Control selected track \w keyboard shortcuts

[victorypoint]

Hi Wiffbi. I just stumbled on your STC app while looking for ways to manipulate tracks in Live8 using a foot controller. STC works great - nice work! I think there was some previous discussion about how to select specific tracks and scenes by number (e.g. track 1, 2, scene 1, 2, etc). Can this currently be done with STC or are you limited to using select first/last and next/previous?

-AJ

[wiffbi]

Hey AJ, thanks!

With STC you can select tracks and scenes by number, but your controller needs to flexible enough to send certain CC numbers with a specific value.
It works like this: STC has an absolute mapping for scene and track navigation, it is CC# 9 (scenes) and 11 (tracks). It maps all available tracks and scenes to the whole range of CC values 0 to 127 – that means you can access up to 128 scenes and 128 tracks directly. If you have less than 128 tracks/scenes, it maps the CC values evenly across the range of available scenes/tracks.

For example, if you have 32 tracks in your set, each track spans a CC value range of 128/32 = 4. So if you send CC# 11 with a value of 0, the first track is selected. If you send a value of 4, the 2nd track is selected, if you send 8, the third track is selected, etc.
It also works with not so even track numbers: 15 tracks are mapped to a chunk of 128/15 = 8.5 which is rounded to 9. So sending a CC value of 9 selects the second track, a CC value of 17 ( = 2 x 8.5) selects track 3, etc.

Currently STC does not support absolute mapping with absolute values (so a CC# 11 with a value of 27 always maps to start scene 27) – this is on my TODO-list though. In the meantime you can help yourself with the method described above.


There is a trick to even access more than 128 scenes/tracks on the FCB1010. It makes use of the FCB1010’s functionality to send two CCs on one button press. It combines the absolute mapping of tracks with relative track stepping. That way it should be possible to access around 380 tracks/scenes by the press of one button. I have not tried this myself though … An even bigger range would be possible, if STC were supporting Pitchbend, but this is currently also on the TODO-list only.

I hope this helps.

[victorypoint]

Awesome! Thansk so much for this info. I experimented with my Softstep foot controller and after some trial & error, got things to work. I have 8 audio tracks so I used a CC value span of 128/8 = 16 per track. Programming the buttons 1-8 to select tracks 1-8, I used CC#11 values of 16, 32, 48, etc. This did not work. Then I realized I also have 2 send tracks and the master. So, recalculating the CC span for 11 tracks, each track spans 128/11 = 11.63 (round up to 12). I discovered that multiples of 12 did not work properly - but if I round down to 11, then success! I ended up using CC values of 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, and 88. Not sure why rounding down to 11 did the trick but I'm not complaining.

The only problem I need to resolve now is how to configure the Softstep button modulation properly. I started using Foot On as the source - this worked but CC values returned to 0 once I took my foot off. Then I used Foot Off - this worked better but in Live I noticed the track selection jumping to track 1 while my foot was pressing on the button, then it jumps to the correct track when I released my foot. Maybe I need to define Foot On and Foot Off events for each button modulation?

-AJ

[wiffbi]

AJ, in the Softstep Editor, did you try to limit the range in the min/max columns to the exact value you want to send? So both min and max are the same value, e.g. 11? According to the manual the modulation source "Foot On" sends a value of 1 when pressed and a value of 0 when released ("Foot Off" is just inverted) – so with min/max both set to 11, I hope to circumvent that value 0 being sent on release, but instead another value 11 is sent.

Thanks for pointing out my error regarding the rounding! It is of course rounded down – the math is based on integers, not floating point, so it is always rounded down. Sorry!

[victorypoint]

Wow, thanks for the Softstep tip. I was using Gain to send CC values but using Foot On with Min and Max values solved the problem. Thanks so much for this great tip! Do you use a Softstep?

I'm exploring more STC options now. One thing I can't figure out is how to record clips? I see track and scene select, track arm, fire scene and clip options, but I don't see any record options (except toggle record mode which I assume is for global record?). Does fire means play?

-AJ

[wiffbi]

AJ, you’re welcome. Actually I do not use a Softstep, but I helped someone to set one up – so I know my way around the manual. It is a remarkable piece of hardware, but way to big for my needs. I built my own little USB-MIDI foot controller: it only has three switches and fits into a standard guitar pedal housing, but thanks to my own firmware I can press multiple switches at the same time to trigger a different MIDI command. This results in 6 switches per bank (plus one external expression pedal input) and by pressing all three buttons at once I can select up to 7 banks. It is a fun little project and I probably talked to much about it already for not being asked about it …

Regarding your question: yes, fire means play. I called it fire probably because in Live’s API it is called fire as well – could be trigger, launch, whatever. So to record a clip in session, you need to arm the current track, then select the scene you want to record into and launch/fire the selected clipslot. If it is an empty slot, it will record.

Note: there are also maybe useful commands you might be interested in: "fire next available/empty clipslot" (Note 44 or G#1) and "fire previous available/empty clipslot" (Note 42 or F#1) – this is useful if you want to record new stuff to a group of clips (group being here in the sense of a clip-launch-group): this command is starting at the currently selected clip and looks for the next/previous empty clipslot and launches it – when the track is armed, this will result in recording a clip.

[victorypoint]

Thanks again Wiffbi. Using STC is there any way to toggle play/stop for a selected clip? I've been trying to program a single Softstep button to select a specific track and then play it (if stopped) or stop it (if playing).

-AJ

[wiffbi]

AJ, that’s a very good idea! I actually have implemented this behavior for another controller of mine – so it should not be to hard to bring this to STC as well. I will try to get this done today or tomorrow. I will post an update here. Thanks for pointing this out!

[bartend7]

Thanks again Wiffbi. Using STC is there any way to toggle play/stop for a selected clip? I've been trying to program a single Softstep button to select a specific track and then play it (if stopped) or stop it (if playing).

-AJ

you can always use two buttons for this. one to fire selected clip, and then another for stop track. have you tried adjusting live's preferences? I wonder if you could get this working by changing the default launch mode to toggle and just use the fire selected clip. I'm not sure though, but i'm gonna try it tonight.

by the way , i'm a softstep user and wiffbi helped me out with some settings when i first started using this program. check out my posts earlier in this thread for a few more softstep insights.

[victorypoint]

Thanks so much Wiffbi! That would be a great addition. In the meantime I will give you a donation for your great product.

Thanks for the suggestions Bartend7. I'd prefer to toggle track play/stop with one button rather than two. I actually use Toggle launch mode as your suggest. It's a good way to toggle play/stop for a selected clip, but I want to be able to play/stop a track for the current scene.

-AJ

[victorypoint]

PS - Ideally I'd like to setup my Sofstep mappings similar to the FCB1010 mappings in this post - http://bl0rg.net/~manuel/fcb1010-mappings/ where selecting a track toggles the play/stop state of a clipslot in the selected track for the active scene.

-AJ

[bartend7]

what about assigning stop track with a "double trigger" and launch clip with "foot on". you should be able to set that up on one pedal no problem. I find the "double trigger" option rarely interferes with the "foot on" option.

[victorypoint]

what about assigning stop track with a "double trigger" and launch clip with "foot on". you should be able to set that up on one pedal no problem. I find the "double trigger" option rarely interferes with the "foot on" option.

Okay, good suggestion. I just tried it but couldn't get the desired outcome. The other issue here is that STC currently does not select a clipslot in the track that you select (with CC11). If Wiffbi adds a 'fire track' that provides clipslot start/stop toggle, then problem solved.

-AJ

[wiffbi]

Hey,

thanks bartend7 for helping out!

I added toggle play/stop for the selected clip_slot/track. It is Note# 73 (C#4).

I also added direct selection of tracks and scenes by MIDI CC value. That way you do not have to calculate the correct numbers how STC maps the whole value range of 0-127 on your number of tracks/scenes. You can now simply select a track by sending its number as a CC value. Please note, that the first track/scene is selected by 0, sending a value of 1 selects the second track, etc.

For direct track selection by MIDI value use CC# 8.
For scenes use CC# 2.

It is version 1.2.7 and download is as usual on http://stc.wiffbi.com/

@victorypoint: so, to make your Softstep work like in the link you posted, you need it to send two MIDI signals when you step on it.
1. MIDI CC# 8 to select the track. As value send which track you want to select (remember, tracks have a zero-based index, so send a value of 0 to select the first track). As mod source on the Softstep use e.g. "foot on".
2. MIDI Note# 73 to either stop the currently running clip or start the selected clip. As mod source on the Softstep use e.g. "foot off". That way we make sure, that the track is selected before we fire the command to toggle play/stop the currently track/clip.

I hope this helps.

[victorypoint]

Wiffbi, you are a genius. The new modifications work great! The awesome thing is that direct track selection on/off works independent of the Live clip launch setting (no need to set clip launch to toggle). The other awesome thing is that using the new direct track selection (CC8) eliminates the calculation trick we had to previously do with CC11.

The only snag I ran into was how direct track select behaved when selecting track 1 on the Softstep. When 1st pressing the button, the foot on event sets the CC8 value to 1 which starts track 2 instead of track 1 (using a min value of 0). The fix is to add a -1 offset to the track 1 Softstep modulation which will send a CC8 value of 0 instead of 1 on foot on.

Donation made! Excellent product and excellent service!
-AJ