Ableton Forum

Hello all,

I've been a DJ for some time now, and i'm just starting to try to get my act together with Ableton. So far, I'm quite impressed. I'll be using Ableton Live for live mixing mostly - i'm not much of a producer. I can already see the potential in this program .

So far, I've gotten down warping. i've read chunks of the manual and even bought a book on Ableton Live 6. But I still have so many questions.... I'm hoping you guys can help me out as I slowly learn the in's and out's of this program. Just lurking for a couple of minutes has already shown me a few tricks I would have never thought of....

So, thank you for listening to my (probably) boring intro on myself. I'd like begin my stay here with a few questions.... any help would be great. (for what it's worth, i'm only using session view and not the Arrangement view)...


MIDI MAPPING

1. I know how to midi map and assign buttons, but I'm trying to recreate a mixing console on my midi controller. I can assign the EQ3 and the looping to a clip, but I can't keep these assignments locked onto the selected channel!

What I would like to do is set up my midi mixer's pots to globally effect Channel 1 and remain locked on channel one. If I'm looking at a clip in channel 2, I want to still be able to effect the channel 1 EQ (and, of course, have other pots controlling channel 2).

how can I keep midi controls locked onto a channel?

2. same question goes for the looping functions. I want to have 3 midi buttons to control looping per channel. and when I press a loop button on that channel's controls, i want it to loop on that channel. even if i'm looking (or have selected) another channel's clip.


3. how can I set an encoder to cycle down and up the scenes?

4. is there a way to have midi buttons to select a channel? as in I have one midi button assigned to each channel, and when I push it the view automatically pops over to the selected clip on that channel?

Effects

5. I would like a simple high/low pass filter. one button to engage/disengage it and one knob to sweep from low to high and one knob to sweep from high to low. is this possible in Live? if not, do you have recommendations for a VST? I've figured out how to do it in EQ3, but I have to kill the bass and set the crossover all the way down. i don't want to do this, I want to just engage a HPF or LPF and crank a knob to tweak the sound and return it to no FX added when I'm done.

thank you all for reading my lengthy post. any help would be wonderful. I'm happy to be accepted into the Ableton Family... I can tell there are many of you on here that are far better at Ableton that I hope to ever be.

Sincerely,
Sean

Hello and Welcome Sean S

I will answer your last 2 questions as I am still half asleep



4. Yes - you can assign midi buttons to channels or computer keys - by using (shift + Tab) you can toggle between clip view and channel view (ie your effects in that channel)

5. Add an auto filter to the channel you want to filter or the master if you like. Map a button to the on/off switch and a knob to the cutoff frequency and you get busy with the full body filter sweeps

dont forget to check out the tips/tricks section for some interesting ideas for DJ FX and filtering

Hi Sean,

1. First you have to differ between the two Issues: EQ and Looping

Setting up an EQ is bound to a track, so choose your track, set up your EQ and midi map the controllers. Then your encoders are bound to these controls and you can control them even when your on a different track during your set.

Looping controls are clip dependent, which means that midi mapped controllers will control the actual selected clip.

So only track dependent midi mappings are locked to specified controllers, Clip view midi assignments always control the actual selected clip.

2. Sorry, not possible. As I said before these papameters are clip view dependent, so you have to choose the actual clip first and then set your looping controls.

3. I use Midistroke (on a Mac) for this where I can set up a midi-controller (encoder) to simulate a keyboard stroke. In this case I have set up an encoder on my Novation SL Remote to send out a value of 65 when turned up and a value of 63 when turned the other direction. In midistroke these values are received and transmitted into the keystrokes up and down for scrolling up and down. But it depends on your controller if you can do this, because it has to be able to act as an endless rotary encoder and send out relative values.

4- Yes. If you turn on midi mapping you can assign a knob to the track view bar (just above the Input/output asssigment on every track). Notice that there are also coming up some other midi assignable controls when you turn on midi mapping (e.g.play selected clip...)

5. Try EQ8 as I do for all EQing in my set. It works real good...

hope this helps,

stefan

3. In midi map mode, look at the cell right below the very last scene name. Thee's controls there that onyl appear in midi map mode to allow you to scroll up and down with buttons, or with one encoder.

5. Check out my DJ effects racks for Live, you can do this with one knob and don't even need a button to turn it on:

http://tarekith.com/assets/TarekithDJEfx01.zip

http://tarekith.com/assets/TarekithDJEfx02.zip

http://tarekith.com/assets/TarekithDJEfx03.zip



Also, click my ALDJ signature to be taken to the best place online for Live DJs

concerning 3:

yeah the expert is right... for scrolling through scenes this is the easiest. anyway I use my method to scroll also through slots and through my playlist in the browser.

Assigning copy/paste to midi buttons I can load my tracks into any slots without touching the computer...

cheers,

stefan