Ableton Forum

Hello Forum,

I'm relatively new to midi and Ableton so bear with me. I have a fcb1010 foot controller, Impulse 25 keyboard, Chauvet Obey 70 light controller, MacBook Pro, using Ableton LITE.

My goal is to trigger samples in Ableton using the Impulse 25 and/or fcb10101 and also run lights from the fcb1010.

My issue is with the midi connections. I can get the fcb to control both Ableton and obey if I connect midi out independently to midi in. Point being I have the midi programming configured correctly. But I cannot get both to work together. What I thought would work (but doesn't) is...fcb1010 midi out to impulse in, impulse out to Obey 70 midi in. In this configuration, the fcb and impulse can control Ableton...but the fcb is not talking to the obey 70. I think the issue is the impulse 25 is not sending midi out (or midi thru) to the obey. I realize this may be more of a Impulse forum question...but there is very little participation on that site.

So my question is...I'm I correct in assuming this will work? (i.e. fcb1010 will control both Ableton via impulse 25 and also control Obey light board? Is there something I need to do within Ableton? Again, I'm not a midi or Ableton expert (yet).

Thanks in advance for your advice.

That can work.
If there is no real "midi through" capability on the impulse you can route the midi through ableton and back out to get it to work.
Set the impulse to channel 1
set the fcb to channel 2
set the obey to receive midi on channel 3
Create a midi track (midi from impulse channel 2), (midi to impulse channel 3) If you don't set the devices to different channels it will create a feedback loop of midi and crash ableton.

Once this is set up the obey70 should be receiving midi commands from the fcb.

booksofbokonon wrote:That can work.
If there is no real "midi through" capability on the impulse you can route the midi through ableton and back out to get it to work.
Set the impulse to channel 1
set the fcb to channel 2
set the obey to receive midi on channel 3
Create a midi track (midi from impulse channel 2), (midi to impulse channel 3) If you don't set the devices to different channels it will create a feedback loop of midi and crash ableton.

Once this is set up the obey70 should be receiving midi commands from the fcb.

Thanks for the reply, I spoke with Noviation tech service today and there is no midi-through on the impulse. They too recommended setting up a midi track in Ableton. Once I set up the midi track I was able to trigger the Obey 70 without additional programming (the FCB1010 at factory reset will trigger bank 1 scene 1 using button 1 etc). The problem now is I cannot get the FCB to only trigger Ableton without triggering the lights.
It may have to do with the channel assignments as you outline above. I'm not sure how to "set the impulse to channel 1" etc. What area of Ableton should I be in to select the channel for Impulse and the other devices? Or do I set the channel in the devices themselves? If you could walk me through that process would be appericiated.

Channels have to be set on the devices themselves. I can't help you with that. sorry

I think you can set different banks on the fcb1010 to two different midi channels. That way one bank can control ableton and the other the obey70