turn off all devices in a track via Live API, how to?

[defetto]

Hello everyone,

as stated in the subject, i'm trying to create a little Max device which can turn off all the devices on the track where it's sitting, for optimization purposes.

In fact i noticed that muting a track doesn't stop Live from calculating the content of the track.
As i'm working on a project with many tracks, and they will not be all playing at the same time, i need something to completely turn off a track when it is not being used.

Is there already a command in Live for this purpose? Freeze track doesn't seem to be what i need, plus it's not accessible from the Live API... (right?)

I am already able to retrieve the relative path of the track where the max device is, using this_device canonical_parent, and i can turn off a specific device.

What i don't know is how to turn off all devices together.
I can count the devices on the track, but it seems like the live.path is not able to output a list of several id (only one at a time), and same goes for the live.object, it can only operate on one id at a time.

Does anybody know a way to do what i need, or at least know if it's something possible?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Best,

Pedro

[pid]

pedro, PLEASE do not post same Q's in BOTH cycling and ableton forums. it is REALLY annoying...

[defetto]

pid, i'm REALLY sorry, i just don't get the reason why there are TWO forums then.. can you EXPLAIN? where should i post?

i believe there are different users on the two forums, so using both makes sense to me, but if you think i'm wrong, please explain why.

[ring (Simon Slowik)]

"get devices" will give you a list of all IDs corresponding to the devices in a track, as you probably know.

"zl iter 2" will then split the list into single ids. You could go another way via "route id" and than add the "id" afterwards again.
So you can handle the ids one after another.

Then the first parameter of a device is always on/off.

cheers,
ring

[henke]

pid, i'm REALLY sorry, i just don't get the reason why there are TWO forums then.. can you EXPLAIN? where should i post?

i believe there are different users on the two forums, so using both makes sense to me, but if you think i'm wrong, please explain why.

I agree with defetto here. The two forums have a slightly different user base / style. If I'd have a problem that is more related to the Live side if things, I'd probably post here. If my problem is clearly a MAX question I'd rather post it on the C74 forum. And if it seems to be relevant for both, why not posting on both of them. As long as the topic / title of the post is as clear as possible, this should not be a problem.

Posting a single threat with the title " Need help" or "WTF???? note off !!!!" is more annoying than posting a thread "Jitter examples in max for live?" in both forums.

Robert

[broc]

+ 1

[defetto]

@henke @broc

tnx guys, yeah i honestly didn't get pid's reaction..
Robert you are right, if the question is related to the Live side, i'd post only here, and viceversa only on the cycling forum if it's related to max itself.
But when it's specifically about maxforlive, it makes sense to post on both forums, and yeah i always try to keep the thread's title as clear as possible.
Still i think the best would be to unify the two forums, resulting in a unique dedicated maxforlive forum.

@ring

thanks for the reply, so you mean that i have to turn the device off one by one, as it's not possible to send a list of id to the live object, right?
I knew about "get devices", that works, but now i have to find a way to turn all the devices off one after another.. will look into zl and route, tnx for the hints.

cheers,
pedro

[defetto]

Damn i was wasting time, seems like Live does that automatically. If a device is not computing anything, it is automatically excluded from Live calculation.
In fact if i create a track with something like 15 devices, if nothing is playing the cpu usage is the same, no matter if the devices are on or off..
Can somebody confirm this? Thanks a lot.
Pedro

[henke]

Damn i was wasting time, seems like Live does that automatically. If a device is not computing anything, it is automatically excluded from Live calculation.
In fact if i create a track with something like 15 devices, if nothing is playing the cpu usage is the same, no matter if the devices are on or off..
Can somebody confirm this? Thanks a lot.
Pedro

Sure: confirmed.

There is a little internal connection inside Live that manages this. We call it the 'X-port'. Yeah.


Robert

[defetto]

Thanks a lot for the confirmation Robert, well what to say, nice feature!

Pedro

[pid]

WOW! humble apologies then! i thought it was more than just me who would get out wrong side bed in afternoon...

... that is a genuine apology by the way, not sarcastic (!)...

[defetto]

@pid it's ok, no need to apology, maybe at some point there will be a single maxforlive forum and everyone will be happy.

getting back to my problem, since turning off the devices is useless, i'll have to control the monitoring of each track;

basically my situation is the following:

i'll play different instruments using an external keyboard. Not all together, one after another;
for example, after two minutes of piano playing, the system should switch automatically to a xilophone, and so on..

So basically i need to have the monitoring of the "active" track set to In and all the others set to Off.
Since i don't want to switch the monitor state manually, i tried to automate it, but seems like it's not possible to have an automation of the monitor state.

So i guess my only option is to control the monitor state via maxforlive, right? I'd prefer to do it just with Live..
anyone?

Pedro

[broc]

You can do it with Live but somewhat tricky.
Map the monitor buttons to midi notes and put the corresponding notes on a Live track,
sending them via virtual midi back into Live as remote control events.

[defetto]

Thanks broc, in the end i did a maxforlive device that control the switch between In and Off, using a live.toggle so that i can automate it.. nice nice

If anybody needs this device, just ask and i can send it to you.

[bencodec]

how about leaving monitor on auto and just toggle record arm on and off? you can also set record arm to function like a solo button where only one track is armed at a time.