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Ah, there is nothing like a good consistent heat wave to completely kill my productivity. But the weather in western Europe is back to its crappy self, so its time for some action.
During the past few weeks, I've kept on testing my new controller setup which at the moment consists out of a BCR2000 and a custom application.
The application is stable and almost fool proof. I'm very happy with the results.
Feature Freeze
At this point I really have to discipline myself to stop experimenting. I got a system worked out of which I'm happy about and I wont revise it until I build another Live Set.
Lets go over the list of restrictions I'm totally committing myself to:
- 6 MIDI Tracks (Drums, Bass 1, Bass 2, Pads/Keys, Leads and a Drum Machine). I can work with this limitation because I know that adding 2 or 3 instruments to 1 clip, each playing their own sequence, isn't impossible. You can do some wild stuff with Racks within Racks within Racks...
- X amount of Audio Tracks. There seems to be no need to restrict the amount of audio tracks I use. These audio tracks will be used for sample playback only. So they'll use up no real noticeable power. They consume disk power, but I still have enough to spare at the moment. These Audio Tracks will contain the parts of songs that are to heavy to play in real-time or just don't require any live tweaking.
- 35% CPU Limit per song. The 40% I set upon earlier is probably already too much if you consider that Live starts acting up around 70-80% of CPU usage. This is the only real variable in my current creation process. This is where the undetermined amount of audio tracks come into play. I'll work on a song within the set and try to trim the CPU usage down by rendering the audio of the instruments I wont tweak.
- 128 MIDI CC's per song. Given the size of my BCR2000, I should probably set this limit lower. But I'm not restricting the amount or types of MIDI Controllers I will use. The method I worked out with my custom application goes beyond the functionality of any given combination of controllers. Every message received by the application from a controller is received on channel 1 and with a knob / button I can decide which channel it will be outputted to. The application collects all the MIDI coming from the controllers and from Ableton Live into a matrix which serves as a collective memory for the BCR and any MIDI controllers I choose to add in the future. All assigned Parameters are written down. And by written down I mean, I will make snapshot images of the MIDI Browser that appears in MIDI Learn mode. It shows all the assigned parameters, their destinations and their ranges.
- 16 Songs. My Live Set wont actually have 16 songs, but I already worked out a use for any "empty songs" there might be. Lets say I don't have a 16th song, I can use the available tracks from that song to trigger stuff like fills, one shot samples, voices and other noises. So my 16th song would essentially be a place holder for sounds that don't belong in a song.
The Labyrinth
By trying to simplify my process, I eventually ended up with a very complex method.
The key to keeping it all manageable is to label all the Tracks, Racks, Instruments and Clips.
As of Live 7, I can even add notes to various elements in Live. Though I have yet to work out what good the feature is to somebody trying to avoid the mouse at all costs. There isn't even a visual indication of attached notes. Its not a feature I'm likely to use.
There are a few routines I need to stick to in order to make this set the equivalent of a well oiled machine.
For example, for every instrument I add, I need to add a MIDI Mute Rack. I need to label the instrument, the MIDI mute rack, the chain that contains the instrument and the clip linked to that instrument. The clip is linked to an instrument by setting the Chain Select zone and the automation for the Chain Select Ruler to the same value.
While I write this down and realize this whole process might be too complex for some people's tastes, I came up with an idea to make this process easier on myself and everybody else who is interested in giving method a whirl.
Thanks to the wondrous aid of Live Clips, one can actually save and load this entire track setup and use it any set.
The MIDI Tracks
Between the time I wrote the last paragraph and started this one, I created the preset track I mentioned earlier and found a lot of good stuff to cover about this preset track. Currently I simply call it the "Instrument Container". Its an Instrument Rack with 16 chains with a MIDI Mute Rack on each chain. Everything has been neatly labeled.
It also comes with 16 clips that are linked to the 16 Instrument chains thru automation of the Chain Select zones.
Its a .als file which you can store wherever you please. It can be dragged into any Live Set.
The original .als file was made in Live 6, so users of Live 6 and Live 7 can use these files.
However, there are a few features in Live 7 that make this experience more enjoyable.
For example, if you minimize a MIDI Mute Rack (as seen in the picture above) on one chain, it will be minimized on all chains. Another example is the Track view of chains. Expanding a Rack into Track View makes it really easy to edit the chain you wish to edit.
Here's another fun fact. If it actually annoys you that there are empty clips serving as placeholders for Instruments you haven't added yet, you can simply delete the clips. If you locate the "16 Synths.als" file with Live's browser, you'll see that it unfolds to reveal the 16 clips.
You can drag one of the clips to the track whenever you need one. This file is set up for 16 chains but you can easily do this with up to 128 chains.
- Click here to download the .als file.
Demonstration
I prepared a demo "4 Synths Demo.als" that shows the Instrument Container in action with some instruments. Its a setup with 4 Simplers, also made in Live 6. There are 4 clips, each assigned to a Simpler. Triggering a different clip will trigger a different Simpler.
To quickly get back to an earlier subject of Audio Mutes versus MIDI Mutes, you can try it out with this demo.
There are mute buttons on each Instrument chain and in the MIDI Mute Racks found on each chain. Notice how they both yield different results.
It gets better. Especially if you're a person who plays a MIDI Instrument Live during a performance.
I included a second demo "4 Synths DummyClip Demo.als" which shows how you can use this setup to feed the MIDI from a MIDI Keyboard to different sounds.
Triggering a clip will cause any incoming MIDI to go to the Instrument that is assigned to that clip.
If you play a long note on Synth 1 and switch to Synth 2, the sound from Synth 1 will play until you release the note. Any other notes you play will trigger sounds from Synth 2.
There probably are even more uses for this Instrument Container, but there is only so much I can make up in one day.
Most of this stuff I already knew in an indirect way because of my use of Dummy Clips. And when you look at it, there's nothing really special about actually using Racks in a way they were intended. But I'm sure somebody will find this useful.
I know for a fact that there are almost an infinite amount of combinations of devices in Racks and I am one of the persons bitching to Ableton for even more features so that I can create even more complex Racks.
- Click here to download the Demo Project.
The Procrastinator
Now its time to really focus hard on my objectives. Its time to finish "The Procrastinator", which is the current code name for my Live Set. Its not hard to see why I chose that name. In the time between my previous article and this one I finished MSG4, GTA4 (storyline) and COD4 on PS3. Like I said.. Heat Wave... You're not getting me to do anything useful in that weather!
But even the weather is a poor excuse for not getting my work done. What can I say, I got the attention span of a 4-year old. Live is my Lego.
This set has to be ready before my birthday which comes on the 5th of september. I am setting a deadline because otherwise this thing will drag on forever. I have the time, I got my methods, I have the option to adapt my controller setup without compromising the work on my Live Set and I got years worth of unfinished projects that can finally serve a purpose.
On top of that, I nearly have a proper way to document every single aspect of my Live Set.
I have everything I possibly need so there isn't a single foreseeable reason why this cant be done.
I hope this installment sparks some ideas and discussions about Live Sets, Live Clips and Racks. Because even while simply trying to write down my findings, I stumble on a wealth of new ideas. The more ideas are shared, the more problems can be solved. At least thats how it works in my vision of in ideal world.
To be continued...
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