First the quick question before I get detailed - Is there a way to automate "effect rack: on/off" from a dummy clip?
I perform live music with vocal effects but I need a different effect rack for each song. Furthermore I want my effects to change when I start the next song in session view, which is why I am using dummy clips on an audio track.
My solution has been to add each vocal rack into a greater rack, each on a different chain. So I have a master rack with 8 chains, one for each song.
The problem is that I can't leave all the effects on at the same time because it is too processor heavy, so the Dummy clip must turn the rack on one chain on while leaving the others off. (If I could leave them on I would use the chain selector)
Right now the only way I have found to do this is by assigning the rack on/off buttons to macros 1-8 of the master rack and automating the macros but now if I add a ninth song I've run out of macros. How can I add more songs?
It seems like there should be a "device on/off" for the racks in the clip envelope window in session view but I don't see it. If I select any of the racks in the clip automation I see only the ability to automate the racks macros. Also, automating the individual devices would take too long because there might be 10 effects on a single song's rack (80+ total!)
Is anyone out there who has an idea? Thanks!
(BTW I have my macro's range inverted for simplicity)
Dummy Clips - How to Automate Device on?
Re: Dummy Clips - How to Automate Device on?
Two ways come to mind: If you have a Mac, you can
1)enable the IAC bus (it's in audio/midi setup of System Prefs) and then add it as a MIDI device in Live. Set it up as a TRACK output and a REMOTE input.
2)Set up a dedicated MIDI track with short clips sending CCs to the IAC bus.
3)Using the MIDI mapping mode, map these signals (which will be instantly fed BACK to live by the IAC bus, but as REMOTE data) to the on/off buttons on your individual racks. Now you got as many switches as you need.
This might not be the clearest explanation out there. Sorry about that; I'm sure someone else could document it better. But this setup is very stable; I run a pretty complex live set with it and it's never given me any shit. (If you have a PC, there are other programs which allow the same type of routing.) Attached is a sort of crappy screenshot of the effects routing, which works on the same principle. In a nutshell...start with one Audio track (Audio1). It's set to Sends Only. There are two more tracks set up to receive the audio from this track: the dry (Dry1) and the effect send (FX1). Both are set to Monitor IN. At any given time, only one of these two tracks is allowing audio to pass through; the other has the volume fader all the way down. So there are two MIDI dummy clips to do a really quick (milliseconds) fade between the two channels. If Audio1 passes through Dry1, it goes on to the Master Out. If Audio1 passes through FX1, it gets piped through to the effects bus, which has a shitload of racks on it, all with dummy clips, weird chain switching, whatever etc. So say there are 6 audio channels, but we only want one of these channels to be passing through the effects bus at a given time and I only want to push one button to make it happen, releasing all the other channels...In order to get this all to happen with one button, each FX-send button launches one of the scenes pictured below. The numbers in parentheses are the CC#s I'm using; they're just there for reference. If you set up your effects like this, it would probably look about the same, but you could probably launch single clips instead of scenes if you're only working with one vocal track.
Picture 3 by angrydrew, on Flickr
1)enable the IAC bus (it's in audio/midi setup of System Prefs) and then add it as a MIDI device in Live. Set it up as a TRACK output and a REMOTE input.
2)Set up a dedicated MIDI track with short clips sending CCs to the IAC bus.
3)Using the MIDI mapping mode, map these signals (which will be instantly fed BACK to live by the IAC bus, but as REMOTE data) to the on/off buttons on your individual racks. Now you got as many switches as you need.
This might not be the clearest explanation out there. Sorry about that; I'm sure someone else could document it better. But this setup is very stable; I run a pretty complex live set with it and it's never given me any shit. (If you have a PC, there are other programs which allow the same type of routing.) Attached is a sort of crappy screenshot of the effects routing, which works on the same principle. In a nutshell...start with one Audio track (Audio1). It's set to Sends Only. There are two more tracks set up to receive the audio from this track: the dry (Dry1) and the effect send (FX1). Both are set to Monitor IN. At any given time, only one of these two tracks is allowing audio to pass through; the other has the volume fader all the way down. So there are two MIDI dummy clips to do a really quick (milliseconds) fade between the two channels. If Audio1 passes through Dry1, it goes on to the Master Out. If Audio1 passes through FX1, it gets piped through to the effects bus, which has a shitload of racks on it, all with dummy clips, weird chain switching, whatever etc. So say there are 6 audio channels, but we only want one of these channels to be passing through the effects bus at a given time and I only want to push one button to make it happen, releasing all the other channels...In order to get this all to happen with one button, each FX-send button launches one of the scenes pictured below. The numbers in parentheses are the CC#s I'm using; they're just there for reference. If you set up your effects like this, it would probably look about the same, but you could probably launch single clips instead of scenes if you're only working with one vocal track.
Picture 3 by angrydrew, on FlickrRe: Dummy Clips - How to Automate Device on?
Tom Cosm explained this technique very well in this video:
Manually Assigning MIDI Values in Ableton Live
On a PC you can use midiyoke instead of IAC.
Manually Assigning MIDI Values in Ableton Live
On a PC you can use midiyoke instead of IAC.
Last edited by #1thelark on Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Dummy Clips - How to Automate Device on?
Ha! See?fakemoney wrote: I'm sure someone else could document it better.