Ableton Forum

I don't know if it's just me but I get all the same colored clips in each track of a new scene.
It'd be really cool if there was some way of deriving a new clip's color from (say) the track's "header color" (the color of the cell with the track name in it).
I get confused really easily and have to go back to Live to get some order..
It would be really cool to have different shades of that color selected every time a new clip in that track is created.
Dream on..
What do other people do? Is it just my OCD?

randallp wrote:I don't know if it's just me but I get all the same colored clips in each track of a new scene.
It'd be really cool if there was some way of deriving a new clip's color from (say) the track's "header color" (the color of the cell with the track name in it).
I get confused really easily and have to go back to Live to get some order..
It would be really cool to have different shades of that color selected every time a new clip in that track is created.

That would be a cool feature. I thought many times of this also.. For now check your Preferences:

Preferences/Auto Assign Clip Colors.
It's probably set to Default Clip Color.

You can pick the colors individually. Just control click on the clip. I think. It's something simple like that.

randallp wrote:I don't know if it's just me but I get all the same colored clips in each track of a new scene.
It'd be really cool if there was some way of deriving a new clip's color from (say) the track's "header color" (the color of the cell with the track name in it).
I get confused really easily and have to go back to Live to get some order..
It would be really cool to have different shades of that color selected every time a new clip in that track is created.
Dream on..
What do other people do? Is it just my OCD?

Im right there with you. This would cool, especially if the colors would change to a different hue of the same color. For example, the bass track clips could be green and for every new clip (variation of the bass line) the clip color would change ever so slightly. I think it would be too drastic to have like 6 distinct colors on one track. Does that make sense?

But yeah, good idea.

...and building on this idea, can we do a macro clip color and name change? Logic has this neat feature where you can make all the clips on a track be the tracks name in one key combination. I hate having to go to each clip and change the name or color, one by one. Tedious. Just make all the clips' colors and names the same based on what the track is colored and named. Sure, this happens when I have the forethought to name the track at the outset, but this isn't always the case for me.

randallp wrote: I hate having to go to each clip and change the name or color, one by one. Tedious.

Try highlighting all clips in a channel and change them in one go… But I hear you it would be nice to have a color default per channel choice…

djadonis206 wrote:it would be nice to have a color default per channel choice…

+1 to this.

Its one of those suggestions which makes so much sense you wonder why it wasnt the default implementation.

djadonis206 wrote: ...especially if the colors would change to a different hue of the same color. For example, the bass track clips could be green and for every new clip (variation of the bass line) the clip color would change ever so slightly.

Exactly - that's how I reset mine to and is what I had in mind. I take the top row of the color palette (rt click) as the base and the shades below as the variations. Just automate that please.

+1

+1 for Clip Color being a shade of the Track Header Color!

I'd like to see an option to have clips auto-colored by mp3 Key/Comments tags, for DJing with the Camelot Wheel.