MIDI Channel cross fade

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Solas
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:50 pm

MIDI Channel cross fade

Post by Solas » Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:07 pm

I'm using Abelton to control my stage lighting rig through the Show Buddy Active VST plug in placed in the master track. Each audio track is grouped to two MIDI tracks that send notes to the master track on channels 15 and 16 to control Bank and Preset changes in the lighting rig. Everything works great.

What I would like to do is cross fade between the two groups of tracks but the MIDI tracks continue to play regardless of which tracks fade setting. There is no A, B, selector in the MIDI tracks, only audio tracks. Any way to do this?

I can set up each Song/MIDI track set as a scene but I haven't figured out a way to cross fade between them. Is that possible?

I realize I could bake all the tracks in arrangement view and then automate the fades but I would like the flexibility of session view where it allows a more spontaneous set up for DJ work.

Sorry I a bit more of a lighting guy and just getting up to speed with Ableton.
Thanks!

silentio246
Posts: 82
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2017 2:31 pm
Location: Germany NRW

Re: MIDI Channel cross fade

Post by silentio246 » Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:09 am

Midi channels cannot be crossfaded, because there is no audio (unless some synth plugin on it produces sound). Switching between two midi tracks/sources can be done by switching midi tracks on/off or by changing clips within one midi track. Channel parameters can be controlled by clips. If you want to synchronize audio crossfade and midi switching, you could midi map the controller of your faderbox to both. Grouped tracks can also be started synchronized by the group slots. This could be easy, when you automate the crossfade with clips. Can be done in session view.

DunedinDragon
Posts: 106
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2021 5:46 pm

Re: MIDI Channel cross fade

Post by DunedinDragon » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:55 am

I would think it would be a whole lot easier to just define the ShowBuddy actions to do the fade out/fade in and simply trigger them with individual MIDI actions from Ableton at the beginning and end of each song. That way you're free to organize the sequence of the songs as you wish.

Solas
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:50 pm

Re: MIDI Channel cross fade

Post by Solas » Fri Mar 31, 2023 9:37 pm

Thanks for the replies! Needed to do some more digging with different keywords and found this solution regarding x-fading scenes:
viewtopic.php?p=96127&hilit=Crossfading ... %3F#p96127

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