scene or clip to change soundset?

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bwack
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scene or clip to change soundset?

Post by bwack » Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:57 pm

ok, no idea how to even search for this, so if this is previously discussed just shoot me - in the right direction...

i am a drummer and i use live and a drum trigger pad (roland spd-s) to run loops and beats in our set.

setup:

spd-s -> edirol interface -> mac book pro -> ableton

three of the pads are assigned to "play (next scene)" - "previous scene" - and "global stop".

i have a couple loops tracks and a click track. each scene is a song or a part of a song and as the night progresses i move down through the scenes via the play (next scene) pad. most of my clips are quantized so i can start them before the beat and they wait and go on the downbeat.

also i have a few clips that are one shots and these are unquantized.

so the question is,

is there a way to put these one shots on their own track (in a drum rack or impulse) and as i progress through scenes have dummy clips or some type of automation that changes these sounds for me. like on song A pad 1 is a subkick but on song B pad 1 is a hat. the only solution i've thought of is using midi effect to transpose, but i'm afraid that will screw up the global pads -> play, previous, and stop. id rather automate a part of drum rack and keep my midi notes unchanged.

does this make sense? the less physical buttons i have to press during a set (like spd-s scenes) the more i can do on the drum kit. so i would love this to be automated into my set.

if it is not already an ableton thing, could there be a workaround?

BTW - love this forum, thanks guys.

bwack

TroyP
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Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:50 pm

Post by TroyP » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:41 pm

If I understand what you're asking, I may have found the answer on p. 404 of the Live 7 manual.

If you want to have pads 1, 2, 3 control play, play and stop on each song, no matter what scene you've got highlighted.

And, you want pads 4, 5, 6 to control (for example) whatever clip is in tracks 7, 8, 9 on whichever scene you have highlighted.

It's possible. There's a graphic on 404 that shows what looks like a "play button" you need to map pads 4, 5, and 6 to.

They are extra buttons that only show when you're in MIDI Map mode. They show up on each track, just above the mixer controls.

"4. Assign these buttons to launch the clip at the highlighted scene, in the respective track."

TroyP
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Post by TroyP » Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:43 pm

Dang! Thought I'd found it, but lauching the scene would've launched the one shots, too.

TroyP
Posts: 255
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:50 pm

Post by TroyP » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:36 pm

Are you playing the unquantized stuff--that is, using it as a way to get a different hat sound, but you're playing the pattern live? Or just firing the clip and letting it run as a loop that doesn't repeat?

If the latter, you could have your regular loops in tracks that you lauch with Scene 1, then no stop button in those tracks for Scene 2.

Firing Scene 1 would advance the highlight to Scene 2, where additional tracks (that were empty in Scene 1) could hold your one-shots, which could be fired as in my first post. A drum rack would give you up to 127 different sounds for each track that could be used this way.

Then, you could stop things by launching an empty scene that had stop buttons, or by using the global stop button.

Jekblad
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Post by Jekblad » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:23 am

hey bwack, welcome to the forum.

Ever heard of DCB? they are a most terrible band with some type of goat person for a lead singer... but i hear their drummer is pretty cool guy. :wink:

I made you a live set that demonstrates a solution to your issue. Its a rack that uses clip envelope's to route the midi to different instruments within the rack. I also put a delay rack on there just to share my method of making "dummy racks".

Make sure you read the info text for the racks. Lemme know if you have a problem DL or installing the live pack.

www.jeffekblad.com/Arts/likethisbwack.alp

and oh yea...
www.jeffekblad.com

let me know if there are any questions or you have other things you'd like to accomplish w/Live. peace bro
2.4 ghz Macbook Pro 8gb RAM, SSD, Live 9 Suite, Puremagnetik, Minimal Talent

bwack
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2008 5:35 am
Location: Waco, TX
Contact:

Post by bwack » Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:15 am

ok, wow. you guys rock.

yeah, the one shots i'm using as other drum sounds and need to be able to have them change from song to song.

definitely a fan of the second solution although i never noticed the play button on each track. that will be very useful to know in the future.

i'll spend the next few days analyzing this a bit, but this seems like the solution to me. i knew ableton could do it! more amazed at this software every day...

i'm going to be in springfield, mo. friday. is that near you jeff?

bwack
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Location: Waco, TX
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Post by bwack » Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:18 am

HA!

no, springfield is nowhere near you... awesome...

read bwack read...

Jekblad
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Post by Jekblad » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:19 am

yeah it's a bit of a drive... but next time you guys roll through HOB in Chicago i'll give you a shout out on here and come check ya.

also i imagine you guys are using pro presenter 3 for visual, but if you're already running clicks for most of the songs you could consider outputing video from Live, then it can be synced up to the beat etc without needing to have a tech sit there to hit the spacebar. Of course, unless you're running a click for EVERY song it's kinda a big switch to make... But there's some flash there i suppose. You can treat the video like it's audio and make little clips, so if you split your songs up to trigger verse/chorus style the video would follow right along, which is cool.

The track clip launch slots thing... Troy i'm still not sure how you got around refiring the one-shots when firing the next song. Is your 3rd post a solution to that issue or just something different? It's a little late so i could be way off...

But Bwack for real, you guys are a big reason i get to do what i do professionally. When DCB started doing all the reason programming, playing to clicks etc it really gave me the oppurtunity to learn it all and begin to teach others, and i've never looked back. Now it's a big part of my life and income... so thank you for that.

Anything at all that i can do.... I'd be more than happy.
2.4 ghz Macbook Pro 8gb RAM, SSD, Live 9 Suite, Puremagnetik, Minimal Talent

TroyP
Posts: 255
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:50 pm

Post by TroyP » Thu Feb 19, 2009 4:35 pm

Jekblad wrote:...The track clip launch slots thing... Troy i'm still not sure how you got around refiring the one-shots when firing the next song. Is your 3rd post a solution to that issue or just something different?...
It's meant to be. I hope it is. I haven't figured out how to get a picture in here, but here's a link to a screen shot. www.flickr.com/photos/27959604@N00/3292431463/

It's not quite what bwack needs, but would work if one wanted to run loops with one-shot clips that were pre-recorded or programmed.

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