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Trance Forum ป ป Forum DJing - Spindrift Mouseless SmartX Control

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Spindrift Mouseless SmartX Control

Spindrift
Spindrift

Started Topics : 33
Posts : 1560
Posted : Apr 17, 2009 09:44:19

I have put together a little download to share the setup I use for DJ'ing with Ableton Live.

The package includes a AutoHotKey script, made for use with the A4Tech X7 G100 keyboard, which will give you mouseless control over Live.
It also contains a preset for the BCR2000 to do mixing and processing, and labels to print out for both the G100 and the BCR2000.
And last but not least it contains a Live 8 set which is set up for use with the above controllers that have especially one nifty trick. You might be familiar with "smart mixing" techniques like Moldover's reactor ensemble or Belvario's smart mixer done with live. The included project is set up so that you have three encoders on the BCR2000 which acts as "smart" "crossknobs" for bass, mid and treble.

The setup I use is a four track setup with A+B as main tracks with SmartX mixing and 3-band EQ.
Track C I mainly use for loops, and it only have controls for two bands of EQ but effects (except I have one encoder controlling transpose instead of an effect).
Track D I only use for effect sounds and it has no effects and no EQ.
The setup is made for loading tracks on the fly from the file browsers, so tracks are always loaded into slot 1.

Included with the download you'll also find a SmartX rack and a "DJ 3band" EQ as separate devices if you like to just incorporate one of those in your current setup:

The "SmartX" device first of all splits the signal into three bands, using a clever technique Robert Henke described in the Abelton forum which uses phase inversion to achieve full transparency. Those bands each have a side-chain compressor for which you need to set you desired key inputs, and also a regular compressor if you like to apply multi-band compression. By adjusting the level of the bands or switching them on/off you also get a 3 band EQ with kill-switches, similar to but without the colouration of Abletons 3-band EQ.
When adjusting the X-Over frequencies on the SmartX rack, keep in mind that you probably want to use the same frequencies on the different SmartX tracks as well as on the key-inputs.

The "DJ 3Band" rack is just a SmartX but without the side-chain and regular compressors if you like to try it out as an EQ.

Mouseless

For mouseless control I use an A4Tech X7 G100 gaming keyboard. They are cheap (€10-15), small, simple, splash proof and seems very dependable, and it doesn't kill neither your bank nor you back to keep a spare one just in case.
But best of all is the layout which, for my purposes at least, is like made for mouseless DJ control over live.

The G100 is not programmable and only sends regular predefined key strokes. With those we can only do so much in Live, and some of the keys is special keys which can not be assigned.
To do what we want we need to be able to create macros, generate mouse events and be able to use all the keys.
For this we need AutoHotKey (AHK), which is a tiny free application.

Included in the download is labels for they keys which you can print out and glue on to the keyboard, and of course the AHK script.
Despite having quite many controls, I think that with the included labels there is not much learning curve at all, much thanks to the logical layout one can achieve with the X7 G100.

Here is an illustration showing the G100 with the labels and some explanation what each button does:

http://www.resonantearth.com/misc/smartx/G100.png

SmartX

"Smart mixing" means that you separate the signal into several bands, for example "lo", "mid" and "hi".
Then by using side-chain compressors you make it so that if for example track A have a high amplitude in in one band that will reduce the amplitude of the corresponding band in track B.
My implementation is limited to two tracks, so track A will be able to duck track B and the other way around, unlike Belvario's implementation, and I believe Moldover's as well, where you can use more tracks.
Personally I find it sufficient to have that functionality on tracks A and B since I tend to use tracks C & D mostly just for loops and FX, and it was the only way I could figure out a neat way of doing it. If you like to have more tracks than two utilizing the smart mixing that is easy to add that functionality, but then for example track C would have to be controlled by either track A or track B and not both at the same time.

And limiting the smart mixing to two tracks does offer one advantage which brings us to the "X". "X" is for cross as in crossfading. The way I have it set up I have three encoders on the BRC2000 which acts as crossfaders (or in this case more accurately "crossknobs"), so bring the "lo" knob to the right and the bass of track B will dominate over the bass in track A...and bring it to the left and A will dominate over B.
IMO that is quite convenient. I'm not a fan of crossfaders for DJ'ing and prefer to use the channel faders, but when it's three bands it becomes a bit much with six knobs to control. If you keep the knobs around the centre the signal will not be affected and the bands will be playing in both tracks without detrimental effect to the sound.

Control

As a controller for mixing and processing I use a BCR2000.
With that I can control the following:
Levels tracks A, B, C and D
Lo, mid and hi "SmartX crossknobs"
Three-band EQ for tracks A & B and two band EQ for track C
Kill lo, mid and hi for tracks A & B and kill lo & hi for track C
12 effects per track for tracks A, B and C (4 on/off and 8 with a dedicated encoder)

Levels and "SmartX crossknobs" are on encoder group 1 and EQ on group 2, apart from that no presets are used and everything have it's own dedicated control.
Induced in the download are the sys-ex preset for the BCR, and a .svg with labels.

You'll find more information about configuring and using the setup in the readme.txt included with the download (374 KB):

http://www.resonantearth.com/misc/smartx/Spindrift_MSXC_v1.zip

No warranties, no support, and Creative Commons-NC-SA-3.0 licensed.

Enjoy!

(``ท.ธ(``ท.ธ(``ท.ธธ.ท`ด)ธ.ท`ด)ธ.ท`ด)
ซ .....www.ResonantEarth.com..... ป
(ธ.ท`ด(ธ.ท`ด(ธ.ท`ด``ท.ธ)``ท.ธ)``ท.ธ)

http://www.myspace.com/spindriftsounds
http://www.myspace.com/resonantearth

Dennis the menace
Moderator

Started Topics : 128
Posts : 2899
Posted : Apr 17, 2009 10:17

well done, wish i could try it out

Spindrift
Spindrift

Started Topics : 33
Posts : 1560
Posted : Apr 17, 2009 10:23

The "SmartX" rack can be worth trying out if even if you don't have a G100 and a BCR2000...all you need is a copy of Live 8 and preferably some kind of controller.

And of course the AHK script can be adopted to work with any keyboard, although the neat layout of the G100 is IMO unbeatable.

Colin OOOD
Moderator

Started Topics : 95
Posts : 5380
Posted : Apr 18, 2009 15:36

That's very cool! Will this work in Live 7?

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Spindrift
Spindrift

Started Topics : 33
Posts : 1560
Posted : Apr 18, 2009 16:18

The .als is not using any Live 8 specific devices, and the only reason I did not save it as a Live 7 project is that they have made an annoying little change regarding controller assignments in Live 8.

The way I built the racks for effects, all knobs and buttons have a state where the effects is disabled to preserve CPU and ensure full transparency.
In Live 8 setting the range to 0-1 (or sometimes 1-0) when assigning the controller achieves the desired result, while in Live 7 you need to set it to 64-127 (or 127-64).

So what one needs to do to make it work with Live 7 is to go trough all controller assignments and rack mappings and change all values with the range 0-1 or 1-0 .
I might have a go at it if I get some time, but otherwise get Live 8 demo, save it as Live 7. Then in Live 7 check out the effects racks on tracks A, B and C ("DJ onoff" and "DJ 8") and go trough them an see if the devices is turned off in the expected position.

Spindrift
Spindrift

Started Topics : 33
Posts : 1560
Posted : Apr 18, 2009 18:50

Quote:

On 2009-04-18 16:18, Spindrift wrote:
get Live 8 demo, save it as Live 7.

Seems like that is not possible

Spindrift
Spindrift

Started Topics : 33
Posts : 1560
Posted : May 17, 2009 17:26

I have uploaded a zip with some updates:
http://www.resonantearth.com/misc/smartx/SmartX_1.1.zip
It contains a version with new crossovers as well as the Live 7 version and an updated AHK script, but there is some things that might not work out.

The method of creating a crossover used in the old version was nice in the sense that it was 100% transparent when not in use, but I found that when in use it sounded strange, so now I'm using a traditional crossover instead.

With the Live 7 version I have not gotten around to test it with the BCR and a current version of the AHK script since I don't have Live 7 on my performance laptop, so not all assignments might be correct. But it might be better than nothing if you are using version 7 and like to check it out, and if it's needed, fixing the assignments should not be too hard.

With the AHK script I noticed when using it on my laptop that there will be issues if you are not using a Swedish keyboard layout since my laptop have German layout...so the version included in the new zip is set up for a German layout.
What you need to do if you are using another layout is to look trough the script and check when pressing a button on the G100 that you get the same key as is used in the script, otherwise just change it.

Maybe I get around to making properly tested versions with a UK or US layout eventually, but since I'm very busy at the moment that might take a while, so better this update than nothing I guess.

Trance Forum ป ป Forum DJing - Spindrift Mouseless SmartX Control