Ableton Forum

So I'm currently eh..... bastardising some ideas from around the web for my nocturn. I'm not quite at the workflow Nirvana of being one click away from EVERYTHING but the nocturn is getting pretty close....

I am hoping to find a scenario in which i select a track and the first device of each track is already in focus for my controller.

I have found no automatic way of doing this yet so if anyone has any ideas please do let me know..... i reckon a Mackie protocol might do the job. As would the apc40 protocol wherby you turn a knob which in turn selects a track and in turn focuses the first device on the track.

currently I'm taking advantage of the key command function within the nocturn to change focus (alt+down arrow) from track to devices view. I've also added left and right cursor arrows to the nocturn to allow navigation of devices.

All in all not too bad in terms of efficiency.....One mouse click, one button press to focus the first device on a track. Not bad, but I may be pushing it to expect one mouse click to select track AND focus first device??

Any thoughts?

just a note with absolute values taken from here http://stc.wiffbi.com/midi-implementation-chart/ STC and ableton play well together which is further confirming my suspicion that i don't have a clue how to set up nocturn with 2's complement cc's

will plough on

So it appears that my nocturn doesn't do 2's complement relative increment decrement..... midi monitor shows the following.... control 23 (pan) increments correctly with a value of 1 but decrements really coarse with an awful value of 65 (should be 127)

oh well....

alltomorrowsparties wrote: 3- however the endless encoders leave a lot to be desired when compared to the original nocturn script. i specifically chose the nocturn for it's endless encoders to avoid 'pick-ups' & 'snap takeovers' but something is seriously going wrong somewhere along the line.

I see you have 'Takeover mode' set at 'None'. What about Value Scaling?

@alltomorrowsparties: you can change the type of MIDI CCs STC is listening to. I have not documented it that well, but you can either change that on a per CC-mapping or globally. For your setup, it is best to change it globally. I always wanted to build some kind of configuration utility for STC, but for the time being, you need to manually change it.

According to your findings, the CCs on the nocturn are encoded as RELATIVE_SIGNED_BIT. To make STC understand RELATIVE_SIGNED_BIT by default you need to change one file.

Inside the MIDI Remote Script folder for Selected_Track_Control, you need to edit the file MIDI.py (NOT .pyc!) – just open it in TextEdit, that should work fine. In the second last line it says:
you need to change that to:
Now every default relative CC mapping is interpreted as RELATIVE_SIGNED_BIT.

If you have problems editing the file, I can send you the file MIDI.py with the changes.



Regarding auto-selecting a device: STC supports auto-selecting (this is hidden in settings.py), but currently only by "device name". What you need is an auto-select by index. I will see how quickly I can add that. Should not be to complicated as the basics for auto-selecting a device are there.

A question: I believe the nocturn has some kind of auto-mapping magic to know what you selected in Live. Do you use the nocturn only for devices or does it magically change: when you click a track, the encoders map to volume and as soon as you click a device, the very same encoders control the device? For me that would be a bit confusing as I always have to check on screen what is selected (not only which track, but whether track view or device view has focus).

wiffbi wrote:
Inside the MIDI Remote Script folder for Selected_Track_Control, you need to edit the file MIDI.py (NOT .pyc!) – just open it in TextEdit, that should work fine. In the second last line it says:

Code: Select all

def __init__(self, cc, mode = RELATIVE_TWO_COMPLIMENT, channel = DEFAULT_CHANNEL):

you need to change that to:

Code: Select all

def __init__(self, cc, mode = RELATIVE_SIGNED_BIT, channel = DEFAULT_CHANNEL):

Now every default relative CC mapping is interpreted as RELATIVE_SIGNED_BIT.

If you have problems editing the file, I can send you the file MIDI.py with the changes.

Oh my god you are a hero. donation on its way. thankyou! I had visions of me having to learn python to fix this!! thankyou thankyou thankyou

Regarding auto-selecting a device: STC supports auto-selecting (this is hidden in settings.py), but currently only by "device name". What you need is an auto-select by index. I will see how quickly I can add that. Should not be to complicated as the basics for auto-selecting a device are there.

This would be truly amazing. But then I wonder if by selecting a track and the focus always reverts to first selected device, would this mess up other areas? I'm trying to think..as in I guess where this would work is if you could select a track in session view and use cursor to scroll through tracks and the first device would be selected BUT focus would not change from the selected track in session view (thus allowing you to further use the cursor keys to navigate tracks)

*BUT* of course if the cursors are gonna be used for selecting tracks in session view AND the focus remains in session view, then they cannot be used for scrolling through devices as they wont be in focus!!

*however* i see note 67 & 68 is used by STC to navigate devices so....
you could use cursor keys/mouse for selecting track
Screen focus remains in session view allowing you to further use the cursor for selecting tracks
All the while, controller focus locks to first device of selected track
And Note 67 & 68 is utilized to navigate devices??

I'd be really interested on your thoughts on this?

A question: I believe the nocturn has some kind of auto-mapping magic to know what you selected in Live. Do you use the nocturn only for devices or does it magically change: when you click a track, the encoders map to volume and as soon as you click a device, the very same encoders control the device? For me that would be a bit confusing as I always have to check on screen what is selected (not only which track, but whether track view or device view has focus).

You are right there does seem to be some communication between Abe and the nocturn which allows the nocturn to snap to a device setting on selection. There was NO track controls whatsoever with the default setting so I'm not so sure if it's that smart but I have a feeling the answer to this is no.

I think you make a good point that even if this were the case it could get confusing alright and I'm beginning to rethink my strategy in this regard. I always find with controllers repeatability is key. If you have to check what the controller is actually doing before you do it, then there is something wrong. good point and I'm definitely gravitating towards your reasoning on this

donated thankyou Richard

The Finn wrote:

I see you have 'Takeover mode' set at 'None'. What about Value Scaling?

Value scaling-or any type of takeover-shouldn't be required with endless encoders. That's basically why I got the nocturn. Fingers crossed it'll work when I get home.

@alltomorrowsparties: I updated STC and released version 1.3. It mainly adds support for new API-features in Live 9 such as:

- create/duplicate/capture/delete scene
- create/duplicate/delete track
- delete device
- duplicate/delete clip
- stop all clips immediately

Furthermore I added the index-based auto-select of devices when selecting tracks. With this you can always have e.g. the first device selected automatically when you navigate tracks. Live’s default behaviour is to save which device you selected on a per track basis – so when you navigate to a track, it selects the device that was last selected on that track (I like it that way actually!).

You need to activate it in the settings.py. Download the latest release (link is below), then after unzipping, open the file settings.py (NOT .pyc, if it’s there) and edit line 145, where it says:
Change it to:
The GUI will keep the focus on Session View (or Arrangement) or whatever you had in focus. So your cursor keys will still work. For device navigation use either – as you already said – note 67 & 68, or use one of your encoders, sending a relative CC 32.

I have not had the time yet to update the documentation on the website, so you need to download directly from here with this link:

http://stc.wiffbi.com/files/stc-1.3.zip


P.S.: If you are interested in the Live 9 specific mappings (clip-delete or any of the track/scene commands), then have a look at settings.py way at the bottom.

P.P.S.: Thank you very much for the donation, I really appreciate this! A few others need to come in, then I will update to Live 9 (Standard, btw. –so absolutely doable!) – yay!

wiffbi wrote:@alltomorrowsparties: I updated STC and released version 1.3. It mainly adds support for new API-features in Live 9 such as:

- create/duplicate/capture/delete scene
- create/duplicate/delete track
- delete device
- duplicate/delete clip
- stop all clips immediately
)

You've done a really good job with this Richard.

It's really good to know that Abletons engineers are supporting the API and opening it up with more functionality.....not closing it off with crippleware that breaks or limits functionality to entice people to buy more expensive controllers (not naming names!)

Furthermore I added the index-based auto-select of devices when selecting tracks. With this you can always have e.g. the first device selected automatically when you navigate tracks. Live’s default behaviour is to save which device you selected on a per track basis – so when you navigate to a track, it selects the device that was last selected on that track (I like it that way actually!).

Agreed. Selection of previously edited device sounds intelligent. (but not in a confusing way) and is something I originally had on my 'perfect controller' wishlist. Now I have everything. Awesome stuff


Thankyou so much.

Furthermore I added the index-based auto-select of devices when selecting tracks. With this you can always have e.g. the first device selected automatically when you navigate tracks.

When you say navigate tracks, do you mean when only using cursors and NOT the mouse? I installed STC 3.0 and Blue hand focus changes when selecting tracks with cursor (as per STC 2.9) but NOT when selecting tracks with the mouse.

Am I hoping for too much with mouse selection of track 'blue handing' previous selected device?

wiffbi wrote:@alltomorrowsparties: where it says:

Code: Select all

auto_select_device = False

Change it to:

Code: Select all

auto_select_device = 1

Ok I think i understand now, changing the settings.py code allows selecting with cursor OR mouse but will only blue hand first device.

Leaving the code as is will blue hand focus to the previous selected device but only if you navigate tracks with cursor.


I'm definitely thinking changing the code like you said suits me better as I usually have quite a lot of tracks and using the cursor to scroll isn't always as quick/easy as selecting it with mouse.


Modified code works great thankyou Richard as always

@alltomorrowsparties: ah, I now get it regarding the blue hand and the previously selected device! This is very interesting, the previously selected device isn’t actually selected (or on API-speak: appointed (a.k.a. blue hand)), it is just highlighted – that only looks like selected, but the blue hand is not active!

I updated STC, now it should actually make the selected device also the appointed device (blue hand) when switching tracks.

You do not need to change settings.py with this release: in its default setting, STC will now make the selected device of the track to the appointed device (blue hand).

http://stc.wiffbi.com/files/stc-1.3.1.zip

wiffbi wrote:@alltomorrowsparties: ah, I now get it regarding the blue hand and the previously selected device! This is very interesting, the previously selected device isn’t actually selected (or on API-speak: appointed (a.k.a. blue hand)), it is just highlighted – that only looks like selected, but the blue hand is not active!

I updated STC, now it should actually make the selected device also the appointed device (blue hand) when switching tracks.

You do not need to change settings.py with this release: in its default setting, STC will now make the selected device of the track to the appointed device (blue hand).

http://stc.wiffbi.com/files/stc-1.3.1.zip

So now regardless of whether I select a track with cursor OR mouse. the previous selected device on that track will be blue handed? Brilliant just brilliant! So efficient and begs the question why other controllers cannot do this!

Ok so just tested it there works great..except

if a song is loaded, there is NO 'previously selected device data'
therefore when you select a track no device will be blue handed and hence you will have to manually blue hand for every track you select after the song opens.

Perhaps and if statement is in order something along the lines of

IF no 'previously selected device data' then blue hand device 1

Something like that anyway!