Advanced midi assignments or an alternative...

[bezkoz]

Hi,

I am new here and would like to share my struggles with ableton's midi assignment and my home setup.
I need an alternative for what I am trying to do, as I think it is not possible in ableton:

I have an external midi controller, controlling all my channels in ableton. One of the channels is controlling my bass. I am using a plug-in (NI Massive) with a couple of presets. The problem is that I cannot find a way to browse and choose a different preset (which also should have a couple of already created clips) only with my controller without grabbing the computer mouse. For that I created more midi channels with the same plug-in, but with different presets. Now the different presets have their own clips in their own midi channel. This is perfect, but I have only one channel to use on the controller for that. Now the question is: how to assign knobs, buttons and other things on my controller related to my bass channel, so that I can control only the preset I have selected to use in ableton and not tweaking for example by one knob the cutoff of all presets. Can I tell ableton: "When I turn this knob on the controller, turn the cutoff of the channel (preset) I have selected or marked to record"?

Cheers

 

[Hitman]

Hi,

welcome to recording.de.

Is it possible to activate the "learn" function in Ableton? So you can assing the knobs from your controller to everyone in massive. I know it is possible in Logic and all that Native-Instruments Stuff.

Maybe this helps:



-E

 

[bezkoz]

Hi,

thanks for the quick response!

I am able to assign them for most of massive's functions, but that is not the problem. My aim is to be able to choose from different presets which have their own note patterns (clips) only by using my controller. I also tried the following: I loaded the same plugin 4 times in an instrument rack in order to be able to change the presets only by turning the chain selector. But the pattern i draw or play is of course being applied to all presets... And that is not doing the job, because I want separate patterns for the different presets.

 

[Hitman]

ok sorry, iam not an Ableton User. I hope you can have help from another User in this forum. But i think to switch between different scenes you must activate or build your own Midi-Map. There must be an option on the preferences window or another window. So you can save each new project with your own map

But i think it would be better if you post which controller you use or an picture of your setup to answer your special questions.

 

[L0rdVetinari]

Hello bezkoz,

drag all instruments in an Instrument Rack. Then you have to assign one of the eight knobs of your new Instrument Rack to the Chain Selector in that Instrument Rack. Only within the Rack, no midi assignment. Either right klick on the Chain Selector and select Macro 1 (or 2-8) or you click on the Map button between the name and the Hotswap button of your Rack and then just klick on the knob and the element you want to control.

Look for chapter 18.5.4 https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/instrument-drum-and-effect-racks/#zones

Then you can easily switch between the instruments with the knob. You can also assign buttons to the knob, or set the value when the browser is open and you are in Map Mode in your Rack.

 

[L0rdVetinari]

I took too long to write. You tried that already. You want different midi input for the instruments.

Give me some time and I will figure it out when I am home.

 

[L0rdVetinari]

Does Massive accept midi programm changes?

 

[bezkoz]

Hey,

what do you mean by midi program changes? I can midi-map most things in massive, but the program managing my mapping is ableton...

Actually, any kind of idea how to control a plug-in's presets with their own note patterns (but not drum patterns) will be helpful. Its impossible to have hundreds of controllers for all the presets you want to use. At the end they are tweaking the same parameters, but are just being applied to more than one sound. There should be a way......

Of course, I can record everything to audio clips and put them in a channel and then, just by triggering them, i will have my pre-made sounds. But the point is to be able to play with these sounds and tweak them if needed....

 

[L0rdVetinari]

You can send midi programm change messages with the Clips to change the programm of your instrument. But I do not know if Massive can work with those messages.

 

[twinnpeaks]

Hey! I think I have a solution for your problem. You can have one NI Massive instance and choose all the presets you are looking for from another track and trigger it with an midi controller.

On my setup I created an instrument track (track ''A'' for example) with NI Massive and then I create another midi channel (track ''B'') to choose the presets from massive. Track ''B'' is sending his midi data to Track ''A'' (MIDI to Track ''A'') , so I create an empty Clip on Track ''B'' and go to the clip setting "Notes" and select under "PGM Change" (= Programm Change) a various number .... for example ''1'' ... this means the preset ''1" from Massive is active.

So you can create many clips for track ''B'' with various PGM Change values and can switch between the presets in Massive. I hope this workaround will work for you

Best,
Kai

 

[L0rdVetinari]

So Massive can work with Programm Change Messages. What twinnpeaks wrote was what I had in mind but I did not know if Massive can work with Programm Changes. I do it like that with my electric Piano.

 

[Signalschwarz]

Select different MIDI-Channels for each Massive instance, assign (IF possible) the knobs to the corresponding MIDI-Channel.

 

[bezkoz]

Hi,

@twinnpeaks
@L0rdVetinari

Thanks so much. It seems that I am able to send the midi data to the Massive channel, but when I am changing the PGM number the preset doesn't change. I have also loaded in Massive four presets into the Program List (1,2,3,4). Can you tell me more about the functions of this PGM clip settings. What does "Bank", "Sub" and "PGM" stand for and how do you use them? Which one is the one changing your presets in the plugin and do I have to set all of them.

@digital_dominion

hey,
sorry but I can't have a controller for each preset of every instrument I am using. This would mean: if I a have 5 instruments with 10 presets each, I would have to use 50 controllers... and at the end I am actually tweaking the same parameters.

 

[bezkoz]

Hey guys,

sorry, I watched a video about that and it worked now!
The program list I created wasn't active so in Ableton the "Select VST preset" box of the plugin was showing "disabled". Now all my presets show up there in the drop down. Nice! Thank you so much!
However, I don't need a separate track for that. I can use the clips of the same track where Massive is loaded. I just didn't know that it is possible to assign them individually to a specific program or bank!

Great forum btw! I will post it on my facebook page.

Cheers!

 

[twinnpeaks]