Ableton Forum

Here's my prob:

I am programming the FCB to send various messages to Ableton Live. Live *seemed* like a good 'midi meter' because I can quickly see what FCB is sending when I go into MIDI Map mode. I go to that mode, choose a Live button onscreen, and press an FCB footswitch. Live shows me what it sees as MIDI input. So far, no probs.

I programmed preset 1-1 to send MIDI CC 26, with the value 0. When I map it in Live, Live shows "1/26". OK, no prob, I figure, it's just treating 0 as 1, so all the numbers will be offset.

But then I program preset 1-2 to send MIDI CC 26, value 1. Live sees *exactly the same message*: "1/26".

Hmm, I says. Then I change preset 1-2 so that it sends the same MIDI CC 26, but the value is 127.

Live still sees "1/26". As far as Live is concerned, there's no difference between my two presets.

What gives? Any ideas?

the 1 in 1/26 is the midi channel that the CC is being received on

OK, thanks, that makes sense, but the part that doesn't make sense:

When I step on 2 different footswitches, Ableton Live sees the same input coming in and asks me if I want to reassign that MIDI message. In other words, the only reason I brought this up is that Ableton Live is treating both footswitches the same, but they aren't. One is sending MIDI CC #26, value 0, and the other is sending MIDI CC #26, value 1 [or even 127].

well, they are the same.

CC26 is the name of the parameter, unless you are going to write some conditional code to look for specific values on that parameter then you are working wrongly.

That's just the way midi works. Its like saying "cant live tell the difference between midi note 60, channel one , velocity 1 and note 60, channel 1, velocity 2"
because it can see the difference - but it's not in the spec to work that way.

set the pedals to cc26, cc27, cc28 etc.


actually theres many posts here about setting up an FCB, or alternatively take a look at the live wiki on the subject.

I use note-numbers on mine, it's a lot easier.

Thanks for that. I was thinking I could use one controller for up to 127 different Ableton Live commands, but I guess not. I was shy about using note numbers because I didn't want to accidentally trigger things if I played an instrument. I use a guitar synth, and there's just no telling what MIDI note it'll send out before following up in a few milliseconds with a pitch bend to "fix" any errors it makes when guessing a pitch.

I.e., the guitar synth has a hard time judging what note to send, so it makes a quick guess, then very quickly "updates" its guess with some pitch bend.

Anyway, there are lots of CC numbers, so I think I'll go with that, as you say.