Ableton Forum

I switched from Buzz to Live a few months ago after getting thoroughly bored with Buzz's instability, but in the time I've been using the program there's one function I can't seem to find in Live that I really miss, parameter inertia: the sequencer step-based interpolation from one parameter value to another. Is there any way to get this working in Live or am I just missing something glaringly obvious?

For example, one track I'm currently working on has an Operator that plays two notes, D-2 and D-4 in a constant drone. The drone is intended to bring intensity into the track so that while it and two other sounds coming from the Edirol Orchestral plugin start climbing in volume, I tweak the pitch of one of the Operator formants with a knob in my midi controller so that the sound starts climbing upwards seamlessly in the note scale.

Or, the sound is supposed to climb seamlessly, but because the controller I'm using (UC-33e) isn't exactly a precision tool, there are ugly jumps in the sound where you can hear the MIDI control parameter going upwards instead of the sound pitching up seamlessly. I was able to control this a bit by adding a delay into the sound, but since the UC-33e doesn't recognize the smallest possible knob movements, there's always a little jump from when the sound is playing with the starting parameters to the first value change the UC-33e recognizes (usually from MIDI value 0 to 7 since the controller seems incapable of recognizing a smaller starting movement), as the value changes are instantly transferred to Live as-is.

What I would like it to do instead is to capture the state the parameter is in, and the state it is set to with the knob, and interpolate between the values based on how many steps I want the interpolation to take. In the simplest possible terms, imagine a value change from 1 to 10 where interpolation counts the difference between the values and divides that by the number of steps. Another use for this would be for example a volume control set to a MIDI button that changes the value between 0 and 127 so that instead of instant change when the button is pressed, the value morphs from 0 to 127 over the set amount of sequencer steps. Or maybe a global inertia value that works on all parameters?

How can this be done?

Hmmm... strange, I'm pretty sure my UC-33e knobs output 0, 1, 2, 3... smoothly to 127. Have you tried changing the midi take-over mode in Live preferences to see if that reduces the jumps?

PS: welcome to the forum!

8O wrote:Hmmm... strange, I'm pretty sure my UC-33e knobs output 0, 1, 2, 3... smoothly to 127. Have you tried changing the midi take-over mode in Live preferences to see if that reduces the jumps?

PS: welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the warm welcome

My UC-33e's never worked like that. For example, the knobs aren't sensitive enough to recognize a movement that's only one value, for example from 60 to 61 or 59. It's done this ever since I bought it back in 2005.

This inertia thing would also be tremendously handy when for example there's a filter with way more settings than just 128 possible values, as transitions would be smoother, kind of like tweaking an analog knob. Guess I'll just have to shop around for a way to do it.

Nope, live doesnt do that. It's usually the synths themselves that have parameter smoothing. Fabfilter plugs do it. Would be nice ableton added at to their devices though.

Hm, it sounds to me as if your external controller is giving you a hard time. I've never had any sudden 'leaps' with my external devices controlling live, but then again I only really play with an m-audio oxygen49 (I have a djm-800, too).

While this may not exactly help you within a 'live' environment if you're playing out to a crowd; you can control live effects with automation control. Look into that and see if it helps you any instead of controlling your parameters via external hardware (if you haven't already looked into automation).

Also, when you're mapping a midi-control into ableton, there's a two box value at the bottom (if you're mapping a volume fader, for example) that you can type in that will give you some control over a parameter in terms of 'steps'. It may not be what you're looking for to fix your issue, but it may open up new possibilities.

Hope this helps you some.

Silwolffe wrote:Hm, it sounds to me as if your external controller is giving you a hard time. I've never had any sudden 'leaps' with my external devices controlling live, but then again I only really play with an m-audio oxygen49 (I have a djm-800, too).

While this may not exactly help you within a 'live' environment if you're playing out to a crowd; you can control live effects with automation control. Look into that and see if it helps you any instead of controlling your parameters via external hardware (if you haven't already looked into automation).

Also, when you're mapping a midi-control into ableton, there's a two box value at the bottom (if you're mapping a volume fader, for example) that you can type in that will give you some control over a parameter in terms of 'steps'. It may not be what you're looking for to fix your issue, but it may open up new possibilities.

Hope this helps you some.

Thanks! Going to check out that last thing you mentioned, maybe it'll at least solve the UC-33 problem.

garyboozy, that's what I was afraid of. Thank you for confirming it.