Live 5 and Novation Automap

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
trip_out
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Post by trip_out » Sat Jun 24, 2006 7:40 am

earthlinger wrote: I just bought one today. It just needs to be easier to customize and delete templates. If I wanna control multiple instruments, FX's, scenes like track setup templates, should I turn off the automap in Live?
On my ibook automap works fine. Automap as currently implemented means that the faders will be mapped to the mixer, and the endless rotaries (underneath the display) are mapped to the current selected plugin - and they are in the order determined by the VST parameter list (so might be in a confusing order). As far as I'm aware you need to select plugin using the mouse - you can't scroll through them using midi. The other knobs and buttons can be mapped as you see fit.

If you don't like this arrangement you need to get deep and dirty with the templates! :D

earthlinger
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Post by earthlinger » Sat Jun 24, 2006 11:10 am

I started with blank template and as I know which parameters I need to control for my tracks, I'm assigning one by one and learning a lot. for example if I wanna trigger my clips with remotesl buttons, corresponding button mode should be momentary and MIDI type in Live should be relative (2'scomp). Automap is still too complicated and needs to be improved. until then it's fine for me to use it as a normal midi controller.

M. Bréqs
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Post by M. Bréqs » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:15 am

I have purchased one of these SL pigs, and I am thoroughly disgusted with this things performance compared to the promises made by both Ableton and Novation.

What a fucking waste.

First off:

For some reason, Automap only maps the top row of buttons on the left. The rotary encoders, knobs, and the bottom two rows of buttons DO NOTHING, no matter what instrument I click on.

Second:

There are dozens of parameters I will NEVER want to edit - and there's no way I am aware of to "un-automap" individual parameters. I mean, on Operator there's multiple screens of parameters to hunt through, and I not aware if there's a way to "hide" parameters I don't want to edit.

Yes, I am using the lastest OS, I downloaded it today from Novation.

My advice: Don't buy one.

trip_out
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Post by trip_out » Tue Jun 27, 2006 8:11 am

M. Bréqs wrote:I have purchased one of these SL pigs, and I am thoroughly disgusted with this things performance compared to the promises made by both Ableton and Novation.

What a fucking waste.

First off:

For some reason, Automap only maps the top row of buttons on the left. The rotary encoders, knobs, and the bottom two rows of buttons DO NOTHING, no matter what instrument I click on.
Sounds like you have a problem there - contact Novation and/or Ableton
M. Bréqs wrote:
Second:

There are dozens of parameters I will NEVER want to edit - and there's no way I am aware of to "un-automap" individual parameters. I mean, on Operator there's multiple screens of parameters to hunt through, and I not aware if there's a way to "hide" parameters I don't want to edit.

Yes, I am using the lastest OS, I downloaded it today from Novation.

My advice: Don't buy one.
The best way I know around this at the moment is to use energyXT as a wrapper for the VST.

Have a look here for a little more info:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... automation

Hope this helps a bit. The way I see it is that it has so much more potential. My main wish at the moment is for Ableton and Novation to be a little more communicative about it all. I know there is a bug fix coming, but when? Why not discuss the implementation a little bit to get some ideas flowing? It can be fantastic, it just needs to have a little bit of open dialog and/or beta testing. IF ABLETON DEVS ARE READING PLEASE CONTACT ME AS I'LL BE HAPPY TO TEST ANYTHING FOR YOU.

Stick with it mate, worst comes to worse, use it as a standard MIDI controller - you ain't lost anything, it just could be better ;)

rikhyray
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Post by rikhyray » Tue Jun 27, 2006 11:56 am

M. Bréqs wrote:I have purchased one of these SL pigs, and I am thoroughly disgusted with this things performance compared to the promises made by both Ableton and Novation.

What a fucking waste.

First off:

For some reason, Automap only maps the top row of buttons on the left. The rotary encoders, knobs, and the bottom two rows of buttons DO NOTHING, no matter what instrument I click on.

Second:

There are dozens of parameters I will NEVER want to edit - and there's no way I am aware of to "un-automap" individual parameters. I mean, on Operator there's multiple screens of parameters to hunt through, and I not aware if there's a way to "hide" parameters I don't want to edit.

Yes, I am using the lastest OS, I downloaded it today from Novation.

My advice: Don't buy one.
My advice SELL IT! I just did, lost some money but I wont be wasting my time anymore.
It was all very promising , including support, fixing wrong wiring in 3 days etc but then 4 months passed and NOTHING was fixed. SL was unusable- in reason aftertouch never worked in Live notes getting stuck so what a fuck the great keys if I cant use them. I wont even elaborate on automapping that never works exactly.
My advice if you are a geek whos hobby is to experiment, doing beta testing for free go ahead get one. If you are musician, specially professional, forget about it or wait till they make it right. I may get the Zero iif they make SL work.
I am tired of the shit products from unserious companies, will rather pay more and get shit that works . Interesting that all these things that "just work" and dont give me headache are all "Made in Germany"- Doepfer,RME, faderfox, Ableton.

plain
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Post by plain » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:07 pm

i said it once and ill say again...it's not worth paying 400 dollars to become a beta tester....


novation and ableton..get your shit right!...

i've had it with you motherfuckers that release shit that dont work!

earthlinger
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Post by earthlinger » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:17 pm

I think Ableton and Novation should answer to these problems as soon as possible :!:

jackmazzotti
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Post by jackmazzotti » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:14 pm

i like my lv2 quite a bit
i am going to get more as soon as i can afford it

LOFA
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Post by LOFA » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:29 pm

I have been very polite about my feelings so far, but mbreqs has read the darkest part of my mind on this matter.

DeadlyKungFu
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Post by DeadlyKungFu » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:59 pm

It's kind of funny, MBreq's description is exactly how it's supposed to work. The 'other' knobs are meant to be user assigned. On the other hand automap is hard coded into Live and cannot be unassigned. In one case things aren't mapped enough, in the case things are mapped too much. That's his perogative as an experienced user.

An automap editor is the only way they'll get every user to like this thing, along with a way to scroll through your active plug-ins, and fix the fader jumping, and fixing the automap lockup.

I think their concept of template groups has completely fallen by the wayside too, users want automapping, but not into everything, but they don't want to set it up. The SL is dead and I doubt users and mfgs will ever see eye to eye on how to implement this concept. It has to be automatic, but not too automatic and editable but not so much that the user has to do too much.

The SL is reaching the epic lows only previously attained by M-Audio haters. Ableton's marketing team must be loving this.

Get a Faderfox or two and be done with it. :lol: I f-ing love my BCR, seriously, I sleep with it, I eat lunch with it, I take it to the park to play frisbee, we even have long walks along the beach discussing our emotions.


my $0.02, keep the change.

M. Bréqs
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Post by M. Bréqs » Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:19 pm

Well, after some consternation (I posted above after hours of banging my head into a wall) I have decided that I will keep this Remote SL.

Despite it's inability to automap, I will just have to set up my templates the old way and use it as an old-tyme midi controller. Despite it's problems, the displays are useful and the plethora of knobs / buttons does serve practical purposes.

Automap however has been abandoned in my set-up.

My remixed advice: Buy an SL only if you want a plain old midi-controller with a whole wack of controls, but don't go expecting automap to solve anything.

For that matter, the old ReMOTEs are still pretty damn good, and you can still get them quite cheaply. All you'll lack (besides automap which isn't functional anyways) is the displays above the faders / knobs... The only question is whether those displays are worth a few hundred extra bucks.

DeadlyKungFu
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Post by DeadlyKungFu » Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:28 pm

I would've rather they did the automap on the top row and give you a few rows of endless encoders below that. The User would use the automap to find interesting parameters then set an endless encoder to that parameter and then save that setup everytime you automap to that plug-in. Automap would give you a quick look at the plug-in while your personal settings would be your favorites, like making your own automapped parameters.

Also, don't use the current scene up/down/launch/stop buttons scheme, use those buttons in 'normal' mode where they tell you what each encoder does. I don't know why they changed it for automap, poor decision.

I don't know if the LCDs are worth $100s, I just wish they'd stop calling them HUGE. :lol:

I think I had more fun with mine making template groups, I don't recall those as having fader jump problems either.
Last edited by DeadlyKungFu on Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

glitchrock-buddha
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Post by glitchrock-buddha » Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:40 am

ya automap is claiming to do a little too much to keep everyone happy. But I still find it useful for certain things, like the mixer and effects.

The two current problems I see are:

1) Fader jumps - Once this is fixed automap will be excellent for the mixer in ableton, so you won't have to set up template groups for your mixer in every song. That's huge.

2) LCD reverts to automap display when you change to another template.

The key to automap being a success, I believe, (other than no fader jumping) is being able to quickly change between templates and automap, and that's because automap is great for effects and small plaug-ins without too many parameters, but you simply can not use automap for large soft synths. It's useless. The controls go on forever in a million pages. But for them you use templates which you can make yourself easily. Going into preferences to remove midi communication between the SL and Live every time you want to use a template is a pain, and it shouldn't be that way.

And for these reasons I think it's up to ableton, 'cause see in Logic, you can change easily between templates and automap, and also there are no fader jumps, neither are there in reason.

still hopin',

grb
Professional Shark Jumper.

trip_out
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Post by trip_out » Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:23 am

DeadlyKungFu wrote:I think I had more fun with mine making template groups, I don't recall those as having fader jump problems either.
Me too, just getting into it now and it is everything I want.

M. Bréqs
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Post by M. Bréqs » Wed Jun 28, 2006 11:57 pm

Is there any way to leave portions of automap off? I mean, to re-map the 8 drum pads to different notes or CCs while it's in the automap template?

MB

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