Ableton Forum

Hi folks,

I love Ableton Live and I think this is one of the best DAW made ever. But there is a major problem that always ruins my workflow: the SPACE BAR!
I know this is a topic that has been discussed a lot but I think it's time to fix "the spacebar issue" in Ableton Live 10.


There's 2 things:

- Give the option to disable the spacebar for live situation (a lot of users complained about their live set being stopped accidentally)
(or if not disabling it, press Shift+Spacebar or something).

- When using the spacebar to Play/Stop in arrangement view, just play where the Arrangement Playback Position is. That's it.
For now if you select any clip, it will move the Arrangement Playback Position at the beginning of the selected clip. Why that? It actually ruins the workflow. If I want to play from the beginning of that clip, why not let the user moves the Playback position by himself?

I think this is a basic UX problem that must be solved. All my friends using Live are getting mad with this. You get lost in arrangement in a second.
Why not keeping it simple?
Let's not move the playback position unless the user wants to move it. Please!

Thank you

PLUS ONE TRILLION

Here's another really weird spacebar issue: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=238350
I almost thought I had a workable workaround using ALT-SPACE, but it just acts plain wierd.

The most absurd thing is that it is not possible to set a listening start point in the clip views. It is absolutely absurd that you have to set the starting point in the arrangement window in order to work while editing midi notes in the clip view window. Sure it is possible with the speaker icon to jump the listening point from one point to another, but that position is not stored after doing stop and play. Just get rid of that damn green triangle in the arrangement and leave only a triangle (blue, orange, pink, whatever color you like) where you place the mouse, and let it stay there until you decide to move it.
But what's even crazier is that if you launch a project and, before you do anything else, you immediately start editing a clip in clip view, then if you click anywhere in the background of the clip while you're in stop, you can start at that point with SPACE and it will respect it until you change it. And it's a delight!!! (This is possible because the green triangle in the arrangement window has not yet been generated). But as soon as you click in the arrangement window that damn green triangle appears, in addition to the one that mirrored the other in the clip view, and from then on it will control the playhead's start forever. Actually you can still set a playhead in the stop state when you are in clip view, but you have to use Alt+SPACE to make it start, and that is a real pain especially when you are doing intensive midi editing in clip view.

disabling the space bar for live situation is maybe a good idea

but changing it's behaviour so it won't play the selected clip in the arrangement view... please don't do that.

right now it's super easy to listen to part by just selecting them and hitting space, do you honstly want me to have to manually move the playhead there everytime to listen to a clip??

all against turning ableton into a slow turtle of a daw like all the others, having to hold alt to modify velocity when drawing notes is pain enough when using it on a laptop with no mouse and keyboard.

Can absolutely understand it for Live situations... but please keep SPACE BAR behaviour as it is currently, because it is there for a reason - to be fast when working in arrangement, and being fast and accessible is one of the main strengths of Ableton Live...

In the arranger you need to listen to a part of your track over and over again and don't want to move the cursor manually or use some key combination for this very frequently required task...

[Ableton Live Suite 11 - EDU user] I'm also searching about how to replace the "simple Spacebar" with "CTRL+Spacebar" cause it's driving me nuts. (Anyone knowing how please respond)
It should be the other way around.
I can't understand why when i click inside the Arrangement View and press "simple Spacebar" the Project starts playing from the time spot i have clicked, and when i select a Midi clip and select a time spot again (inside the Midi clip) then pressing "simple Spacebar" the Project starts playing from the start of that midi clip and not from the spot where i have clicked.

Also a "bug" i have seen is:
1. [Picture 1] In Arrangement View make a midi clip, and select a time spot inside this Midi clip from the Arrangement View (i selected time spot "4" [Blue circle])
2. [Picture 2] Open the midi clip, and select a different time spot inside it (i selected time spot "3" [Red circle])
[Picture 2] Doing that, the time spot in Arrangement View changes it's icon to a "green arrow icon" [Green arrow]
[Picture 2] Doing that, Ableton shows us the "blue line" in the currently selected time spot (selected time spot "3" [Red Circle])
3. [Picture 2] Pressing "CTRL+ Spacebar" the Project will begin playing from the time spot [Red arrows] that we selected inside the Midi clip (selected time spot "3" [Red Circle])
4. [Picture 2] Pressing "simple Spacebar" the Project will begin playing from the time spot [Blue arrows] that we selected previously in the Arrangement View that has "green arrow icon" [Green arrow] (previously selected time spot "4" [Blue Circle])
5. [Picture 3] In Arrangement View, select a different time spot inside the Midi clip from the Arrangement View (i selected time spot "2" [Blue circle])
[Picture 3] You will notice that Ableton remembers the time spot we selected last time inside the Midi clip (time spot "3" [Red Circle]) and also removed the "green arrow icon" of the time spot we selected inside Arrangement View before (time spot "4" [Green circle])
6. [Picture 3] Pressing "CTRL+ Spacebar" or "simple Spacebar" the Project will begin playing from the time spot "2" [Blue circle]
So far so good. Now lets see the problem...
7. [Picture 4] Inside the Midi clip, we select the same time spot that we selected last time inside the Midi clip (time spot "3" [Red circle]), and Ableton shows us that we have selected this time spot "Ableton's blue line"
8. [Picture 4] Pressing "CTRL + Spacebar" or "simple Spacebar" the Project will begin playing from the time spot that we selected previously in Arrangement View (selected time spot "2" [Blue Circle]), and not from the time spot that we have selected last in the Midi Clip (selected time spot "3" [Red circle]). As many times as we select this time spot inside the Midi clip, because it's the same time spot that we last selected inside the Midi clip, Ableton doesn't select it again for some reason but shows that it does (Ableton's blue line)
9. The only thing i can do inside the Midi clip is that i have to select a different time spot (ex. select time spot "3.2"), then select again the time spot that we selected before (selected time spot "3" [Red circle]), and then if i press "CTRL+Spacebar" now the Project will begin playing from the time spot that i lastly selected inside the Midi clip.

Picture 1: https://i.postimg.cc/k5vMTLtq/1-Selecti ... t-View.png
Picture 2: https://i.postimg.cc/tTRqwDhP/2-Selecti ... i-clip.png
Picture 3: https://i.postimg.cc/L5nH6XQ8/3-Differe ... t-View.png
Picture 4: https://i.postimg.cc/Y9XrHg3P/4-Same-se ... i-clip.png

use Karabiner Elements for OSX. It's legit and free, you can remap the spacebar to a dummy function like 'F1' - works great just launch the app to activate!