Ableton Forum

Ok, so I'm using Ableton Live which has an option of playing midi using the pc keyboard. It works fine, but I can't play more than 2 notes at the same time. Therefore I can't play a 3 note chord and so on. Can you help me out? Cause? Solution? thanks in advance

its the way computerkey boards are wired / dealt with by the bios.

They are intended for typing use and there are not that many words where you type 2 letters at the same time - never mind 3.

So its a limitation you will have to live with unless you fancy writing your own bios!

hmmm, i am pretty sure that would rule out double keyboard modifiers like ctrl+alt+del or shift+cmd+v

I am also positive that on my ibook I can play more than 2 notes at a time using qwerty

Reaktor allows several keys at the same time, so there is no technical problem. That said if you are planning on anything beyond testing out sounds, you'd be better off getting a little controller keyboard ... or a huge 88 key weighted one with every key driving some automation on one channel, and notes on another

I've noticed this too. If you have clips assigned to keys you can only launch two at the same time on the keyboard. If you want to launch three simulataneously you have to make sure quantize is on and press them at NEARLY the same time.

Bit annoying that actually.

Just stick the clips in the same scene and scene launch.

hi I have this problem with my m-audio midi controller 2x2 anniversary,
in other programms like fl studio it works fine as well.
like in ableton like you said the notes die instantly when i press more than 2

The cause indeed has to do with the way computer keyboards are physically wired (in a matrix), preventing certain simultaneous combinations of 3+ keys to be transmitted to the computer. If you want the full, schematic explanation, check out here.

Also seems to depend on hardware, from1 to3, maybe 4 max