Ableton Forum

Ok, so my goal is to create a live session where I can create a step sequence on one midi track, and then use the midi in on another track to transpose the step sequence. (Sort of like what the pro one or Elektron's A4 can do).

I managed to get this working by using one track (the transpose track), sending midi out on the IAC bus (I'm on a mac). The second track (for step sequences) is set to use the IAC bus as it's midi in, the midi in notes are then midi mapped to a ableton's midi pitch effect on the step sequence track. The step sequence track also has a midi clip playing (the sequence to be transposed) at the same time. So essentially the step sequence track midi out is the notes of the step sequence, being modulated up or down by the midi pitch plug in.

This sort of works- one problem is that the Transpose track and the step sequence track are triggered at the same time, so sometimes the pitch plug in changes before the first note of the step sequence track plays, and sometimes it doesn't. The work around here is to just offset the notes in one track or the other so that everything works like it should.

The bigger problem that I'm having (and the one I can't figure out or find a work around to is this- If I set up a third track to record the midi output of the step sequence track- I get these long sustained notes that show up every four bars or so and overwrite any other notes of the same pitch. These long notes aren't coming from the transpose track (they're not even the same note) and you can't hear them when your just listening to the output from the step sequencer track. I've tried everything I can think of and can't figure out how to eliminate these extra notes, or whats causing it. Maybe the pitch plug in is changing the note number before the track recieves a note off command? Midi Feedback somehow? Any thoughts?

I realize that this is kind of complex and technical- feel free to ask about anything that requires clarification.

Wow. That is a very complex set.

What are you using as your method of step sequencing?

Why is it necessary to use IAC routing? Are you unable to set the 'Track From' of your track with the Pitch plug to the step seq track?

Another fun way to transpose a midi clip, is to midi map a keyboard range span to the actual clip. Then as you hit each note on the keyboard, the clip sequence transposes all over. Of course, it'd require playing with clip launch settings.

Yeah my bet is that all your trouble is caused by you IAC routing. Try to route within live and come back to tell us if it's still happening. Good luck.

So yeah, the IAC routing is because i can't get live to do this using its own internal routing. It seems that whenever a clip is playing back notes, Live Ignores midi note data from other tracks that is being routed to that same track (it probably assumes this is a mistake). So basically when I try to do the routing within live, my pitch plug in stops responding to the midi notes it's being sent. For some reason it doesn't do this when its being sent midi note data from an outside source- like a midi keyboard or in my case the IAC bus. So I can get it to work fine when using a keyboard to transpose the clip (via the pitch plug in), but I can't make it work via a clip without sending the midi out of live and back into live.

why are you wanting to do it that way?

can't you just map the button on the pitch plug-in?

Forge. wrote:why are you wanting to do it that way?

can't you just map the button on the pitch plug-in?

Do you mean, map the knob? If so- yes, thats what I am doing. I'm mapping my keyboard (notes c-1, c1) to the pitch knob.

The ultimate goal of this, is to be able to have a bunch of clips of "chord progressions" that set the root note for rhythmic and melodic patterns. Sort of like a very advanced arpeggiator, where the arp "root note" and arp "pattern" are each contained in separate clips, so that they can be mixed and matched (in realtime as the session is playing). If theres an easier way to do this, I'm open to it. But this is the only way I could (sort of) figure it out.

like this?

you could use one midi track to trigger notes;
send them to another midi track, (with the synth on it)
Add an effect rack in front of the synth with 12 chains,
each one containing an instance of the midi pitch effect
but each one a semitone higher than the previous one.
You can now use the chain selector to transpose in realtime.
wich is mappable to basically everything you want...

But then again, you could really just map the pitch...
I think I didnt get it

bypassing IAC, you could try mapping a keyspan (say C1 to C2) to an empty clip slot.
then the mapped keys will trigger the recording of your initial clip (or you can record into them the track with a step sequencer).
the newly recorded clip is then ready to be transposed by the mapped keys.
can't quite explain it as i've had a few shandys but it works here with a test i just did.

here's a screengrab of the routing, where track one is an Operator synth being triggered by the unmapped keys of my PCR keyboard, and track 2 takes its input from these notes to be recorded into the clip:



SO,,, C1 to C2 of my PCR keyboard are mapped and the rest are avilable to play into the clip. make any sense?

anyway its not ideal - it bugs out Live with audio glitches at the start of the loop, and you can't set Legato mode as the clip default, so transposing retriggers the clip.
switching on Legato makes it work ok but that'd suck having to do it in a live context. .

Create the clips ok the first one. Already 'step sequenced',

Set all those step sequenced clips to appropriate launch settings.

Map the clip launch button of that Channel to key range.

Then record the output of it on ch. 2

Do you have Live 9 Suite, i.e. with Max4Live? I think you could probably accomplish this with the MonoSequencer.