Toggling on VSTs!?!?!?!?!?!?

Idiron · Post by **Idiron** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:04 pm

Hi, I've been using Ableton for some time now but for the life of me I can't find a way so that when I depress a key on my laptop keyboard (ie. something assigned to the Key Map) it will turn off when I depress it rather than being toggled!

Is there any way to do this!?!?!?

Thanks in advance!

Josh Von · Post by **Josh Von** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:19 pm

Try using a button on your controller and assigning it a CC number

Now map it to the power button on the VST

Click on the assignment area (where you mapped it) on the Live interface

Look at the bottom left of the Live interface .. there is a dropdown box

Try setting this to Relative Signed Bit ... if that doesnt work, try Relative lin Signed bit

This is off the top of my head, cant confirm it myself by trying it but this is the method I have learned recently in programming other interface elements ... to get them to toggle .. .

Idiron · Post by **Idiron** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:26 pm

thanks for the help but i meant the actual keyboard on the laptop. im playing an event called laptop battle where you are allowed one midi controller and in order to give myself maximum interaction im going to be assigning lots of stuff to the actual laptop.

Josh Von · Post by **Josh Von** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:32 pm

Idiron wrote:thanks for the help but i meant the actual keyboard on the laptop. im playing an event called laptop battle where you are allowed one midi controller and in order to give myself maximum interaction im going to be assigning lots of stuff to the actual laptop.

I'm not sure what you are looking for then

If you map ... say ... the letter 'f' to a power on off button ...

Press it once, turns it off (if on). Press it again, turns it on

This is not working for you?

.

Idiron · Post by **Idiron** » Wed May 30, 2007 9:43 pm

yes this is working for me, i'm thinking more along the line of the wet of a certain vst effect, upon pressing the button it becomes 100%, upon letting go it becomes 0%. i wanted to do this in particular with beat repeat, i make alot of very fast music and i'de find it more expressive and less annoying to have it so. i also have the problem sometimes of accidently hitting an assigned key and not knowing which one. if it wasn't toggled then i wouldn't have that problem!

is this not possible?

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Wed May 30, 2007 11:38 pm

if it wasn't toggled then i wouldn't have that problem!

you could try using something like plogue to convert them to instant midi buttons rather than toggles, but if you're only using live it will always see them as toggles...

3dot... · Post by **3dot...** » Thu May 31, 2007 7:19 am

You can do this....but you have to use clips...
have one channel playing and use another with dummy clips with an envelope...(see tutorial about dummy clips somewher in the forum...)
use the clip trigger mode called 'gate' to launch it only when the button is pressed...it will stop playing as soon as you let go...don't forget to set the clip quantization to 'none' instead of 'global'...and you're set!!!!
(You also need to take into account that clip envelopes are RELATIVE to the position of your software fader/knob.)
Actually this gives you a whole bunch of CRAZY stuff you can do with your keys...but I'll leave that to your imagination...

Clearscreen · Post by **Clearscreen** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:07 am

nice tip 3dot, i forgot about that...

3dot... · Post by **3dot...** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:48 am

hoffman told me you were his 'dummy' guru backn''d'day....

lis102trants · Post by **lis102trants** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:25 am

Ok, so I tried the whole dummy clip gate mode thing, but unfortunately its not working the way I think it should. I have the dummy clips set up, and the dry track running. Now when I trigger the wet clip, (gate with quant set to none) it works, but when I release the mapped key, all dummy clips deactivate and the wet signal continues to affect the audio. The problem is, the follow up actions only occur after the follow action time ends (if you hold the wet clip long enough). Any insight?

Sorry for butting in, but this sounds like a really useful tool I'd like to master!

lis102trants · Post by **lis102trants** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 3:31 am

Anyone? I'd really like to know!

friend_kami · Post by **friend_kami** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 12:26 pm

its really silly that you cant set up your keyboard to allow for momentary switch useage, instead of toggling.

infact, its really silly that you cant set up your own hotkeys without having to use third party software, such as autohotkeys (for us pc people that is).

3dot... · Post by **3dot...** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:46 pm

There's more than one way to skin a cat so here is one...
ok...
so let's say I want to play rhythm patterns on impulse and I want a beat repeat after it ,I want different keys on my kbd to trigger different beat repeat settings....
so I create 2 midi tracks , i drag impulse to the first, then a beat repeat...
the second midi track I route directly to the impulse on the first one.
I drag a clip with some impulse patterns (notes+velocity) over to he 2d channel....to play the parts on the impulse..... I have 3 patterns which are mapped to keys W/S/X...quantize 'global'(I like to mess around with the global quantize) ...onwards... I create 3 clips with different envelopes for the beat repeat.... the first one is my dry state in which 'chance' is set to 0%...
I make all of them 'gate' and set quantization to 'none'..and activate 'legato' mode..map them to kbd Q/A/Z...
now I can launch the 'playing' part with 'global quantise' and trigger/untrigger my fx with no quantization.. you still have to press Q if you want the fx off but you can do that while not affecting the playing 'quantized' loop...
This could be also used with racks...to select whole different device chains...rather than envelopes settings...options are limitless...

if you're dealing with audio you can use dummy clips in the same manner...Routing the actual audio to another audio channel which is running dummy clips....
I might add that gating an effect in the way that you want would have been very easy with a simple midi controller....
and I agree that there should be more options for the way a keystroke interacts with live....
Hope this helps...Cheers

blam · Post by **blam** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:57 am

Idiron wrote:yes this is working for me, i'm thinking more along the line of the wet of a certain vst effect, upon pressing the button it becomes 100%, upon letting go it becomes 0%. i wanted to do this in particular with beat repeat, i make alot of very fast music and i'de find it more expressive and less annoying to have it so. i also have the problem sometimes of accidently hitting an assigned key and not knowing which one. if it wasn't toggled then i wouldn't have that problem!

is this not possible?

alrite geebee. i use midiox for this, simple to set up and it works just that way. look forward to seeing what you come up with in the battle

friend_kami · Post by **friend_kami** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:53 am

3dot... wrote:There's more than one way to skin a cat so here is one...
ok...
so let's say I want to play rhythm patterns on impulse and I want a beat repeat after it ,I want different keys on my kbd to trigger different beat repeat settings....
so I create 2 midi tracks , i drag impulse to the first, then a beat repeat...
the second midi track I route directly to the impulse on the first one.
I drag a clip with some impulse patterns (notes+velocity) over to he 2d channel....to play the parts on the impulse..... I have 3 patterns which are mapped to keys W/S/X...quantize 'global'(I like to mess around with the global quantize) ...onwards... I create 3 clips with different envelopes for the beat repeat.... the first one is my dry state in which 'chance' is set to 0%...
I make all of them 'gate' and set quantization to 'none'..and activate 'legato' mode..map them to kbd Q/A/Z...
now I can launch the 'playing' part with 'global quantise' and trigger/untrigger my fx with no quantization.. you still have to press Q if you want the fx off but you can do that while not affecting the playing 'quantized' loop...
This could be also used with racks...to select whole different device chains...rather than envelopes settings...options are limitless...

if you're dealing with audio you can use dummy clips in the same manner...Routing the actual audio to another audio channel which is running dummy clips....
I might add that gating an effect in the way that you want would have been very easy with a simple midi controller....
and I agree that there should be more options for the way a keystroke interacts with live....
Hope this helps...Cheers

what the..
ok, so i might be a bit tired, but i can honestly not read this text.
press that enter key man.
O.o

no pun intended.