Remote Script for Behringer X-Touch

[gregjar]

I've tried to explain what's going on several times. )) My English is too weak... I just took a photo.
See? This is how Ableton starts WITH ONE WINDOW. Session Window is on. The MIDI TRACKS button is lit. But it shouldn't be lit. It should light up when Arrangement Window is up.

The Second window was off in previous session, Ableton started with one window. The same thing when Ableton starts with two windows: after a few clicks, when Session/Arrangement button enters the normal cycle, the picture turns out to be exactly the same.

If you simply invert the ON and OFF in the code for this button, everything becomes correct.

Or change

Code: Select all

def __update_session_arranger_button_led(self):
        if self.application().view.is_view_visible(u'Session'):
            self.send_button_led(SID_SOFTWARE_MIDI_TRACKS, BUTTON_STATE_ON)
        else:
            self.send_button_led(SID_SOFTWARE_MIDI_TRACKS, BUTTON_STATE_OFF)

on

Code: Select all

def __update_session_arranger_button_led(self):
        if self.application().view.is_view_visible(u'Arranger'):
            self.send_button_led(SID_SOFTWARE_MIDI_TRACKS, BUTTON_STATE_ON)
        else:
            self.send_button_led(SID_SOFTWARE_MIDI_TRACKS, BUTTON_STATE_OFF)

? ON for u'Arranger', not for u'Session'.

I hope it's clear enough. ))

[RobrechtV]

Yes! Exactly. That's how I've changed it, will be in the next update. Arrangement view = ON.

But does the CLIP/DEVICE button work reliably like you expect? I think that one was coded the other way around too, to be ON when clip view (top option on the overlay) was showing.

That's what confused me, I think: when I compared them they were already working the same way... Only the wrong way.

Anyway, all will be fixed so bottom option = ON.

[gregjar]

The CLIP button has a completely correct logic of operation. It seems so. EXCEPT that the button caption on overlay should also be changed to DEVICE/CLIP instead of CLIP/DEVICE. )) That's my mistake.

X-Touch Default Layout and X-Touch Alternative Layout.

When I want the CLIP to move with the ARRANGEMENT (be tied to it), I just press these two buttons at the same time with two fingers, very convenient that they are nearby. )

PS oops... Where is the "track/automation mode" and "lock automation envelope" switches?..

[RobrechtV]

Ah that explains my confusion! Ok but now I completely understand. Same behavior for both buttons, but based on the new overlay, is what you meant all along. I'll upload it tomorrow.

With track/automation mode you mean like the keyboard shortcut A, and the other one is the lock icon next to it, right? Unfortunately those aren't available in the API yet. I looked really hard for a way to toggle automation view some time ago and it just can't be done. And because Python runs sandboxed/restricted inside Live, something like simulating a keyboard shortcut also isn't an option. We can only hope one day Ableton will make them available (I already asked them about it, along with Save, show/hide take lanes, show/hide info pane, the "Enable only for recording" setting for the metronome, waveform vertical zoom and optimize arrangement width/height: all things I would add to the X-Touch if I could.).

Some of these you can MIDI map to an unused button, or you could set something up externally with loopMIDI and a MIDI-to-keystroke translator, but all of that is outside of the scope of the script.

[gregjar]

Got it. Well, let's hope all this will be included in version 2 of this script someday. )

[RobrechtV]

Uploaded a version with (hopefully) the correct button behavior last night!

Got it. Well, let's hope all this will be included in version 2 of this script someday. )

That would be great. Even just vertical waveform zoom would be so useful.

[RobrechtV]

New beta uploaded with new Function buttons mode: Cue. Edit: now called Locator Mode.

Press SHIFT + F7 to enter Cue mode
- F1-F8 LEDs light up to represent the first eight Cuepoints in the set
- Press a lit Function button to jump to the corresponding Cuepoint
- Press again to delete current Cuepoint
- Press an unlit Function button to add a new Cuepoint
- The name of the current Cuepoint is briefly flashed on the Time Display.
- Press ALT + F1-F8 to access Cuepoints 9-16.

This is something I've wanted to do with the Function buttons for a long time. The idea is you can divide your arrangement into sections using named Cuepoints (Live calls them "Locators" – you can name them "Intro", "Chorus" etc.). The LED for the current section blinks so you get an overview of where you are in the song and you can jump to any section (timed according to the global launch quantization value). When you pass a Cuepoint (i.e., enter a new section), its name is briefly flashed on the screen.

Consider this mode an advanced version of what the basic "Marker" buttons already do (MARKER and NUDGE for previous and next, SHIFT + MARKER to set/delete).

To do:
- I'll remove the "Cue ." prefix on the screen so I can show more of the Cuepoint names. Jumping to a Cuepoint while the song is not playing will still show the song time (mm.ss) as a prefix.
- Since the Cuepoint names have to be shortened to a limited number of characters, I'll use the smart text shortening method already used for the scribble strips, which tries to retain as much meaning as possible (remove vowels first, try to preserve the final character – important for something like "Pre-chorus 2").
- Once the playhead passes Cuepoint 9, I'll reverse the LED logic to show where the playhead is among Cuepoints 9-16: active section lit, others blinking.
Edit:
- "Cues/Cuepoints" is the internal name used in the API, but I think I'll change it to "Locators" ("lctrs") in the interface and Readme, since that is how Live calls them in the menu. Gregjar, should we adopt "Locator" on the overlays too, for MARKER and NUDGE? Or is "Marker" more recognizable for DAW users in general?

[RobrechtV]

OK, the above to-dos have now been done, which means Locator Mode for the F1-F8 buttons is fully implemented. Get ready to jump around in your Arrangements – I've been thinking about this for such a long time!

[gregjar]

RobrechtV, You made very good additions! Personally I think "Markers" sounds more recognizable, "Locators" need a bit of getting used to.
I'll try to get used to it in a few days, and then I'll say more confidently... Changing the captions in the overlay is not difficult at all.

[RobrechtV]

Excellent, we'll see. I can always change the interface language to "marker" as well.

I have one more unrelated thing I want to try and then I should finally wrap this up in a new release, I suppose! If it's still okay with you I'd love to include the overlays.

I'm sorry, Kik07L, I got carried away and kept adding features... At one point at least I stopped calling every version a "release candidate". But once I've tried that one last thing, I'm done for a while.

[RobrechtV]

Okay, the one last thing I wanted to do was see if I really couldn't find a way to scale the faders to the 0dB markings. Conclusion: no, nope.

(After a lot of digging and testing, I can scale the feedback from Live so that if you move the software track fader to 0dB by mouse, the hardware fader on the X-Touch is also at 0dB. But there is no way in the API to scale the communication in the other direction, from X-Touch to Live. That makes it unusable, because the two scales clash: when you move the hardware fader by hand, Live's track volume follows according to the original mismatched scale, then the feedback kicks in and the hardware fader jumps to its corrected position. Just doesn't work that way, unfortunately.)

(Interestingly, I found that even though MIDI pitch bend offers much higher resolution, the feedback scale is only 0-127. Might explain the somewhat jittery movements of the faders.)

So I added one other last thing, which is: a no-color mode (Off) in addition to RGB and Hue. That way, users who dislike the scribble strip colors can still use the script for its other features, but with the original all-white scribble strips (for better readability, perhaps).

(After using it for some time, I really prefer Hue mode. Its mapping of Live's track colors to the scribble strip colors feels more accurate. However, I'll leave RGB mode as the default, because some users may already have projects where they're used to the scribble strips being a certain color.)

[gregjar]

maybe we should leave "Markers"? All music software has always used "markers". I think it's more familiar that way.

[RobrechtV]

Sure! You're right, "markers" seems like a more familiar term.

Okay, the one last thing I wanted to do was see if I really couldn't find a way to scale the faders to the 0dB markings. Conclusion: no, nope.

(I was wrong. New beta.)
I think this one will make a lot of people happy.

[RobrechtV]

Okay, the one last thing I wanted to do was see if I really couldn't find a way to scale the faders to the 0dB markings. Conclusion: no, nope.

(I was wrong. New beta.)
I think this one will make a lot of people happy.

So, I finally managed to crack the "fader position at 0dB" problem. Enable "Fzero" through the settings menu, which adjusts the fader's zero position and makes an extra option appear to finetune it (if needed – depending on how you tilt your X-Touch, you might want them to sit a little lower or higher visually).

Context: due the fact that the X-Touch's faders go to 10 and Live's volume sliders only go to 6, the faders end up some distance above the zero mark when track volume is 0dB in Live. A fix for this has been one of the most requested features. It wasn't easy – I had to write my own handling logic for the faders and make them scale differently from -inf to 0 and from 0 to max (to make sure the full throw of the faders is used and they aren't just capped at 6). But: it's working now. Those with OCD, rejoice! The setting in the options menu switches between Live's own default handling of the faders and my own, so if you don't need this, nothing changes.

Edit The only thing I still want to do is turn off motor feedback altogether as soon a fader is touched. There is a standard 200ms delay between fader manipulation and feedback, but there are times when you still feel the motor pushing back for a second and I think I can eliminate those.

Kik07L, I've already drafted a release on GitHub with a description of everything new. Faders at zero – the one everyone has been asking for, lol – should be the final new feature. I really want to try and let it be for a while now.

With faders at true zero (finally), the improved color mode (hue), chains-behave-as-groups, the persistent options system and menu, the different F1-F8 modes (especially happy with the locators/markers one), Macro Mapper, Single Send mode, the metronome blinking in time, Night Mode, quantized Global Solo, screen messages, the improved layout with gregjar's overlays and all the optional customizations (blink for muted-via-solo, touch fader to select, cue volume at flip), it's become quite a big release already.

Thanks gregjar for the overlays and all the new features you suggested, as well as j-cuc (Single Send mode), Kik07L (Night Mode, clock), lectro (chains-behave-as-groups): I wouldn't have thought of those improvements if you hadn't asked for them!

[RobrechtV]

Edit The only thing I still want to do is turn off motor feedback altogether as soon a fader is touched. There is a standard 200ms delay between fader manipulation and feedback, but there are times when you still feel the motor pushing back for a second and I think I can eliminate those.

This last detail has now been fixed.
● The script now handles both input (faders>Live) and feedback (Live>faders) when Faders at zero is enabled, to allow for greater control.
● Touching a fader suspends motor feedback to prevent conflict with manual manipulation.
● Additionally, controlling volume with the faders now requires finger/capacitive contact, to prevent accidental changes. If a fader is moved by a non-capacitive object, the track's volume will not change, and the fader will jump back to its original location after a short while. (If capacitive touch works unreliably for you – gloves, prosthetic hand, dry fingers – or you just prefer to mix with various inanimate objects, this option can be turned off in the settings.)
● The script's own handling of the faders also includes the 200ms delay between manipulation and motor feedback as a fallback (in case the "capacitive touch required" setting is disabled and a fader is intentionally moved by a non-capacitive object). Since both directions are now handled by the script, conflicts are rarer even in this scenario.

● One more unrelated, but handy feature: double tapping a track's SELECT button now resets the fader's parameter to default (volume = 0), kind of like double clicking in Live.