Ableton Forum

I once mentioned this feature request to Robert Henke. He said they were working on it. That was 5 years ago!

Korhan wrote:Live is too BPM dependent, which is most apparent in its follow functions. Just adding this simple feature would make the follow actions such an experimental feature. Launch the next clip when the current clip ends. Simple!

Totally agree!

Der_Makrophag wrote:

Korhan wrote:Live is too BPM dependent, which is most apparent in its follow functions. Just adding this simple feature would make the follow actions such an experimental feature. Launch the next clip when the current clip ends. Simple!

Totally agree!

Good point, that very true!

Px

Korhan wrote:Live is too BPM dependent, which is most apparent in its follow functions. Just adding this simple feature would make the follow actions such an experimental feature.

This has been my main criticism of Live for years.

Other improvements along these same lines:
- Clip Envelopes for unwarped clips.
- Time-based effects like delays should have their own independent tap-tempo buttons.

One of the biggest changes i'd like to see made to Ableton is the ability to have a follow action at clip end.... With my first Isotonik modular device a simple affair called F0llow this is achieved....

As i was developing the device it struck me thanks to a reminder with WillJMarshall's DJ Template Redux that it's been a while since i toyed with dummy clips, again i dropped these in the past because i couldn't quite achieve what i wanted with them e.g. momentary control, i wanted clips set to gate that would effect the signal as long as they were pressed but when released all effects should return to zero. There is a cool workaround if you just want to turn an effect on and off but if you wanted more complicated patterns this became impossible without some midi loopback business occuring...

The brief video linked below demonstrates how the new feature works solving both problems...

http://darrencowley.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ntary.html

The device is available to all members of the Isotonik dropbox, membership of which is a simple click of the paypal buy now button to the right...

Cheers
D

This one should definitely be added..

We have a simple DJ set in Live with 2 tracks that zig zag with clips back and forth, would be nice to somehow just run the play list like that with the cross fader in the middle during parties when we're not doing anything on the APC, but I guess iTunes running in the background isn't so bad..

outershpongolia wrote:This one should definitely be added..

We have a simple DJ set in Live with 2 tracks that zig zag with clips back and forth, would be nice to somehow just run the play list like that with the cross fader in the middle during parties when we're not doing anything on the APC, but I guess iTunes running in the background isn't so bad..

Also nice to use at other times when you want to focus on effects, additional sounds, instruments, & other things, rather than facilitating song changes.

And, yes, I am fully aware that this will offend all the "REAL" DJs who read this

And, no, simply placing songs on a timeline does not achieve the same effect. Actually, using a time line for this purpose would be even better than follow actions IF time-based effects had their own tap-tempo buttons...

Fckn bumb!

Korhan wrote:Launch the next clip when the current clip ends. Simple!

I might have got it totally wrong, but wouldn't this have the same effect as setting the Follow Action Time equal to the clip length and the Action to Next?

uniquorn wrote:... problem here seems to be that Ableton has not yet accepted that besides common usage
Live is more and more used as a flexible playback machine, not only a loop trigger machine.
And people dont want to just playback whole songs, but wanna be flexible even with longer clips,
and this is the reason why they want to be able to trigger without thinking about lengths.

... f.e. if you wanna change from a clip that is 32 bars to another that is 64 bars and from there
to another that has 8 bars, and all sound quite the same generally - how to set trigger mode ?
And when to trigger WITHOUT looking at the status bar of the clip? Right now you HAVE to know
when you approach the end of the momentary clip (while e.g. singing... or playing a guitar solo !!!)
and then be lucky enough to push the trigger button within the given time, to timely switch to the next
clip...

I think I've been wishing for something similar for years:

there should be a setting that wouldn't allow to interrupt the currently playing scene/clip and the playback of the next triggered scene/clip would only start when the current scene/clip ends. This way you could safely go from a 32 bar chorus to a 64 bar solo and then to an 8 bar verse without having to look at the playback status. This is something that even the first sequencers could do 30 years ago. It could be implemented for clips with random length as well. (I hope that makes sense).

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=100069 (see section I.)
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=147131

hungaristan wrote: I might have got it totally wrong, but wouldn't this have the same effect as setting the Follow Action Time equal to the clip length and the Action to Next?

"The Follow Action Time control defines when a Follow Action takes place in bars-beats-sixteenths from the point in the clip where play starts"

This is not well suited for clips of random, varying lengths (like a field recording of a waterfall, or an entire song). It yields inaccurate results. It's a big waste of time, & doesn't work properly.

It's all about getting some of the same features for clips that are unwarped & of random-length!

oblique strategies wrote: "The Follow Action Time control defines when a Follow Action takes place in bars-beats-sixteenths from the point in the clip where play starts"
This is not well suited for clips of random, varying lengths (like a field recording of a waterfall, or an entire song). It yields inaccurate results. It's a big waste of time, & doesn't work properly.

The original post didn't mention random length (which might have been obvious to everyone else except me). Although it takes some time, at least there's a workaround for this one (warp the clip to match the closest length in bars/beats/sixteenth and set follow action time to that value. Nobody would notice if a random length clip gets warped by a little fraction of a percent). There are so many more features completely missing from Live where no workaround is possible. A good example is the second half of my post which could be applied to random length clips, too

hungaristan wrote:

oblique strategies wrote: "The Follow Action Time control defines when a Follow Action takes place in bars-beats-sixteenths from the point in the clip where play starts"
This is not well suited for clips of random, varying lengths (like a field recording of a waterfall, or an entire song). It yields inaccurate results. It's a big waste of time, & doesn't work properly.

The original post didn't mention random length (which might have been obvious to everyone else except me). Although it takes some time, at least there's a workaround for this one (warp the clip to match the closest length in bars/beats/sixteenth and set follow action time to that value. Nobody would notice if a random length clip gets warped by a little fraction of a percent). There are so many more features completely missing from Live where no workaround is possible. A good example is the second half of my post which could be applied to random length clips, too

it´s a workaround that works. but I planned to do a session with 100+ clips of varying, random length - to do this with this method is a big pain in the butt.

please ableton, implement this: follow action "when clip ends".

Just going to work on a version of my max device that allows you to set a point on a clip that triggers the follow action... This can then be delayed by an amount of time.....

At the moment it works on clip end with the addition of clip stop and i can make the clip play again, play below or play a specific clip that can be drawn into the currently playing clip, so you can have blocks of clips that play sequentially till the end and then begin again from the beginning or jump to a seperate block....

Any other ideas whilst i build it??

Cheers
D

Fantastic. That sounds like pretty much what's needed.

Will it work for un-warped clips?

Thanks for implementing the time-delay before follow action is executed feature. What increments are you planning on? It would be great if it allowed hours, minutes, & seconds. 00:00:00

Will it allow random order triggering like Follow Actions already allow (Play Any Clip, Play Other Clip)?

Guess I'll have to pony up for M4L at some point to use this!

I'll look into the time formats but it makes more sense to me that they are in the hours mins etc. as i believe it's more useful for sound installations? Correct me if i'm wrong.... Whether i can do this as a per clip setting or a global one though is another matter, i imagine i can do it as per clip but will have to check....

And at the moment i can read the current clip playing slot and apply a mathematical formula to it, it'd take some work but i think possible for this to cycle through a number of times eg. current clip is five, minus one = 4 is it a clip yes then - 1 is it a clip no then play clip 4 to give you play first, the opposite for play last....

I can already do play a numbered clip, play again and play below so maybe more work would be needed for random clip, and i've no idea currently how to make the percentage chance of it happening feature of Ableton, that said i've never used it?

And finally, can you draw envelopes into unwarped clips? If so then yes it's possible, if not then i'd be stuck with the at clip stop feature which is as instantaeneous as it can be..... (you wouldn't notice the delay in many cases....)

Cheers
D