Ableton Forum

Hi.

I find it really frustrating when clicking on a track and playin the keyboard only to realise that the record arm hasnt been activated and is still the last selected track.

Is there anyway for record arm and track selection to be in sync so that when you select a track it is ready to record?

Thanks, Ben

You could use a midi controller (or the computer keyboard) and assign the same button to both track select and record arm.

The problem we are having is that there is no way to go to the next track and record arm it. Each tracks record arm function has to be individually assigned to a key or midi event, which means its not possible to just have one midi controller (pedal) to go to the next track and record arm whatever track we are on.

Im trying to achieve exactly what kid beyond does basically. . .

Any advice would be very much appreciated,

Cheers, Ben

use control aid or bomes

We are using midi stroke.

The problem is that there is no command for record arm the current track or record arm the next track or something like that. The only way to record arm the next track is either by clicking on it with a mouse or with a key command hard mapped to a specific track.

Cheers. . .

ah i see
have you tried using Mackie emulation on your pedal board?
As far as I know there's no kind of global command to arm selected track, although i may be possible somehow

the looping set-up i've worked with is like this

channel 1 brings in guitar or vocal. Has FX etc and (monitor set to "in")

channel 3 recieves audio from channel 1 (monitor set to "off"and record enabled)
channel 4 recieves audio from channel 1 (monitor set to "off"and record enabled)
channel 5 recieves audio from channel 1 (monitor set to "off"and record enabled)
channel 6 recieves audio from channel 1 (monitor set to "off"and record enabled)

Now you can midi stoke one key for "right arrow" and another for "enter" and fire the clip slots. Takes away the record enable issue. Also it records all the effects and you don't have to reprocess them in real time.

this doesn't solve everything, but it's cpu efficient and can do some real cool stuff.

You can make more complex macro's if you get "iKey". It lets you create hot keys and stuff. So for the Ableton Live application you make "control-option-z" fire the command "right arrow and then enter". No you set midi-stroke so your midi controller sends "control-option-z". Now every time you hit that key it'll send to midi stroke, to ikey, then to Live and you'll end up moving over one track and hitting the record button. Global quantize keeps you in sync.

any a that make sense? Maybe you've been down this road before too, if so i'd be interested to hear what you're cooking up

These threads might help:

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=96723

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=97278

This is one of the problems / wonders of ableton....
it is, in a way, modular; as in you need to actually work out exactly what you want to do... and then work out how you are going to achieve your goals.
It can be frustrating, but in the long run it is so much more satisfying and rewarding that it is worth the brain strain!
Good Luck!

there must be a midi command to arm the selected track because I can it with my faderfox. Although possibly even that might be sending a different control message based on which track is selected.
But yeah it would be nice to have a "auto arm selected track" preference in the next version.

considering live is geared towards playing live, the midi side of things is shit. Why on earth isn't there fully customizable instant mapping with commands for these type of tasks?

I heard that these commands like navigate next track and record arm selected track used to be a feature in the early versions of live. . .

They took them out apparently. Im not sure if this is true or not. . .

:~