Tutorial video: Controlling Ableton Live with Maschine

7.0.14 as well. please let us know if a fresh install fixed this, even though I think the cause for this problem is something different

 

eeerrrrrrr.......

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g
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If you could see me, you would see my face like this all read because I slap myself continously for 2 hours now

so damn stupid! sry for all my posts, this is how it works for me:

my problems were: BEFG navigation did not work & strange behaviour for triggering clips in pattern mode from time to time.

=> BEFG navigation does work! But I was to stupid to realise, I always thought the navigation with BEFG buttons would show up in ableton live the same way it does when you navigate with the arrows keys on your keyboard...it does not. There is no feedback on the software side, only the pads on the controller illuminate accordingly.
I only focused on an empty live set, trying to see this white bar which jumps around when you navigate with the arrow keys;
for all who seem to have this problem: be sure to check your controller

The rest of my problems resulted from the above, because once I have changed the focus of the 4x4 pad matrix to different slots without knowing it, of course the whole thing reacted different than expected ;-)

So, my config now:
- OSX 10.5.6, Live 7.0.15
- midi remote script from the original hardrive installation is installed as described in the manual.
- I loaded the Ableton Live template from the download support section of native-instruments.com, this one is dated 6th of march.
- I use my brain now when interacting with the devices on my desk.

this works as supposed! cheers

 

Right, but what's the point if there is no feedback to Ableton Live from the Maschine controller? The information on the computer screen deviates from the controller then after having scrolled and touched several pads. So you loose control over your live performance, for which this was intended in the first place. Suppose you switch to Maschine mode to do some drum programming, and switch back to controller mode, you would have to guess what happens if you press a pad?

 

I've noticed that a template has been put up in the NI Knowledge Base

<< Ableton Live Template >>

(scroll to bottom)

__________________
John-Paul McCarthy
Auckland, New Zealand & (sometimes) BC, Canada

 

I could be wrong, but I don't see anything new in regards to that Ableton Controller Template.

I'm hoping for the tempo knob to actually control LIVE's Tempo and 4 more send pages.

I've looked into modifying it myself but I think I'd be mucking around in Python which I probably have no business doing.

 

Hi all,

could someone please help me out.. I don't really care for using the ableton template right now because it seems buggy and I have a Mackie MCU to most of mt controls.. However, I do just want to use the Maschine as a pad controller like a MPD or Padkontrol.. I took the mpd out of my setup and I assumed it would be easy just using it to tap out simple drums, etc.. but I can't for the life of me figure this out.. I press the pads, and clips start firing, etc.. I don't want that right now.. I just want to use it as a basic drum pad.. I already transferred the pyc. files from the controller folder onto ableton's midi scripts folder.. now atleast it recognizes maschine but still can't do simple tasks as mentioned above.. can someone help me on to

1. what setting maschine has to be under the midi preferences menu in Ableton..

2. do I have to make my own template from scratch on the editor?

if maschine template gets fixed or someone knows how to fix it, please let me know cuz i do eventually want to use the more advanced features of this controller like a APC.. if it's still buggy, i dont mind waiting and just want to use it as a regular midi controller..

edit: I found a GM drums template which kind of works but ableton won't follow it in the drum racks grid.. almost there..

Also, since I transfered the pyc. files into ableton folder, the maschine stays lit (the LED) and dont turn off.. all the pads, group buttons, etc.. before i transferred the files, the maschine lights would remain off until I turned on the plug-in.. any ideas?

thank you..

 

hi nuxnamon,

i presume your drum tracks have certain MIDI notes, these need to be sent from the Maschine Controller.

if the GM drums template is almost there, why not duplicate it and then change certain parameters - such as what notes the Pads are sending?

btw, have you read your Controller Editor Manual? you really should
also the default - New - template fires off MIDI notes, you just need to press the Group buttons to select the different octaves.

sowari

 

No Maschinekontroller in Live 8?

I'm testing the just released Live 8 and i'm trying to use the Maschinekontroller template. Thing is Maschine is not visible in the list of Control Surfaces. In input and output i can select Maschine Controller. I have followed the instructions and copied the Live 8 compatible Template support file to the midi remote scripts folder inside the live 8 application folder. But it is does not appear in the list. I also tested it with Live 7 and there it works just fine.

Does anyone have better or similar experience?

 

hi,

did you make sure you pasted it in the right folder? maybe you only pasted in ver 7.. please double check.. go to the actual Live 8 icon and right click and show contents and paste in the midi scripts folder. I had the same problem so I know it's frustrating so just double check..

hopefully that's all you need..

 

Hello again,

Thanks for the tips. I have removed the Maschine_Controller files completely, and deselected the controller in the Live preferences. After that i copied them again, and the controller was present in the settings after that. All seems to work now.

 

is that you Steffan?

 

Yes, it's me (minus one 'f').

 

I ve installed and updated Maschine, opened Controller Editor Controller editor version 1.0.0.003, create personal template list but:

1. cant see the "open template documentation" in Help menu
2. there are no folders in Controller editor folder which Im supposed to copy into resources folder in Ableton. the only thing which is there is controller editor application and documentation folder with manual. Thats it.
---
Problem solved with update.

 

One thing I've noticed in controlling Ableton w/ Maschine is that the Maschine "arrow" keys do not prompt Live to scroll through the scenes on the screen. This makes it difficult to see where I am in the set.

 

the red square as it is in apc40 would be deadly

 

looks nice

 

True - the only feedback are the pads on the controller, which show the current clips in it`s 4x4 matrix - but you can get used to it

 

Hey,

I got this working perfectly the first try, excellent!

One problem mainly:

It's only 1 way communication to things like the mixer, buttons etc. I was expecting the mixer display on Maschine to update itself when I load a track on Ableton or move a fader with the mouse. Can this be resolved? I have Maschine on input and output in the preferences.

The other thing is I'm wondering is it possible to have another page with 8 macro controls of what you select? This should be easy to implement from what I gather? It would be the icing on the cake.

Thanks!

 

Further to my last post, I've just tried out the Mackie control template for Ableton and it's very interesting indeed. Bi-communication works perfect. It's great how it shows the track names and parameter names, but the interface is a bit of a mess, hard to make sense of. I think Maschine could be an even better Ableton control surface with a bit of software work.

I tried making a hybrid template with some of the benefits of the Mackie one added to the Ableton template, which works partly but it gave some feedback problems with the clips on pads. I turned on both the Maschine surface control thing and the Mackie one.

I tried to move the up/down/left/right navigation from the Ableton template to somewhere else so I could use the group buttons to have more pad functions, this didn't work for some reason....

But then I see the Ableton template uses the side buttons to switch between different modes. Im looking to put in at least 2 more pages of functions for the pads: as normal pads that control Drum Rack and the up/down/left/right navigation from the Mackie template for moving around the set and selecting individual areas. I can't edit these .pyc files myself though, I don't know enough about them.

In summary, I see definite room for improvement on the Ableton Template.

It could add more normal functions to the pads while keeping the group buttons as APC style clip navigators, by using the side buttons (solo, select etc) to change groups. One of those being the Mackie navigation, different to APC style navigation in selecting clips without playing them.

Even better would be using shift and navigating around with the same group buttons to get the other function. Maybe if the 2 functions were triggered at the same time, we could see where we are selected in the APC style grid as we move around, with the top left of our visible grid always being selected, thus solving the problem of not having that red grid once and for all!

Parameter automap style selection could work cool too but it seems a bit flakey, Ableton doesn't fully integrate Mackie functions. That's a matter for Ableton though I suppose! Hope you can help for us Ableton users, thanks.
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PS I am hoping that Max For Live and an update for Maschine will allow for clip names to appear on the screens, I think this will be very possible soon!

 

but NI needs to enable custom text on the LCDs. You can raise your voice here Full control over LCD displays/ableton clipnames