Ableton Forum

I'm having a hard time executing a simple concept. I want to trigger a "note on" message from a midi kick trigger to a separate vst or external synth. So the keyboard is playing a chord but won't trigger until the kick triggers the "note on" message. I have tried this with a midi gate and it works ok but I want the kick to actually play the chord rather than open up the audio playing. Thanks for any help!

I'm having trouble thinking right now, but what I would do is create a midi clip with automation and map the kick trigger to that midi clip.

The automation in the midi clip would be for the Ableton Live 'velocity' midi effect to trigger at your preferred velocity.

The clip would be set to not loop, and the automation itself would be very short. It would go between zero and your trigger velocity.

In the chin, I would place Arpeggiator before the velocity effect. Set arpeggiator to 'Chord'.

So if the velocity effect was not there, you'd be playing whatever chord is going in via your keyboard, at whatever rate you have. Let's say 1/16. But with velocity after it and set to zero, the arpeggiator notes would be silenced. If your automation is 1/16th and always returns to zero at the end, it should trigger chords. The only problem is that it would be quantized and would trigger the chord late if you do the kick trigger too late.

I'm sure there's a better way to do it. I'm just a bit out of it.

Thanks yur2die4,
I'll have to try this but it won't get me the result that I'm trying to achieve. I need the trigger and chord to be able to work together simultaneously. Is there a way I could get 2 channels of midi into 1 track? Couldn't a M4L patch achieve this if I could route the kick trigger to the keyboard track?

best way to achieve this seems to be the use of audio channels whereby one open the gate for the other. I would use an audiogate (noisegate) for this sidechained......

best way to achieve this seems to be the use of audio channels whereby one open the gate for the other. I would use an audiogate (noisegate) for this sidechained......

This is great for big sounds (like a big square wave chord) but I want to also have the gate to work for something like a marimba with a quick attack. If the side chain isn't opened exactly when the kick is triggered then you will only hear the tail of the sound. This is why I need the kick to actually trigger the "note on" of the chord. Thanks guys for thinking this through with me!

Try my idea. It has a quantitatization you might not like, but it is very close to functioning in the manner you're asking.

One difference I would suggest is to have the instrument itself in a separate midi channel. But have the clip with automation, the arpeggiator and the Velocity effect all on one midi channel.

This would allow you to record only the midi from the notes that are triggering your instrument.

When I tried it out, the parameter I automated was the velocity 'high' knob. Had it set to zero but automation increased it to full at the same interval as the arpeggiator.

In the meantime, I'll try thinking up a more eloquent and flexible solution.

there's another way to do it - using the (hugely underrated) PolyJam max devices.

i'd attempt an explanation but it's easier to just post a demo project... download

to use, set the 'master chords' track to accept midi from your chosen chord input method (qwerty, midi keyboard, push etc).
press-hold a chord and trigger either the group's play button or the scene launch button. this will fire a kick and the held chord simultaneously. note that the played chord will only play notes within one octave, and will 'fold' the notes outside of this octave back into itself. if you need the chord to be an octave higher, open the 'slave synth' clip and move the note up an octave.

garyboozy wrote:there's another way to do it - using the (hugely underrated) PolyJam max devices.

Thanks garyboozy! I wasn't really able to make the PolyJam really work to my advantage BUT I was able to use the M4L patches to learn about the send and receive objects. Now I can route multiple midi inputs into one device! I'm super close to functional M4L devices that I'll definitely share if anyone's interested. I'm sure there's a much more elegant way to do too so maybe I can get some help with that as well.

I'd be interested in your device if it works!

Hi, I'm trying to achieve a similar thing.

I have a chords which I am playing on a keyboard in one track and I want to play this chord on a sampler inside a cell within a drum rack when triggered. I can't get Polychord to work on ARM silicon. Does anyone know of another way to send a midi chord from an external keyboard or midi track to the inside of a drum rack. If the chord is held on the external keyboard I want to trigger a sampler in a drum rack cell to play this chord if the drum rack cell is pressed.

Thanks,
Sam