Ableton Forum

I've come to the conclusion that, in order to have my MIDI foot-controller (Behringer FCB1010) do things like move left/right between tracks, arm the current track for recording, and start/stop recording on the current track, I will either need to install a MIDI translator program on my system, or I can employ "Tranzport Emulation". So I'd like to try the latter...the question is, how the hell do I do this?!

I've browsed the forum, read all the discussions about Tranzport Emulation, and they may as well be printed in Latin. This is my first experience with music software so I need things explained to me as simply as possible.

I know I have to go into Preferences and choose "Tranzport" for my control surface. I assume, then choose my interface (M-Audio FastTrack Pro) for input and output. Then what? I go back to the Session View, hit the MIDI Map button...? How do I associate the signal from the Behringer with the appropriate keystrokes? For example, someone in the forum said you need to send "90 00 7f" in order to arm the current track -- but exactly how do I do that?

In that same thread, someone else said the MIDI note "C-1" will arm the current track...so I went to my Behringer, pulled out the manual, found the MIDI note number for C-1, programmed it...nothing. It seems like there's a couple steps I'm missing here.

I would greatly appreciate any help you can give. Thank you!

mldrink wrote:For example, someone in the forum said you need to send "90 00 7f" in order to arm the current track -- but exactly how do I do that?

90 00 7f is the midi message in hexadecimal numbers which is what programmers use. These midi reference guides should help you translate them:
http://www.mibac.com/Pages/MIDIReference.html
http://www.io.com/~jimm/midi_ref.html

u can use midi-ox to anylize midi commands.

mldrink wrote:I know I have to go into Preferences and choose "Tranzport" for my control surface. I assume, then choose my interface (M-Audio FastTrack Pro) for input and output.

I don't think output matters but if the FastTrack Pro is where the midi from your behringer is going to, then that should be correct for the Input.

Hey thanks, I'll pour over those references, see if I can get this rig to work. I'll post back if I'm still in distress...

Sweet! I went down an octave like you said and that worked. So I've got the basic commands figured out:

- Track right/left
- Arm current track
- Start/stop recording current clip

Maybe I'm getting greedy but I'm wondering if anyone out there has the MIDI notes for some other commands, like:

- Reverse current clip
- Cut, copy and paste (to move clips and scenes around)
- Create new scene, create new clip
- Pan left/right on current clip (maybe use an expression pedal for this?)

Maybe some of those aren't possible but it would be handy to know. Either way, thanks a lot for your help!

mldrink wrote:Maybe I'm getting greedy but I'm wondering if anyone out there has the MIDI notes for some other commands, like:

- Reverse current clip
- Cut, copy and paste (to move clips and scenes around)
- Create new scene, create new clip
- Pan left/right on current clip (maybe use an expression pedal for this?)

You could probably do most of those using QuicKeys (Mac and Windows). It will translate MIDI commands to keyboard shortcuts on your keyboard, mouse clicks, any kind of menus like contextual ones that don't even have keyboard shortcuts associated with them, and even make custom commands by recording what you do in Live.

Beware of Tranzport. Or at least make sure if what follows here does not interfere with the future of your concept.


1. Tranzport said said to be abandoned by the producer. I have written to them about it and got no answer.

2. track grouping in Live 8 messes up track orientation (check maybe the latest Live update solves the issue; I have demoed until 8.0.5, now too busy)


Here's what a guy named stray, who develops advanced software for midi controllers, says about this issue

I can confirm that there is indeed an issue with the Tranzport script in Live 8. Once a track group is created and viewed, the feedback that Live sends out to the Tranzport just stops being sent. So any products (like Tranzpad) that utilize the Tranzport spec are also affected. ModQ uses also uses a bit of the Tranzport spec as well.

I would assume that Ableton will fix that, but I don’t have any gauge as to when.

For that reason, none of the products we have available for sale utilize the Tranzport spec anymore, so they wouldn’t suffer from this issue.

Stray explains how to reproduce the problem, even if you don't have a Tranzport protocol device:

1. Start a new Live set (Live's default template is preferable).
2. Click on a track to select it. Then click on the track's mute button while looking in the upper-right hand corner. You should see an orange indicator lighting up.
3. Insert some audio tracks, then click on one of them to select it and try the mute button test again. Should still work fine.
4. Now group a few of the tracks. After grouping, click one of the tracks in the group, then click on another track that isn't part of the group.
5. Now try the mute test again. It shouldn't work.
6. It will not work again unless you load a new set or ungroup the tracks and enter/exit MIDI mapping mode.

more about it here:
http://beatwise.proboards.com/index.cgi ... 185&page=1




Do write if you find something new. Also about an alternative to Tranzport, if necessary.

Cheers

T

An alternative to Tranzport is MackieControl emulation:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=54557
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=30237