 bar grey, after 16 bar white. As you start to zoom in, it will be 4bar grey, 4bar white, 4bar grey and 4bar white. If you zoom more, it will be more grey and white. It’s maybe only me who annoys, but very much. :oops:

Thanks a lot again!

Rivanni
Posts: 400
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:30 pm

Re: change arrangement view shading

Post by Rivanni » Fri Apr 14, 2023 3:19 pm

I understand exactly what you mean. For me, it was the reason to turn off the shading. The changes in the number of highlighted/shaded bars is just weird. Like you said, jumping from 8 to 2 for example. None of the grid settings can prevent that from happening. It's not something you can set in the theme file either, since that's only about the colors.

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