Kyle Turgeon

I'm trying to get ableton set up to play an orchestra and i've got it nearly right but am hung up on last thing. i think that it might be able to be fixed with some sort of m4l patch or script, but i'm feeling way over my head with Max and would love if someone could offer some feedback or direction as to if it's possible, and if so, point me in the right direction as to how to do it. Thanks in advance!!

i've mapped my midi controls to how i'd like to play the instruments -- color to my expression pedal, volume to my mod wheel, motion speed to pitch bend and motion to a volume slider on my keyboard. it works great, but the problem is that if I have multiple parts recorded and go into record another part, ALL of the tracks are being affected by the automation over ride from the controller (which is midi mapped to every instrument) instead of just the highlighted track. this is distracting and can make it hard to play input the next part properly as i lose track of the song.

i want to be able to highlight the cellos and then input the part, then clarinets, french horns, etc. without affecting other already recorded parts and without interrupting playback (freezing tracks is out) and without having to unmap/remap midi. i'd like to just be able to play all the instruments i've set up on the fly-- it seems like this should be possible!

it seems like this is the default midi behavior for midi mapping, but interestingly my push2 behaves the opposite way -- affecting the parameters only on that track! e.g. if you lower the instrument's volume on the push 2 track, if affects track only, but if i lower the instrument's volume midi mapped to the mod wheel, it affects volume of every instrument it's midi mapped to.

i'd like to make it so that i can keep all the instruments mapped, but then have my custom midi mappings only affect the track in focus. what do you all think? is this possible? if so, can someone point me in the right direction of how it's done?

I'm trying to get ableton set up to play an orchestra and i've got it nearly right but am hung up on last thing. i think that it might be able to be fixed with some sort of m4l patch or script, but i'm feeling way over my head with Max and would love if someone could offer some feedback or direction  as to if it's possible,  and if so, point me in the right direction as to how to do it. Thanks in advance!! 

i've mapped my midi controls to how i'd like to play the instruments -- color to my expression pedal, volume to my mod wheel, motion speed to pitch bend and motion to a volume slider on my keyboard. it works great, but the problem is that if I have multiple parts recorded and go into record another part, ALL of the tracks are being affected by the automation over ride from the controller (which is midi mapped to every instrument) instead of just the highlighted track. this  is distracting and can make it hard to play input the next part properly as i lose track of the song. 

i want to be able to highlight the cellos and then input the part, then clarinets, french horns, etc. without affecting other already recorded parts and without interrupting playback (freezing tracks is out) and without having to unmap/remap midi.  i'd like to just be able to play all the instruments i've set up on the fly-- it seems like this should be possible!

 it seems like this is the default midi behavior for midi mapping, but interestingly my push2 behaves the opposite way  -- affecting the parameters only on that track! e.g. if you lower the instrument's volume on the push 2 track, if affects track only, but if i lower the instrument's volume midi mapped to the mod wheel, it affects  volume of every instrument it's midi mapped to. 

i'd like to make it so that i can keep all the instruments mapped, but then have my custom midi mappings only affect the track in focus. what do you all think? is this possible? if so, can someone point me in the right direction of how it's done? 

possible-to-use-m4l-to-tell-ableton-to-use-midi-map-for-active-track-only

You need to be looking at Control Surface Scripts sound like a job for them...

You don't mention which controller you're using forthe MIDI mapping?

Yeah, this sounds best handled with a Remote Script of some sort. You can use the User Remote Script to set this up so you won't have to MIDI map anything. Check out the InstantMappings-Howto.txt file in the User Remote Scripts folder. On Mac its located here:

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 9.X.X/

Not sure where it's located on Windows off the top of my head. You can set it up so a certain MIDI CC will only control the device parameters on the selected tracks. Make this easy by racking your instruments, and mapping the desired controls to macro 1, 2,3, and 4 (for example).

Or you could make a M4L device, but that seems unnecessary.

Yeah, this sounds best handled with a Remote Script of some sort. You can  use the User Remote Script to set this up so you won't have to MIDI map anything. Check out the InstantMappings-Howto.txt file in the User Remote Scripts folder. On Mac its located here: 

Not sure where it's located on Windows off the top of my head. You can set it up so a certain MIDI CC will only control the device parameters on the selected tracks. Make this easy by racking your instruments, and mapping the desired controls to macro 1, 2,3, and 4 (for example). 

Or you could make a M4L device, but that seems unnecessary.


possible to use M4L to tell Ableton to use midi map for active track only?