Ableton Forum

Hey everybody!

I am using the newest version of Ableton 11 and got a problem with regards to two midi tracks. My plan is to play one midi synth live with the Novation Launchkey while the drum rack in another channel is constantly armed (or set to In), so that I can play drums using the Sequencer of the Launchpad.
I have set both tracks to each "Midi from Launchkey" & Channel 2 for the Keys and "Midi from Launchpad" & Channel 14 for the drums of the launchpad.

The problem that occurs is, that whenever the drums are armed or set to IN, so actually whenever they are hearable, the Midi-Synth behaves differently and plays note that are not supposed to be there. So when I press Key C2 and move to D2, it keeps holding C2 even though I am not touching that note anymore. Also some hearable notes during recording are not captured in the clip.

This behavior only occurs, when I hit record. Whenever I play without recording it works fine. Also when the drums are muted, it works fine. I have changed the drum rack and tested each midi-device (individually). All of them work properly and show the same problem, so I am pretty sure it's not a hardware problem.

Has anybody an idea what could cause this issue? Maybe something related to the Midi-Settings in Preferences? For my live performance it's quite crucial to use sequenced drums and record midi synths live.

I didn’t think this setup through extensively or do any tests, but I’m wondering if MPE is a factor in this? Midi polyphonic expression relies on using multiple midi channels. So if your synth is using that and if your launchpad is transmitting that, it could be really confusing the midi channel filters.

Often times, MPE uses a midi channel per note, and different methods have different behavior. So in one method, it uses ‘first available midi channel’ for the next midi note. So if you press two notes and are filtering, then maybe only one would sneak through. Alternatively, some MPE models just cycle through all available channels before starting over with reusing the first.

This might explain the peculiar behavior between recorded and live play. But it’s just a guess…. Could be so many other things.

Random thought : is « chase midi notes » option enabled ?