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Controlling Ableton with Novation Nocturn
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Ascension
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 26, 2009 15:54:34
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Sorry this is a dumb topic, but I'd like some tips from someone who's used the Novation Nocturn as a controller for Ableton live in a live set.
I just want to set it up to scroll between channels and trigger clips. What's the easiest/best (in your opinion) way to do this? I've never done this before, nor do I really have any idea how to do this. Any help would be great, thanks!
  http://soundcloud.com/ascensionsound
www.chilluminati.org - Midwest based psytrance group |
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Suloo
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 26, 2009 17:37
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Ascension
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 26, 2009 18:43
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Cause "read the manual" isn't the same as asking for someone who has used it and what way they recommend.
I'd rather have someone give me advice than waste time trying to figure it all out on my own.
http://soundcloud.com/ascensionsound
www.chilluminati.org - Midwest based psytrance group |
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Suloo
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 14:24
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if you at least had a look into the manual, you would realize that its just a few sentences who describe how to use it as normal midi controller.
how a midi controller works you know i assume..right?
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Ascension
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 15:15
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Quote:
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On 2009-08-27 14:24, Zork wrote:
if you at least had a look into the manual, you would realize that its just a few sentences who describe how to use it as normal midi controller.
how a midi controller works you know i assume..right?
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I had looked at that. I know how it works and everything. All the manual tells you is how to make Ableton recognize it as a midi controller, nothing about actually using it in a live set.
I want to trigger loops in individual channels, rather than just whole rows at a time. I might actually end up using a different midi controller for this anyway, since i need more buttons, so yeah  .
http://soundcloud.com/ascensionsound
www.chilluminati.org - Midwest based psytrance group |
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Suloo
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 16:08
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yep, ok ..i think you would need another one for that..all you can do is to use the 8 buttons on the nocturn to trigger 8 clips,just midi learn the play buttons of that clips..
so maybe those 8 clips are your first track , then switch the page to another 8 for example..
just an idea how it could work..but exactly for that purpose the apc 40 is just perfect..
hope i could kinda help..
cheers
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Ascension
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 16:22
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I have a padkontrol which I think I'm gonna use since it has more buttons (12 instead of 8). I was thinking about flipping through pages on the nocturn, but it'll just be easier with the padkontrol since I'll also be mapping the stop clip button on each channel as well (in addition to needing up and down).
A better idea I was thinking was to just map the play for each channel to the padkontrol and the stop for each channel to the respective number on my computer keyboard.
http://soundcloud.com/ascensionsound
www.chilluminati.org - Midwest based psytrance group |
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Axis Mundi
Axis Mundi
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 22:06
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Are the knobs on the nocturn endless encoders (that is, you can turn them infintely in one direction)? If so then I may have some sweet tips for you.
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A.Rosengren
Solid Snake
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Posted : Aug 27, 2009 22:15
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Yep they are endless!
A
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Suloo
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 28, 2009 05:34
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they are...but used as a usual midi controller ("without Automap") you loose one big benefit i think...like the touch sensitive encoders...via midi they depend on the automation setup, latch/touch etc..
what tips ay?? hehe
cheers
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Axis Mundi
Axis Mundi
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Posted : Aug 31, 2009 19:52
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Well, one thing that you could do is assign endless encoders to scroll vertically through your scenes. If I had that thing I'd probably run up to 8 channels of audio/MIDI in a live set, and assign each of the bottom buttons to select channels 1-8. Then I'd scene scroll until I get to the clip I want, and assign another encoder to the scrub tool (the lower left when you turn "MIDI" mapping on) and this way I could start clips according to the global quantize (this frees me from needing to assign precious buttons to transport controls) and further turning of the knob will position the start line (the line that scrolls across as a clip plays) in different places along the clip. I'd assign another encoder knob to the global quantize itself, so I could turn from 8 bars to 1/32 (or whatever) with the knob, scrub clips with the other, making for interesting ways of rearranging the sounds of your tracks on the fly from channel stems (works with MIDI clips also). Any remaining knobs I'd assign to scroll through presets on my VSTs or VSTI's I'm using in my live set. This one is excellent as it allows me to quickly scroll through large banks of sounds and FX presets without needing to fool with pulling up the graphic and fiddling with a lot of mouseplay in the middle of a set.
Since you mentioned using a keyboard controller, one thing you can do is assign a transport button to create a new MIDI clip in each of your MIDI channels. The first press of the button starts a clip according to Global Quantize and a second button press closes the clip at the quantize and the empty clip keeps looping. If you leave your MIDI channels armed throughout your live set, you notice when the clip is looping the arrow is red. This means any notes you play on your keyboard on MIDI channels 1-16 will show up in the looping clip in the corresponding MIDI channel in Ableton (you need to route these like this) and the notes will auto-quantize after you play them to whatever you set in the control panel of ableton and keep looping. For example, if you have a two octave MIDI keyboard, you can split the octaves in your controller's native software so octave 1 plays on MIDI 1 and octave 2 plays in MIDI 2. If you have both channels armed in Ableton you can have VST 1 on channel 1 and VST 2 on channel 2 and play both instruments on the same keyboard simultaneously, as well as record loops this way also. You can take it further by using the scrub knob to scrub MIDI clips according to the global quantize (which you can also have on a knob as mentioned earlier) just like you can with audio. If you have a different scene selected and you press the loop button again, the old loops will stop and new loops will be created according to the process I described above.
If you want to try triggering clips using the scene method (good if you want to do abrupt tempo or timing changes in session mode) you can arrange all your clips in such a way that not all of your clips are in the same scene. (It's entirely possible to do this sort of arrangement on the fly in a live setting) Then assign a transport button to trigger scenes. Then highlight all your AUDIO clip spaces, even the empty ones (NOT MIDI though if you are planning to try the live MIDI clip creating method above), right click, and disable the stop button. This way you can scroll through scenes with the endless encoder and trigger clips you want according to what scene they are in. With no stop button, if you trigger a scene with empty slots, any currently playing clips in that channel will not stop and any clips in that scene will start playing. This trick is useful for creating odd bar and timing breakdowns or by creating abrupt, perfectly quantized tempo changes (by having empty scenes with no stop buttons and a bpm value typed in at the right).
Those are all methods which work great for me, and hopefully you can get something useful out of them also. These are things I do in my live set, which I do entirely in session mode, running 7 audio channels (named Kick, Bass, Drums, Synth, etc.), 3 MIDI channels (for my Virus Snow), and roughly 500-800 audio and MIDI clips by the time my set is done. My current MIDI controller is the M-Audio Axiom 25.
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sideFXed
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Sep 1, 2009 15:02
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you could check out bome's midi translator
another script you can find on the novation support page (needs registration) ... there's a subfolder for live and some generous guy posted a solution for the nocturn to control mixer, clip selection and lots more.
have fun
soundcloud.com/epsylohm |
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Ascension
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Sep 2, 2009 12:51
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A.Rosengren
Solid Snake
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Posted : Sep 2, 2009 13:31
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You could also use it as a regular midicontroller, in Instrument mode page 1 is CC0-CC15 page 2 CC15-CC31 and on and on and on until page 17. Assign most useful samples to buttons 1-8 and their sliders to knobs 1-8, second page the ones u might not need as much and continue until you have the amount of samples and triggers that you feel is necessary to perform. Simple and easy to work with.
A
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