Ableton Forum

I need to be able to set the focus back to the session grid from wherever the focus currently is.

Any ideas?

I know this can be done with AutoHotKeys, by setting a key/midi note/message to a mouse click at the co-ordinates for any clip slot. But I'd like to be able to do it without using AHK (I'm already running Midiox/yoke and Bomes in the background - I don't want any other stuff running).

Is there a keyboard shortcut (it's not in the manual if there is one) to setfocus to session view? (ie - not toggle between browser/session, or clip/session).

I'm gonna be mapping this to a midi pad through Bomes...

Okay - I've had an idea.

Maybe I could set up a translator in Bomes to cycle through all the focus key commands... That way, wherever the focus is currently (clip view/browser/effect view), it'll only take a maximum of 3 (or 4?) presses to get the focus back on the session grid...


Right?

in Bomes set up a translator to output keystrokes. Try Alt(Right, Up, Up, Up, Down) - ie click in the key output box, hold Alt, type Right, Up, Up, Up, Down

I think that will work from anywhere within session view. Not so good if you have something like the clip brace selected though, since I think it will move that about instead. Try it anyway and see if you have any luck.

just a theory here..
if you fire a clip do you get the focus back?
perhaps a dummy clip to bing focus would be a workaround.

no I'm pretty sure launching and all that does not effect focus

I would not have thought the "right" keypress was needed? is it in case focus is on the browser?

If you can't find a reliable keystroke solution,
the Pro version of Bome allows you to output
mouseclicks. (I'm assuming you have the
Classic version...)


-- Kid B

I didn't know Bomes did keystrokes - cheers KB.

The easiest way to fix the focus is be pressing Tab twice. That will always bring you back to the main focus regardless of what you clicked on last.

Really? I'll give it a go...

longjohns - that was copied from my autohotkey script, which allows focus on the browser, clip details and session grid... can't really remember why the right click since the script was written some time ago, but the browser may be the likeliest bet.

edit: I remember thinking at the time that key presses had the benefit over mouseclicks that there was no chance of accidentally hitting one of the clip Play or Stop buttons.

BTW, I assume you need to get the focus back to the main focus so you can use keystrokes to navigate and launch clips? You may want to consider looking into emulating a control surface to do that instead as they disregard the focus. You can have the browser (or anything else) focused and still navigate the main focus and launch clips.

That sounds interesting, metastatic. I'm currently using a DR-202 drum machine to navigate the session view (with midi pads mapped to arrow keys).

How would I go about emulating a control surface strictly for navigation of the session view? Do you mean that if I program the DR-202 to send the specific midi messages reserved for navigation for a specific control surface the focus would not need to be on the session grid in order to navigate/fire clips.

That would be awesome.

Exactly. The easiest one to work with (IMO) is the Tranzport.

You need the following MIDI messages:

Track Down (90 30 7F)
Track Up (90 31 7F)
Scene Down (B0 3C 01)
Scene Up (B0 3C 41)
Launch Clip (90 78 7F)

I’m not sure how you’re using Translator, but you would need to use it with MIDI Yoke to make this happen. In Translator, select your DR as the Input and one of Yoke’s ports (say Out to MIDI Yoke 1) as the Output.

In Live, select Tranzport under Control Surface and select In From MIDI Yoke 1 as the input.

Also, I’d suggest having a look at the protocol to see if there are any other Tranzport commands you’d like to use.

See what the Tranzport commands do in Live here…
http://www.frontierdesign.com/download/ ... nzPort.pdf

See what MIDI messages you need to send here…
http://www.frontierdesign.com/download/ ... ve_1_3.pdf

Thanks metastatik - that is exactly what I wanted! I'm using midiyoke already. I've got a Rolls Midi Pedal, connected to the DR-202, connected to the UC-33e. They're all combined in MidiOx to out put to midiyoke 3.

I'll give this a go straight away - thanks again!