myelin

Is it possible to create advanced midi mappings using Max for Live?

For example I want to set up my live set so every time a track is armed, an external instrument device within that track is turned on, and remains off otherwise.

I'm not a Max for Live user yet, just wondering if these kinds of things are possible?

Hello,
Is it possible to create advanced midi mappings using Max for Live?  

advanced-midi-mapping-with-max-for-live

Yes what you have described is easily possible, it'd have nothing to do with Midi Mapping though... Think of M4L as a layer beneath Midi mapping...

Look up th Live Object Model to give yourself an idea of whats possible!

Thanks for the reply. I think it will take quite some time for me to learn the intricacies of M4L, do you know the easiest way I could set this up in Live?

Thanks for the reply.  I think it will take quite some time for me to learn the intricacies of M4L, do you know the easiest way I could set this up in Live?


But I don't think this is going to be easy on a beginner ;-)

Problem is; if you work with a static amount of tracks its relatively easy. You basically setup a construction where you monitor the status of the arm property for each track and as soon as its state changes you can then search the track for an external instrument and then turn it on, or off if the track is disarmed.

But things become a little bit harder as soon as you want to keep the track amount variable. Because at this moment its not possible to programmatically add or remove objects from a patcher in M4l. Which is basically what you'd need here; the moment a new track is added to the live set you'd need a new so called 'observer' to monitor the state of its arm property.

No idea if Max 6 ('M4l 6') has made any changes here, could be but I somewhat doubt that.

In the case of static tracks all you'd basically need is pointing a bunch of live.observers to the tracks which arm property you want to monitor. Then its merely checking if the property has been set to true and if so find and enable any external instruments. As said; that part is relatively simple.

I'll see if I can find some time tomorrow to cough up a rough test case.

If you're only using Ableton's instruments (not sure about 3rd party), Live is pretty good at optimizing the CPU load. If a device isn't receiving MIDI (like when the track isn't armed), then just having a device loaded and turned on shouldn't be taxing the CPU at all.

Advanced Midi Mapping with Max for Live