MIDI Note Editor - adjusting velocity when multiple notes selected

[Bortmeister]

I'm relatively new to Ableton and keep coming across things that don't operate as I'd expect. I have a basic question about editing MIDI velocity with multiple notes selected...

If you select multiple notes of varying velocity then drag up or down, Ableton seems to apply some kind of proportional stretch to the velocity range - the louder notes increase or decrease in velocity more than the quieter notes. I can see why this might make sense as the default behaviour. I can also understand the kind of clipping behaviour that kicks in if you drag everything up and beyond 127 velocity.

But then there are a couple of things I'd expect to be able to do that seem basic but impossible...

1. Increase the selected MIDI velocities by an absolute amount.

If I'm happy with the differences in velocity between the notes, but need to push them all up by the same amount in the velocity range (e.g. +40), then I can't do it. I would have expected one of the modifier keys to make the drag behaviour work this way but it doesn't?

And am I right in finding that there's no menu command (like Cubase's velocity dialog) that lets you apply simple transforms like add/subtract, set fixed etc?

2. Assuming no absolute adjustment, can I invert the effect and compress the velocity range to be louder, not quieter?

Selecting multiple notes and dragging down compresses the velocity range, but by pulling everything down. It would seem intuitive to me that if you click and drag on the quietest (lowest velocity) note in a selected group and dragged upwards, you would simply invert the effect - a proportional compression - notes with lowest velocity increase in value the most and the loudest notes the least. Again, the opposite of the default behaviour?

Again - I have no problem with the default behaviour, but it seems weird not to be able to adjust note velocities by an absolute amount, or at the least, invert the stretchy behaviour and drag everything upwards to get louder.

Am I missing something?

[[jur]]

Yep, Live's velocity editor is pretty limited.
Did you have a look at the Velocity midi fx device? This might help you do some things quicker.

[Bortmeister]

Thanks Jur. Yes, that MIDI effect device will help in some cases, I think. I'll have a play with it.

Ableton seems quite quirky when coming from an older, traditional DAW background. I'll keep working at learning the different workflow. Clearly it's a deliberate design choice to make velocity editing in one way sophisticated (a proportional stretch across a range of notes) while also omitting a basic +/- absolute value command. So I must assume these things won't change in future updates!