Simultaneous track arm/record clip problem

Spaztek · Post by **Spaztek** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:01 am

I'll begin this post by saying I'm a n00b and a half when it comes to Live, but...

In Live 5 session view, I'm using the midi map function to map two virtual controllers in Max/MSP(say Ccs 4 and 5) to record enable a track and launch recording on a clip almost at the same time. I say "almost" because I programmed a 10 millisecond delay between when the first cc message arrives to arm the track and when the second starts the clip recording. I thought this would be enough time to ensure that Live didn't get order of operations confused and try to play-launch a nonexistant clip before record was enabled. I was wrong. According to my (totally unscientific) tests Live needs a whopping 250ms between the two messages before it will sort them out correctly every time.

There seems to be no similar problem launching with keystrokes, but I'm working on a Macintosh and Midistroke (the only Mac midi-to-keystroke converter) has proved too buggy to work for me.

Am I missing something obvious here? Please help...

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:08 pm

after reading this thread, i will emphasize leaving both tracks armed

i didn't know you were on a mac and were against midistroke

are you trying to break the clips at strange timings? or on even bars??

Spaztek · Post by **Spaztek** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 12:52 am

I'm not against Midistroke per se, it's a great little app, but it crashes every time Max/MSP is open and seems to be having port issues with PureData, my other midi generator of choice.

I'd like the flexibility to break clips both at random timings and at even bars, but that might be a topic for another post. I'm gonna go spend a little quality time with the manual.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:10 am

since you don't seem to have any fears about complex midi routing, check on something that's NOT in the manual..

you can probably find some information on the wiki: http://www.teragon.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

or possibly can find something on the forum

i'm pretty sure that a clip sends a midi message when it's fired - and maybe this could be harnessed to automatically trigger the second clip((???))

actually i looked it up for you:

An example of usage
Robert Henke wrote: Richie Hawtins "secret" Live feature is in since Live 4 for everyone: create a file "Options.txt" in Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live4 write the line: -MIDINoteFeedback in it. If a session clip has been MIDI learned it will put out a note event when triggered, and a note event with velocity 1 per loop count and the note off on stop.Thats all. Robert

The -MIDINoteFeedbackis very useful for triggering synchronised lighting - whether via midi to dmx, or lighting LEDs on a custom controller.

But, Robert told us more recently !
The MIDI feeback option is not necessary anymore, since Live 5 this is enabled anyway. The options.txt stuff is a bit tricky. Things might change here from verision to version... so you can never be sure it does what you think it will do. We implemented this hidden feature to allow modifications of the software which are only usewful for a very smal user group with a very specific setup and for us to have an easy way to test some details. Things we do not want to put in prefs like: enforce compatibility to audio driver X while running under os Y if soundcard Z used port A.... any feature which might be useful for more then ten customers at some point ends up in "public" and not inside the options.txt Robert