Ableton Forum

i've had ableton for a while and never really understood how to copy and paste within the piano roll. It lets me copy and paste, but does not really let me designate where to put the section/sequence i copied.

Is there any way this can be done? This is able to be done in other programs, so perhaps I'm overlooking something.

Thanks

J

No, it will work just fine.

Select the notes you want to copy.

Ctrl + C

Ctrl + V

The notes end up right on top of the old ones. Click on one and drag it to a new place. The others will follow.

easier way would be to select the notes you want (draw a box over them), hold ctrl then click on one of the notes that's highlighted and drag over to where you want the copied selection to start

They don't always end up on top of the old ones, it can be random, and annoying.

Alternatives:

Alt/option click and drag selected notes/groups of notes (works on mac)

apple or CTRL + D will duplicate selected notes /groups of notes. Then use arrow keys to move the duplicated notes where you want them.

for copying a looped set of notes

click the loop brace then duplicate

CRTL + D or APPLE +D

or

"Let’s say you have arranged a nice 1-bar loop in the Note editor, and you want to
duplicate it a couple of times. You can click the loop brace to select the notes that begin
within the loop, execute the Edit menu’s Copy command, shift the loop to the right by one
loop length , and execute the Edit menu’s Paste command" or move the loop brace where ever you want.

page 134 live 6 manual chapter 10
page 141 in live 7 manual chapter 10

It's the same as regular cutting and pasting, the notes are pasted after the cursor. the only thing is that the cursor isn't very obvious. try clicking on the sub-division you want to place the notes at before you paste (it is a hassle though, I generally just duplicate instead so I don't have to use the mouse)