Global control of master volume
I like to use the volume fader on my keyboard (as no doubt do many others) to control the overall volume in the master track when playing back or editing in Live but there is no way of setting this globally, not that I have found anyway. That is if my keyboard is currently outputting on channel 5 and I midi map the fader to the master volume control all is good until I change the channel on the keyboard at which point I need to map it again - which is a pain. So I have just spent several hours trying to see if I could use M4L but with no luck so far, so I guess I really need to know if this is actually possible using M4L and the LOM. My idea was that I somehow capture when the channel is changed on the keyboard and then remap the fader to the master master volume control. I have been playing round with the control_surfaces object but have not got anywhere.
So any ideas on whether or not this is possible? before I waste anymore time.
maybe i have a bit an oldfashioned idea about these things. but..
...you have to understand that the on/off button and the volume fader in a max window is not really part of your patcher and so you can not expect it to be controlled programmatically.
so your strategy could be to simply ignore that modern stuff, which not always has been there, and begin to use [*~ 0.], [number], and [toggle] with one "main" [dac~] object in all your patchers.
in step 2 you can then extend that with the "startwindow" message, with automatic fade/in fade/out on start/stop, with send and receive, or with more than 2 channels depending on your requirements in that certain patcher.
using keyboard commands such as "alt +" and "alt -" to control a *~ which regulates the level of the main dac is not very difficult to do.
note that both max and live are typically used with your external audio IO´s driver and not with the operating systems sounddriver, where the volume keys are bound to by default.
however i am pretty sure that it should also be possible to control the main out and bus out mixer channels of live from within a max patcher under max4live, but i am out of the game here since i am not using it.
make a midi track that takes input from your midi keyboard port on all channels, and then just put in a simple m4l device which maps the desired fader‘s CC to the master track level (and disregards every other message).
and searching down incorrect/non-ideal paths for solutions isn’t necessarily a waste of time, even if it’s frustrating.
Thanks for the replies. I agree with you by the way Tyler but sometimes it gets to the point where I have spent hours and achieved absolutely nothing.
By the way Roman when I say keyboard I mean my MIDI controller keyboard, sorry I should have been more specific. I couldn't work out what you were saying and then it dawned on me you were taking about my computer keyboard.