Ableton Forum

hey all.

ive been using ableton for about a year now, i use it for both recording, and playing live. the thing is ive run into a bit of a problem using it live.

what i tend to do is use ableton with reason on rewire, because i like the synths and some other stuff in reason.

now when our band plays live i play 2 keyboards, hooked up to ableton. each song we play i switch which instrument each synth is controlling.

i do this by running 'clyph x' commands, which i then map to a button on one of my keyboards. so basically i have a button for each song, so that when i want to play a certain song, i just press the button and it 'arms' the tracks required for that song. each track is its own 'external instrument' assigned to a synth in reason.

right so hopefully your with me up to here. the problem i have at hand now, is two fold. first of all the amount of tracks has got to a very high level, and i think my macbook pro is at breaking point with its performance, as we add more tracks to the live set (some for samples aswell btw) its just going to get worse and worse.

what i would like to do is before each gig choose which songs we are going to play, and just wack the relevent tracks onto a ableton set for that gig. HOWEVER, and this is the second problem, clyphx runs commands based on the # value of the tracks. so if i wanted to chop and change around which songs were playing live, add new ones, take ones away, i have to program alot of code for clyphx which takes an annoyingly long amount of time.

so i guess im just asking, how do you guys deal with this sort of problem, if indeed you have this problem. how do u use ableton live LIVE?

please let me know if anything ive said seems hard to understand, its sort of difficult to get my point across

i look forward to your replies

Clyphx can handle track names now instead of just the number, so instead of
[this] 5/BPM 160 ; Mute Off
it could be
[this] "Transitions"/BPM 160 ; Mute Off

If the clyphx programming is extensive, does copying and pasting the clips with minor editing seem like a decent option?
Have you cropped all your clips? (supposed to cut down on CPU)

Im not famililar with clyphx but you might not need it
Just group all your synth as an instrument rack (I guess two group since your using two sets of keys)
Then distribute the range of the chain selector (theres a right click command for that just drag the last one to 127 first)

This ways saves cpu power

The hard part about this is changing chains...

The easiest way it to map the selector to knob, but you dont get instant jumps from one to another
Another way would be to be to assign a button to the selector and get it to send a specific velocity,but ableton only allows you one cc or note per function,
So you would have to map from the keyboard software multiple buttons to send the same note or cc but to different set velocity, cant help you with that one now

But check out instrument groups and chain selector im sure you will enjoy it either way

Hope it helps


peace

I use instrument racks and chain selector for live playing. However I use envelope modulation on clips to change the chain selector to the relevant setting for a song. I launch a clip, I have the sound.

oddstep wrote:I use instrument racks and chain selector for live playing. However I use envelope modulation on clips to change the chain selector to the relevant setting for a song. I launch a clip, I have the sound.

Thanks I hadnt though of that one!

+1 instrument rack/chain selector

ah thankyou very much guys, this is exactly what i needed to know!

going to play around with it a bit and see if i can get my keyboard sending out specific velocity settings. i know how to do it on my midi foot pedal but i need keyboard control

again thanks alot

nevermind the velocity thing.
do what our friend sugg with dummy clips and enveloppe for chain selector, much easier!

Hi, from Italy. I use chain selector too. I have 3 virtual inside and 40 preset. But i have a problem and at this moment i don't resolve...

When i change (from my iPad, but i've tried also with clips) my chain selector and a clip (in another track) or the looper are playing i hear a drop in audio.

Nobody knows how to resolve?

I think the problem is about the 3 virtuals. If i use one virtual in one track all goes fine. In my macro i must use virtual in this way: i have my first 10 preset on the first virtual and the other two have blank preset. From 11 preset plays the second virtual and the others have blank preset. From 25 preset, plays only the third virtual.

All goes on chain selector one. Instead from chain selector two (until 10) i use singol ableton live instruments.

Can the problem be about 3 virtuals on the same chain selector? I need to use looper (i play improvised music) and sometimes some audio clips, but i can't change sounds without hearing an audio drop!

Thank you and sorry for my english!
Stefano