Ableton Forum

Hi,

I'm currently looking into how I can use Live to do live sets, recording
clips live etc. I want to be able to do everything using my Launchpad, keyboard
and Zero SL mkII - i.e. no interaction with the laptop's screen/keyboard.

Using my Launchpad I can hit a clip button to start recording
into the clip, then hit it again to stop recording and start playing the clip.
What I'd occasionally like to be able to then do is to re-use a clip slot - i.e.
to somehow use the Launchpad to tell Ableton that I want to start recording
into the clip again so I don't have to use a new empty clip slot. Right now, if
I hit the clip's button again then it just re-triggers the playing of the clip.

Can anyone tell me how to do this (or if it's even possible - surely it is? I'd
be surprised if you could only use a clip slot once with Launchpad). To be clear,
I'm looking to entirely re-record into a clip slot rather than merge new MIDI data
into the pre-existing clip (which Ableton call confusingly call "overwriting" for some reason).


Here's a couple of examples of times that I'd want to be able to do this:

1) I've recorded a clip but mis-played some notes and want to re-record it.
2) I know that I don't need a clip anymore and would like to re-use its slot

I could just use a new empty slot each time, but I'd like to only use ~8 scenes
maximum so I don't have to scroll up and down all the time (since I might want to
use a bass clip that I recorded at the start of the set with a lead one that I've
only just recorded 1 hour later, etc.)

Anyway, I hope that all makes sense - can anyone point me in the right direction please?

Thanks in advance.

-Ramped

Can anyone help with this? Here's the summary of what I'd like to do, using my Launchpad and/or Zero SL mkII:

* record a MIDI clip
* record another MIDI clip in the same clip slot, entirely discarding the previous one

Does any Ableton wizard know how to do this? Thanks!

I'd assume that since you have the Remote zero, you have AutomapPRO ?

I think that you can set Ableton Live to highlight last-played-clips somehow (preferences maybe?) and when you trigger that clip, you MIGHT be able to hit a "Delete" key to remove it.. I haven't tried this myself, I just woke up haha. Instead of using the qwerty to hit Delete, you can put your Remote Zero into Automap mode and have a button assigned to "Delete".

Yep, I use Automap Pro. I'm not sure it'll work for me as it's not
just the last-played clip that I'd want to re-record - it's any of them
at any time. I'll look into it though, thanks yur2die4.

A bit more digging shows that it's not currently possible to delete a clip from a clip slot
unless you do it on the actual UI. Looks like Ableton don't surface it in any API - big shame:

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=129451

http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=10438

check out midi katapult.
it's still somewhat rough, but allows you to create custom "pages" for launchpad that can send midi cc's, notes, and pc's, in addition to qwerty controls. i've set up my launchpad to have a page designated for all the things that i would normally need to touch my keyboard or mouse to accomplish. for example, i have an "up down left right" cross (reminiscent of a nintendo d pad,) a copy button, a paste, a dupe, and so on. so if you need to delete a clip, switch to this page, move the clip selector to the clip and hit a button on your launchpad that corresponds to "delete."
katapult allows you to still use your launchpad in default mode as well, so you can have the best of both worlds. the only drawback is that you need to run a 3rd party translator (based on bomes) between your launchpad and live. rumor has it that the developer is working on native midi drivers to remove this small inconvenience.
give it a google, see if it works for you.
good luck, i've been setting up a compy-touch free rig for over a year and have almost completed it. it seems easier to just use the keyboard and mouse. who cares if your crowd thinks you look like you're checking email?
yours.
j

Cheers for the advice Jonny.

> who cares if your crowd thinks you look like you're checking email?

me

I'm not sure that Katapult will help with the session view stuff I want to
do as I'd still need to see the laptop screen to see which clip was highlighted
before I hit delete, etc. BUT it does look like I could use it for other
stuff - very handy, thanks.

how about using clyphx to select the clip you want to delete, then have a dedicated delete button.
clyphx can access almost anything in the live api, so you can tell it to select whatever you want it to select on a clip launch, or on a midi message. it can also do all sorts of other cool stuff. and it's free. boom.
i would do it like this if you are using only an 8x8 matrix:
set up a user page of cc's in katapult.
set up controller actions in clyphx to select clips corresponding to the 8x8 matrix. each clip gets hardcoded to a button on the launchpad.
on another katapult user page, have qwerty emulation to pass a delete keystroke.
this way you have to mean it if you delete something-you have to select it first on one page, then switch pages to get to your delete key. this should cut down on accidentally deleting something.
this is one way to do it, and probably not the most elegant. but it should work.
let me know what you think.
j

edit: i typed "glyphx" instead of "clyphx." heres a link:http://beatwise.proboards.com/index.cgi ... thread=716

Not bad, I'll look into it, thanks. I'd rather that Ableton just worked
with the hardware manufacturers to allow for the common case of wanting to
use a clip slot again though

I totally freaking agree. I hit delete on the keyboard to remove a clip. Not ideal as if I hit it and the clip's not selected, I can delete the whole track. Not goood.