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Use software controllers in Live? Automate preset change?

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 12:48 pm
by bbtr
Two questions:
1. Can I use software MIDI controllers in Live, like the ones in Pluggo or Reaktor? What's the trick? Can I assign them to any knob like project tempo or any other?
2. Can I automate preset change? (by drawing or again using software controllers?)

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 7:51 pm
by ben_blue
1. yes u can do it with midi yoke - PC or IAC drive - osX.

(in reaktor assing midi out to midi yoke 1. in live assign remote in midi yoke 1 to ON.)
in reaktor, make sure the "remote to midi" box is checked for the knobs u want to send midi from. u can do it globally also in the prperties box in R. (reaktor 5) )


2. the only way i know of to automate preset changes of live's native FX is a method i have created. its somewhat in depth and u need bome's midi translator. www.bome.com
its kind of a pain to set up but once done it kicks major ass.
i can explain it, if u want. do u have an hardware controllers? its a lot easier to set up with those, but could be done if u had reaktor 5 for exampleset up as mentioned above.

bb

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:08 am
by bbtr
Thanks, ben_blue!

No, I don't have hardware controller, but I have Reaktor 5 and will appreciate if you explain how to do preset changes with the method of yours. (Trying to stay 100% software.)

What do you think, how many parameters can be controlled simultaneously using the method you describe in point 1.?
(I don't have much experience with MIDI Yoke or setting up MIDI connections in general, sorry.)

To clarify: my idea was to use software controllers to apply automatic (not man-controlled) modulation on parameters. This might have some interesting results, you know. If combined with the other innovative features of Live, might result in some "generative" type of "music". (Much better than Koan Pro.)

I wish that Ableton made a separate LFO plugin that could be easily linked to any parameter from inside Live, without using 3-rd party apps., something like FLStudio's controllers. Let's pray...
:wink:

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:44 am
by Michael-SW
Many VST synths/effects respond to ordinary MIDI program change messages to change presets. Live's own stuff doesn't though AFAIK.

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:33 am
by Machinate
FWIW Live gets pretty grainy when receiving a lot of midi controllers from the outside :-(

I built a reaktor ensemble specifically for this kind of tweaking - if anyone's interested:
http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.p ... tchid=3811

However, when live receives the midi it would be very jumpy as I assigned the parameters. I would recommend doing some heavy-duty quantization/step-filtering before transmitting from your reaktor patch.

Oh, while I remember: It works brilliantly in Energy XT - I could do some very radical modulation of vst instruments in there.

Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:04 pm
by vip32
ben_blue wrote: i can explain it, if u want. do u have an hardware controllers? its a lot easier to set up with those, but could be done if u had reaktor 5 for exampleset up as mentioned above.

bb
yes, please explain for hardware controllers and bome. i am looking for the answer to this one for a long time. great if this could work!

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:39 am
by ben_blue
hey guys.
sorry so long to respond.

what i have done, mainly for using Live live, involves sending "virtual" program changes, to live's native plugs by sending a set of CCs/ notes AND each's specific values to a plug. by doing that, i'd change all the parameters of that plug to a different value. essentially, another preset. well it is exaclty like that, becuase thats what a preset is - all the parameters in a different position - except you don't have the names as in the browser.

so there is absolutely no actual external control of changing the actual presets like listed in the browser. you are sending groups of CC's and values to a plug, all simultaneously, which instantly change all the paramaters to those values.

got it? once i figured it out it wasnt THAT hard to set it up, i got quick with it.

what u need:
well to start, each of the parameters must be assigned already to something. (thus why i mentioned a hardware controller, but it could be done with for example a reaktor ensemble sending out CC's.)
but you only have to use the parameters u want to change. if u never use the envelope on autofilter, dont bother assigning it!

u need bomes and midi yoke. (www.bome.com http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http:// ... /myoke.htm )

in bomes, you will end up with a translator line whose incoming midi message will be a "trigger" of sorts. the outgoing midi message will be the CCs and values for all the parameters you want to instantly change. (they dont even have to be the same plugin, they can be anything!)

each translator line will be like one preset.
each line's input is unique. each's output will be a string of values.
its easiest to use the incoming message as a CC/ note that isnt assigned to anything in Live, so you dont have to worry about other stuff happening on accident.

example:
we want to instantly change to our favorite filter settings.
we have 4 knobs on our uc17/uc33/bcr/bcr/oxygen8 set to send out
CCs 1,2,3, and 4 on channel one, and assigned in Live like this:
1/1 frequency
1/2 resonance
1/3 type
1/4 LFO amount

so if we want a lowpass filter, all the way up, sounding close to as if it was off, we'd want the values like this:
freq - 127
res - about 64
type - anywhere between 0 and 32 to choose the first type.
LFO - 0

if we wanted a highpass halfway up, with LFO cranked up, it'd be:
freq - 64
res - 80 ish
type - anything between 33 and 65
LFO - 127

now we take an arbitrary message to "trigger" these. a button works well. if it's a button that sends a note on and note off message, that can be used to trigger two different "presets." for now, what wont work well is a knob sending all values between 0 and 127. if u must use a knob, try setting the high and low values it sends to the same number. itll make things easier now and later. we'll say we pick note #0 for out first filter example, and note #1 for our second.

note #0 is converted in bomes into (lowpass, reso mild, LFO down)
CC1/1 value 127
CC1/2 value 64
CC1/3 value 0
CC1/4 value 0

note #1 is converted in bomes into (highpass, reso wild, LFO cranked)
CC1/1 value 64
CC1/2 value 80
CC1/3 value 33
CC1/4 value 127

heres what the values look like in Bome:

first one:
Image

second one:
Image

you dont have to know hex. if u dont ull learn quick and its easy and logical.

when u add a translator line in bomes, the incoming message can be learned as u turn a controller, but output cant. i use the incoming field to display the controller, and then copy and paste to the outgoing field.


so thats the jist of it. pretty long, but ive gotten a few emails since i last posted...and i said it was in depth! but not that hard.

if youve already got most of your live parameters assigned, then youre a step ahead. you may want to remember to be aware of midi/ usb ports and preferences, etc - for example - my uc33/17 cannot be opened in Live's preferences AND bome's at the same time. so in the process of setting all this up, i may have to turn it on in Live's pref's, then back off later to turn ON in Bomes....etc, etc...


endless possiblities. use this to "default" all your EQ's or sends.

my example: using a BCR button set to INCREMENTAL MODE (must have BCR firmware 1.10). each click of this button sends a value by the increment chosen - 1 by default on a BCR button. i want to cycle among 8 of my "virtual presets." if i left the increment at 1, it'd be a pain. the first 8 presses of this button woudl cycle, and then id have to press it 120 more times. ( or i guess i coudl set the upper limit to 8 instead of 127.) i prefer to set the increment to 16, thus i only have to press it 8 times, and the ninth im back at one. this leaves me space in between all of these to make more variations. but typing it all out now. it may be better to do 1-8 at an increment of 1!
whats important is just to know which youre doing and KEEP TRACK OF IT ALL!


i really hope this helps and inspires some of you. ill be here to try and help.

-ben

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:34 am
by vangroover
only for pc :(

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:57 pm
by vip32
ben_blue wrote: -ben
great explanation of the hardware trick! but i don't need midiyoke for this, don't i, only bome?

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 7:46 pm
by ben_blue
you need midiyoke to send the midi output by bome into Live, unless you are on OSX and you'd use IAC...except i gues youre not since bome isnt for mac yet :)

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:00 am
by ben_blue
so no one's tried this?

a few had asked me to explain...its pretty easy, just not easy to explain...
b

Vsti Lfo

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:32 pm
by Inductive
Does anyone know of a pretty cut and dry midi LFO vsti? In buzz I would use a PeerLFO (for any lurking buzz users you know whats up). If not I will clean up the one I did in synthedit, its pretty usefull. You still need midi yoke. Anyway, I will get it a bit more user friendly and up it somewhere anyway.

Anyone know of a fairly perminant place to put a few like 2 meg files? I'm not being totaly lazy but I've signed up to 2 places that ended up not working out and that kinda searching takes a long time for me (I have a sub 9600 baud connection heh). Anyway, I will try to look at work on the blazing 28.8