I wanted to make a simple packaged instrument that I can drop into an abelton rack and will work as an external instrument and have dials and sliders setup that mimic the UI of the actual hardware, but allow me to automate and focus on just the screen.

I have an abelton external instrument dropped in, with midi out and audio in, that works a treat. Now I have a list of all the CC's the instrument can accept. My idea was to make a simple m4l patch that has a series of of live dials and sliders that output midi CC and can be automated and controlled in ableton.

But I'm having the darnest time getting midi CC data out, is there a simple example available anywhere, or could someone maybe give me a gentle shove in the right direction.

I have an abelton external instrument dropped in, with midi out and audio in, that works a treat.  Now I have a list of all the CC's the instrument can accept.  My idea was to make a simple m4l patch that has a series of of live dials and sliders that output midi CC and can be automated and controlled in ableton.

But I'm having the darnest time getting midi CC data out, is there a simple example available anywhere, or could someone maybe give me a gentle shove in the right direction.


cc-to-an-external-instrument

1. Make a patch with your dials/sliders connected to [ctlout] objects.

2. Insert the patch as midi effect in front of the external instrument.

3. Feel free to ask more specific questions.

OK, that's actually a pretty good shove as I was trying to achieve this with midi out, and was running into all sorts of issues (like regular midi notes from ableton being blocked.)

I don't have my audio laptop in front of me, so I can't tinker, but having a quick look at this

https://cycling74.com/docs/max5/refpages/max-ref/ctlout.html

If I already have midi out set in this track using the external instrument in ableton, what do I need to add for the midi port?

Let say I just want a dial outputting to cc #1, would I just attach the dial to the left input on a ctlout and ave

Yes, [ ctlout 1 ] should work as you described.

The cc's will be sent to the port selected for the external instrument, just like the regular midi notes. No need to add something.

Haha ! Yup that worked, so I have 8 ctlouts and everything is working great. I did discover that you have to add a midiin attached to a midiout or the midi from ableton to the external instrument stops functioning. I wonder if that's due to starting we a midi instrument template. I was able to wrap this patch and the external instrument into an ableton instrument rack and then just map the regular 8 dials to to the 8 max4l ones and everything looks out of the box. Now I have a neat drop in controlled for my midivox arduino synth 

Now it's time to hack it to pieces and see if I can make it usb rather than midi controlled.

Haha !  Yup that worked, so I have 8 ctlouts and everything is working great.  I did discover that you have to add a midiin attached to a midiout or the midi from ableton to the external instrument stops functioning.  I wonder if that's due to starting we a midi instrument template.  I was able to wrap this patch and the external instrument into an ableton instrument rack and then just map the regular 8 dials to to the 8 max4l ones and everything looks out of the box.  Now I have a neat drop in controlled for my midivox arduino synth http://www.narbotic.com/

Now it's time to hack it to pieces and see if I can make it usb rather than midi controlled.


CC to an external instrument