Recording automation without linear interpolation
Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:48 pm
As you probably know, when you record automation in the arrangement view, all the movements performed with a knob or a fader are smoothed and interpolated. I was trying to record very fast movements of a crossfader (configured with Fast Cut mode) in order to simulate scratching, but the automation recorded was very different from the one that I played.
I found two solutions for this:
The first one is to insert the lines "-MidiEventThinning=0" and "-ThinningAggressiveness=0" in Options.txt, as already pointed out by several posts on this forum. Thanks to these lines, all value changes of the crossfader were recorded correctly. But this was not enough! Because Ableton introduced linear interpolation between these values, and I definitely did not want this because it completely changed the sound of the scratches! Linear interpolation was applied only for fast transition, but it was enough to mess all things up.
In other words, I wanted this:
But I got this:
As you can understand, when using a crossfader with a Fast Cut, the result on the 2 curves above applied to the sound is very different.
So I was wondering if there was a method to disable this linear interpolation in Live, but I couldn't find it. At the same time I noticed that in Session view, automation recorded for a clip is not interpolated! But the problem is that automation can be recorded in a clip only for Midi events that aren't mapped to anything... and my controller's crossfader was mapped to the Live's crossfader. Then I found a method to generate 2 Midi events for each crossfader movement: one event for the Live's crossfader, the other for the automation to be recorded into a clip. This is the workaround:
* I opened Midi-Ox (a Midi mapping tool from the same author as Midi Yoke)
* I configured Midi-Ox in order to receive Midi input from my controller and to send Midi output to Midi Yoke 1.
* I configured Midi-Ox to duplicate all Midi events received from the crossfader, in order to send them at the same time to 2 different Midi channels (1 and 2).
* I created a new Midi track in Live. This track couldn't receive Midi events about the crossfader on channel 1, because they were already intercepted by the Live's crossfader, however this track could receive events on channel 2!
* Then I armed the Midi track and start recording everything. The result was exactly what I was looking for: all crossfader movements were accurately recorded into an envelope of the clip, without interpolation.
So I could "scratch" live with the crossfader and accurately recording the automation. Then I copied&pasted the clip envelope of the Midi track into the crossfader track of the Arrangement view, and the job was done!
You can see an example of the result here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLqAj3E0lQ
In order to make this video, I recorded the automation when I was playing, then I rendered the sound later and inserted it into the video. Without using the trick explained above, the result was horrible.
I hope this helps!
And of course, if you know a simpler method to completely disable linear interpolation for automation in the arrangement view, please let me know.
I found two solutions for this:
The first one is to insert the lines "-MidiEventThinning=0" and "-ThinningAggressiveness=0" in Options.txt, as already pointed out by several posts on this forum. Thanks to these lines, all value changes of the crossfader were recorded correctly. But this was not enough! Because Ableton introduced linear interpolation between these values, and I definitely did not want this because it completely changed the sound of the scratches! Linear interpolation was applied only for fast transition, but it was enough to mess all things up.
In other words, I wanted this:
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*-------
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*
\
\
*-----
So I was wondering if there was a method to disable this linear interpolation in Live, but I couldn't find it. At the same time I noticed that in Session view, automation recorded for a clip is not interpolated! But the problem is that automation can be recorded in a clip only for Midi events that aren't mapped to anything... and my controller's crossfader was mapped to the Live's crossfader. Then I found a method to generate 2 Midi events for each crossfader movement: one event for the Live's crossfader, the other for the automation to be recorded into a clip. This is the workaround:
* I opened Midi-Ox (a Midi mapping tool from the same author as Midi Yoke)
* I configured Midi-Ox in order to receive Midi input from my controller and to send Midi output to Midi Yoke 1.
* I configured Midi-Ox to duplicate all Midi events received from the crossfader, in order to send them at the same time to 2 different Midi channels (1 and 2).
* I created a new Midi track in Live. This track couldn't receive Midi events about the crossfader on channel 1, because they were already intercepted by the Live's crossfader, however this track could receive events on channel 2!
* Then I armed the Midi track and start recording everything. The result was exactly what I was looking for: all crossfader movements were accurately recorded into an envelope of the clip, without interpolation.
So I could "scratch" live with the crossfader and accurately recording the automation. Then I copied&pasted the clip envelope of the Midi track into the crossfader track of the Arrangement view, and the job was done!
You can see an example of the result here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQLqAj3E0lQ
In order to make this video, I recorded the automation when I was playing, then I rendered the sound later and inserted it into the video. Without using the trick explained above, the result was horrible.
I hope this helps!
And of course, if you know a simpler method to completely disable linear interpolation for automation in the arrangement view, please let me know.