arm/disarm tracks simultaneously in ableton live using a keyboard

dude77's icon

Hi,
i'm trying to use my keyboard/note on messages to arm a track in ableton Live and in the same time disarm every other armed track, so that i'll have only one armed track at any given moment.
i've mapped different notes to different tracks but the trouble is that the unchangeable range of Live's arm button is 64-127 so the same note on message toggles it on and off.
i need to switch between seven different tracks and i'd be glad to hear ideas on how to toggle on one thing while toggling off others with only one key press (it must be with a keyboard and as mentioned, note offs are apparently useless).

thanx

broc's icon

In Live's preferences record tab, you can set exclusive arm. Wouldn't it solve your problem?

dude77's icon

Unfortunately, exclusive arm is valid only for mouse clicking, not for midi mapping.. so the solution must come from a max patch.

broc's icon

I've just checked again and it works for me also with midi mapping..

foxcontrol's icon

Did you find a solution to this? I am having the same trouble using a midi pedal (FCB1010) it will arm as many tracks as i turn on, rather then arming one track and disarming the track I was using.

Terje Mjørud's icon

Hello :)

I stumbled upon this issue, when I was trying to select and arm tracks from an external midi controller. The controller sends CC values and the patch selects the track based on the incoming CC value. I too experienced this issue, that previously selected tracks was not unarmed, like it normally do when you arm tracks by clicking (given that you have turned on exclusive arm in preferences). So to get around this, I simply store the selected track index into a value object after the selection, so when a new track is selected, I have the index from the previous selected track, and can use this to unarm the track, before the new one is selected.

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Take a look at the patch here, if you're interested.

Vaclav Greif's icon

Hi, thanks for sharing the patch - can you please explain step by step how to apply the patch? I'm an absolute noob in this... Thanks!

Jay Walker's icon

Here's how to use it in case anyone else is also confused. I have this patch run automatically once a track selected, but you can make the bang whatever you want.

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.