Re: Triggering Ableton clips via a MIDI track

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 1:42 AM, Norman Thibodeau <ncthib@yahoo.com> wrote:
> What I'm wondering is what exactly Zoe Keating does to "make a 
>controller talk."

 Not sure what that might mean, I'm afraid.  But anyway here's to
recapture the "Ableton MIDI Clip Control" tip I shared with this list
- and especially with Zoe, since she posted the question - some years
ago:

The idea is to use your external control gear (pedals, buttons etc) to
trigger MIDI sequences or MIDI loops in Ableton Live. These MIDI
sequences/loops hold MIDI data that are sent out as MIDI events into
the system (on a Mac you use the Core MIDI IAC Bus and on a Windows
box you install MIDI Yoke to create "internal MIDI channels"). Now,
when these MIDI events come back into the application (Ableton Live)
you have to set up Live to react to them. I do this by Live's MIDI
Learn process. You may want the incoming events to fire off audio
clips or change the status of a looper or initiate just about any
process in Live.

In order to set it up you need to know how the following three things
work (described in manuals etc):

- MIDI (knowing what MIDI is and how it works, the actual protocol that 
is).
- IAC Bus in OS X (set it up on your Mac at "Applications > Utilities
> Audio MIDI Setup.app > Show MIDI Window").
- MIDI routing in Ableton Live (both in the preferences and by track
assignment in the Session View/mixer).

>
> For instance, I was wondering whether I was missing something in the 
>Ableton MIDI preferences.

Hard to tell... could be something else as well. You might have missed
to set the input and output slots of some Live MIDI Track channel
needed to deliver the data. Or simply defined the wrong MIDI channel.
What you should do is to first make sure you know about the three
areas mentioned above, then you trouble shoot your set up by following
the control signal. From the foot pedal that sends the first MIDI
event into Live's MIDI preferences, into whatever MIDI tracks you've
set up to route the MIDI signal, into the MIDI control assignment
system (the "MIDI learn" stuff) etc etc.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com
www.looproom.com internet music hub