Daniel Kruijt

I'm very new to max for live, so I will probably be asking a lot of questions that someone already answered. I need an application for using Ableton devices with my percussion ensemble, and I don't where to start looking for learning how to build it myself, so I hope someone here can help me along.

We have two instruments in our ensemble that control Ableton through midi signals. I myself control the laptop during performances, but I also need to play drums myself.

These musicians playing the keyboard en xylosynth (a midi synthesizer that has to be played with sticks), need to switch Ableton tracks during compositions, in very little time. For that I want to make a Max device, that inactivates the current track and activates the next track in the Ableton session, by triggering a specific note on the hardware instrument. I need to be able to specify that certain note on forehand, because it has to be a note that doesn't come back in the composition.

I hope someone can help me along, and thanks for your time already!

We have two instruments in our ensemble that control Ableton through midi signals. I myself control the laptop during performances, but I also need to play drums myself. 

These musicians playing the keyboard en xylosynth (a midi synthesizer that has to be played with sticks), need to switch Ableton tracks during compositions, in very little time. For that I want to make a Max device, that inactivates the current track and activates the next track in the Ableton session, by triggering a specific note on the hardware instrument. I need to be able to specify that certain note on forehand, because it has to be a note that doesn't come back in the composition. 

I hope someone can help me along, and thanks for your time already!


need-help-creating-an-application

If I understand correctly you wish to record arm a particular track while un arming the current track with a MIDI note?

If that's the case, it is totally doable and not that hard.

You'll need to dig into the API a bit, and you should focus on the function calls to 'tracks'. They can be found at the path 'live_set tracks N' where N is your track. After you sort out how to arm and unarm tracks, it would be simple to define a midi note that will turn off the current track, and then arm a different one. If your sequence of tracks is always the same, that makes it easier.

If I understand correctly you wish to record arm a particular track while un arming the current track with a MIDI note?
If that's the case, it is totally doable and not that hard. 

You'll need to dig into the API a bit, and you should focus on the function calls to 'tracks'. They can be found at the path 'live_set tracks N' where N is your track. After you sort out how to arm and unarm tracks, it would be simple to define a midi note that will turn off the current track, and then arm a different one. If your sequence of tracks is always the same, that makes it easier. 

I'm very sorry, but I really do not understand what I need to do to make this work :(

Maybe I'm shouldn't be coming here without any knowledge, but I still need this device haha. What you described is what I'm looking for though. Could you are someone else could be a bit more specific about what I see and what it does?

The patch I posted does what you asked if you paste it into a default Max MIDI effect in Live.

Here's an entire device with some UI, and MIDI mappable elements, and comments. If you need to modify it, there's plenty here to go on.

If you ever want to be able to make your own solutions it will be worth trying to understand what's going on inside the device. Depending on the kindness of others won't always work. 

The patch I posted does what you asked if you paste it into a default Max MIDI effect in Live.
Here's an entire device with some UI, and MIDI mappable elements, and comments. If you need to modify it, there's plenty here to go on.
If you ever want to be able to make your own solutions it will be worth trying to understand what's going on inside the device. Depending on the kindness of others won't always work. 


I managed to get the application in Ableton. The buttons manual trigger and reset to first track work, and also the number of tracks seems to work as I change the number. The MIDI note doesn't seem the respond somehow. I plugged in a digital piano via USB, and typed in 48 (which would be a C3 if I'm correct) in the box after MIDI note, but when I play that, there changes nothing to the activated track.

I uploaded an image of how it looks on my mac now. Is there anything I should change?

I will definately start learning this for myself in the future, but for now I'm still struggling with the basics of Ableton, and don't feel I should try to run before I learn to crawl. I still need this device for my ensemble, so I am very thankful for your help.

I got the application running, and it works perfectly when only using two tracks. It starts behaving strange when I use it on more than 2 tracks.

I hoped that if I put it on a track and put in the number 2 under ' number of tracks', it would automatically jump to the next track. Now when I do that, it indeed jumps from the first to the second track, when I hit the desired MIDI note, but when the second track is armed, and I hit the MIDI note again, it jumps back to the first track.

When I, for example, type in 4 under ' number of tracks', the arming and unarming of tracks starts behaving real strange, can't really explain.

Is there a way that I can make the application just active for the armed track, and the track coming after that?

When I, for example, type in 4 under ' number of tracks', the arming and unarming of tracks starts behaving real strange, can't really explain. 

Need help creating an application