Ableton Forum

OK, I have been playing with Live 6 for a bit, and I need to have an "aha!" moment. I am a synthesist/keyboardist wanting to use Live ... in a live situation with both software and hardware synths.

I understand the basics of adding MIDI and audio tracks, and setting up MIDI routing, and so forth. But it's a pretty manual process, setting up the ins and outs in live so that all the signals go to the right place, or setting up the VST to be controlled by my Remote SL 61. Then I record a clip or two, then I need to reconfigure for the next clip. So far, so good.

How exactly does this translate into something that can be done live? In a live situation, ideally my controllers will have one or more splits, each controlling different synths. At the right time in the song, I'll need my controllers to instantly switch to a new split configuration, controlling different synths (hard or soft). Currently, my Remote SL automaps itself to control only whatever effect in Live's tray that has been selected with the mouse. I see no way to automatically select different tracks to control, or how to split my controller across tracks.

Please tell me that I will not be using my mouse, pointing and clicking to play live with Live. I want to play part of my music while Live plays the rest. And I want to have my controller situation automatically reconfigure itself when my performance reaches the next section of the song, next song, solo, whatever.

I apologize if this is a FAQ, but I was unable to find anything relevant with a quick search, and I'm insanely low on time these days.

you can set key range splits using live's pitch plugin (play with the base note and range settings..), as far as preset changes, you can set this up with racks and assign a knob on your controller to change rack/preset maybe? (depends how much cpu you can handle being chewed up by idling synths...)

I use live at gigs too.

The way I do is that I create a Live set for each song.

The main thing in the set is a rack containing the keyboard split and all the plugins. Now you have a sound in a rack.

Then create all the other sounds for the same song as well to the same rack.

Go to session view and create an empty midi clip for each "preset" (=combination of rack's layers/sounds). Now draw manually a curve in the clip's envelope editor that will put the layer's volume level from 0 to the required level or vice versa.

So, now you have one rack and multiple midi clips in session slots controlling puttin on the presets.

TO USE them on gig, put all the clips on a same midi track with the rack. You have your Remote SL automatically mapped to Live, yes? The buttons at the left row are mapped to move up and down in the session view and trigger clips. So when you want to switch to a new presets, just go down one line in the session view and trigger play scene. The midi clip animates the volume balance withing the rack so that you get the new sound.

I hope I was clear enough. I tried multiple variations and found this the best and fastest way to switch sound. To switch a new sound you just need two button presses. Fast enough.

i have a 100 tracks

about 16 x 3 of them are for 1 x midi groovebox and 2 x madass phrase sampler rig ive constructed.

its driven by a lot of 'dummy clips' (do a search) to automate stuff and lots of racks to simplify control over every channel.

the midi groovebox is sequenced from a Yamaha RM1x just coz i like that thing

im currently writing some software to help me manage the entire set from a touchscreen and to tie in my actions on the remote SL and the ableton live interface in a way where i dont have to look at my laptop screen anymore.

just touchscreen + remote SL 25 + rm1x + live

Basically, I'll try to simplify what seems to me the main question, because i'm also feeling with this issue.

Is there a way to select devices across tracks without touching the mouse?
With my Faderfoxes I have track and scene selection, but I can't figure out how to select any device for instant mapping without highlighting it with the mouse.

This has been a pain for me, actually the only time I must hit the mouse during an entire gig.

Oh and that question also applies to browsing. Is it possible without the mouse?

cheers