[Tip] Looping with Mackie Control emulation!

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
ebenextra
Posts: 84
Joined: Fri May 06, 2005 9:12 am
Location: Taipei

Post by ebenextra » Wed Dec 14, 2005 3:57 pm

youri wrote:Make sure that you are on midi-channel 1 and set the velocity of your pads to 127 (important!).

Good luck... :wink:
Yup, that di the trick

Thanx Youri
...silly rabbit ,leave the tricks for the cats!

wooly
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Location: London

Post by wooly » Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:28 am

Hey I finally found this thread ..nice one

I had posted here asking about using the bome midi translator etc, but I see you guys are already on the case ;) ...I knew this had to be somewhere... they should get a better search engine for this board...

Anyway...

I have a US2400 that allows a Mackie control and 2 xts to control 24 faders the transport etc.

Out of the box (well and an upgrade of OS..too) it works in logic mode to control faders, mute, solo, select and pan of tracks and loop in and out

there is also a soft lcd thing that i have installed on my pc/mac and it give realtime fader and pan data on a virtual strip across the top of my screen...which is really dope..

What I cant get working as yet is clip launching or anything else.
I have another 8 buttons and an 'Fkey' as well as bank + and - and a shift key, though I'm not sure yet what messages these output.

I will put it through a midi monitor and post what I'm generating and then have a go at the midi note numbers to see if I can get it working...

If someone has developed a good controller map that works for them in live5 on whatever controller it would be useful to see what they have mapped to what and this can easily be used to map onto other controllers...So far it looks promising

Also ...Isn't anyone posting templates anywhere...couldnt find any???? seem strange not to have loads of them...


cheers
8)
Mobile setup = mac laptop OSx 10.5, Live 7 Tacscam US2400, Motu 828mk11

frugalpole
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us2400?

Post by frugalpole » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:43 pm

wooly, so mackie emulation on the us2400 isn't flawless in live?

Machinate
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Post by Machinate » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:50 am

wooly, since all the mackie controls are hardwired there really is no way of doing a template for live - or are you thinking about templates for hardware?

I suspect many people are sligthly intimidated by the mackie protocol, and don't want to "get their hands dirty" or mess up their midi controller assignments or something, which is understandable, I guess
mbp 2.66, osx 10.6.8, 8GB ram.

wooly
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:01 pm
Location: London

Post by wooly » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:04 pm

Hi Machinate

> or are you thinking about templates for hardware?

the us2400 as well as configs for logic prtools, performer and nuendo cubase etc has a native mode. this allows the midi learn to be used to set up a contoller template for live. This is what i want to do.

I am currently testing the others logid etc as some of them work with live but some also crash live after 5 miniutes on my PC . Though i cant be sure it is the us2400 i have also tested with a mac and no crash happens so it may be my pc.
Anyway as i said above these other software modes have functions that dont work in live, thats why i want to analyse the cc and sysex and then build my own native mode template.

I was asking if anyone had tried this so we could work together.

>I suspect many people are sligthly intimidated by the mackie protocol, and don't want to "get their hands dirty" or mess up their midi controller assignments or something, which is understandable, I guess

I dont see how its that scary... use a midi monitor...log the cc and sysex... reassign to what works and what we need...witha midi translator... in theory anyway ;0)

I will be having some tests today so I'll post andlet you know

Cheers

W
Mobile setup = mac laptop OSx 10.5, Live 7 Tacscam US2400, Motu 828mk11

wooly
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:01 pm
Location: London

US 2400 works well in mackie logic mode for LIVE5

Post by wooly » Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:33 pm

Ok

So I did some tests and got almost all of the standard mackie control (logic mode = Channel button + Aux4) including the mackie XT's -which are simply the same as mackie normal but excluding transport for tracks 9-24

So I probably wont bother with a custom native cofig until i outgrow this...

I now have faders, pan, select, mute ,solo,sends, transport and record, clip start, stop and navigate tracks, loop on-off and ( zoom horizontal and vertical for arrange page)

its actually quite good- though to navigate its a one press per track up or down or left or right (its actually easier here to select the track with the track select button above the fader first then up / down with the transport (Fkey + Play or Fkey+stop)

The play clip /stop clip is Fkey+rec / Fkey+rec


As for using a midi translator I am currentlly looking at getting something like the autohotkey thing working for some mouse actions and will post the files when I get done with that... someone (forgot his name- sorry) has already posted an exe file one this forum with browser shortcuts which is quite cool)

I will put together a chart of the US2400 mapping/shortcuts to use in live if anyone is interested.

Cheers

Ps if someone can give me an explanation of how they are using automated clips (not how to) but in which ways they are useful and enhance workflow id appreciated it.

Finally - been thinking if it could be possible to get control of the warp markers and the transpose functions including size of step - 32,16,8, 4,2,1 etc

Anyone else thinking about this???


W
Mobile setup = mac laptop OSx 10.5, Live 7 Tacscam US2400, Motu 828mk11

damianjames
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Contact:

Post by damianjames » Mon Jan 30, 2006 6:27 am

Can you post them?

jonathanpduffy
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2005 6:39 pm

working on Mackie Emulation Trigger Finger Template

Post by jonathanpduffy » Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:08 am

I've just found this post, and am trying to work up a template (or probably two) for the Trigger Finger. the first will be the basic navagation and clip firing, the second more recording based (I think).

All of the basic info works fine when using pads to trigger stuff and move, but I'm at a complete loss when it comes to the faders and pots.

As far as I can see, the Mackie Control protocol requires note sending that can't be done by the Trigger Finger. Is this right?

Is there another way to send the same iformation using the faders and/or pots?

My access to the cc details and note info is just the stuff posted by Machinate...and I can't pretend to have a clue what it all means... but it all works like a dream.

If I get something useful done, I'll post the (Enigma) templates.

J
PC Laptop & Intel Macbook, Presonus Firebox, Echo Indigo DJ, MPC 2500, Planet Phatt, Xiosynth, microX, Kontrol 49, Live 6, Reason 4, Guru, ASS Modeling Collection, Pro53, Oddity, Fender Telecaster, an old acoustic guitar, Some mics, my sister's voice...

drjonez
Posts: 16
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 8:27 am

oh snap

Post by drjonez » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:35 pm

this is the post i've been looking for for a week!

unaflux
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:04 pm

I try before to ask here...

Post by unaflux » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:22 pm

I'm working with some midi controllers
to control everything i can control using the Mackie Control Protocol
Have seen the info machinate used to begin this thread
and I'd like to ask a few things...
- i've managed the parameters highlighted in the first message.
but the strange thing is that the notes i've used are not the one
listed in the message, they're one octave up...
i.e. C -1 = C 0, C0 = C1, and so on
my keyboard controller and every midi note chart i've found
starts from C -1, not from C -2
For some parameters it works well, but I've other problems
so I'm starting to think
probably I'm missing something here

- i studied the "live 5 mackie implementation.xls" file,
the http://members.aol.com/mhigrules/MCMap.htm and
Ableton live manual, but there are some controls that do not work...

DEVICES,
For instance, one of the most interesting thing i think is the
combination between the Devices button, the prev /next page buttons,
and the V-pot buttons (I know they are not only bottons... but if you
have a group of buttons and a group of rotary encoders i think you can try
to "clone" them).
quoting the Live Manual: "Device - Pressed once, this will bring up all
available devices for the currently selected track in the main display.
Using the page buttons, you can then scroll through
the available devices and choose a particular device to edit by pressing
the V-Pot..."
But Device Button (G2) as well as Prev/Next page buttons don't work
Am i continuing to miss something?

CHANNEL BANKS
Have an old Peavey and would try to have sixteen volume faders
instead of only eight... when i use 8 faders and change channel banks
i always encounter parameters jumping when I move the faders.
so how can I tell the ninth fader to control the ninth track and so on
till i reach the sixteenth fader to control the sixteenth track?

AGAIN CHANNEL BANKS
There is another reason to avoid buttons that change channel banks.
quoting again Live manual:
"The bank "+" and "-" buttons page the channel strips in increments of
eight (or more, if a fader extension is installed) to the right or left,
respectively."
but i encounter a really strange behavior
think of a 13 tracks set, when i press the button to go to the
next channel bank i expect that all my faders shift of eight positions
so i have the fader 1 on the ninth track ... and the fader 5 on track 13
and fader 6, 7, 8 momentarily are not used...
instead... i get a sort of reverse thing
my controllers are mapped so as no one rest unused...
i.e. fader 1 on track 6, 2 on 7, and so on ... 8 on 13

Again, I'm i missing something? or am I simply lacking some
essential info to get it working?



i apologize for my english and for the long post
but i'm really loosing days trying to figuring this things out
thank for any answer
any info, hint, help is really appreciated
bye
una

unguitar
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Post by unguitar » Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:55 pm

hi Una,
thanks for having posted those questions, I am very interested in these issues as well.
I will follow this thread.
luca
www.unguitar.com

longjohns
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Location: seattle

Post by longjohns » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:53 pm

re: the fader banks: nothing strange going on there -

if you have 13 tracks and shift using the bank function, then you move from 1-8 to 6-13 as you noted. if this is too confusing for you then i'd say add 3 blank tracks 14-16

as the mackie unit has only 8 faders, maybe the solution to mapping your 9-16 faders might lie in sending them over another channel, using mackie XT setting in live or something?? (make your controller behave like 2 separate controllers?) i don't know if this is possible or not

unguitar
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Post by unguitar » Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:23 pm

i think mackiecontrol protocol is really weak.
Using different midi channels to call up different audio channels is a very unreasonable solution.
Plus, the fact that you must scroll via the channel bank or whatever button to pass into the other group of channels makes you to always have to visually check what you're doing.
But, the most shocking thing is to see how manufacturers like ableton, rme and many others think to have offered a real midi control solution just by accepting this limited protocol.
I'm tired by platforms/hardware that are not considering *real* musical use.
I'm sorry.
luca

emptypond
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Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:52 pm

Post by emptypond » Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:24 am

just what the doctor ordered, great stuff, thx! :)

Doobie Dan
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Location: Kentucky, US

Post by Doobie Dan » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:41 pm

Is it possible to use the same hardware controller to send Mackie commands AND normal MIDI map notes? I'd like to take advantage of the Undo but leave the rest behind.

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