more computer keyboard keys for midi capture, playback from marker and whole screen for midi notes

[Ville Rantanen]

This is an e-mail I sent to Ableton, which explains three new features I'd like to see be added to Ableton Live:

Hi!

I would like to suggest three features which would improve Ableton Live.

Composing new melodies and chord progressions would be much easier if, when enabled, the computer keyboard would capture midi note information from all of the keyboard rows, that is, the rows 1,2,3,4…, q,w,e,r…, a,s,d,f… and z,x,c,v. Even the keys/buttons in the very edge of those rows could capture midi data, that is, not numbers or letters but signs (which I’ve put in brackets) like (+), (´), (¨), (‘), (,), (.), (-) and (<). This would come extremely handy not only when composing melodies and chord progressions but also vocal chops for example.

Another feature I utmostly desire is as follows: when playback is started when a midi clip has been chosen, the playback would start in the position where the marker is, not from the beginning of the midi clip. I already know that this can be done by pressing option/alt when pressing spacebar. The simple problem with this method is that it doesn’t allow me to start the playback from wherever I want when I have midi notes selected in the midi clip. I know that I can have notes selected and start the playback from wherever I want with the speaker icon, but to be honest, it’s much easier and nicer to start the playback with spacebar instead of clicking the speaker icon with the touchpad/mouse.

Another simple feature relating to the view when drawing or moving around midi notes: it would be nice to have a larger view of the midi notes on the screen without the clip info and the option view (/2, x2, reverse, invert, legato, duplicate and randomize; I’ve highlighted it with a rectangle in the screen shot), showing, so that I could have the whole screen for the midi clip view.

Best regards, Ville Rantanen