MIDI Kinetics Forum

Hi everybody,

first post here, and I just hope I'm not making any double, I tried and looked everywhere but can't seem to find an answer to my issue.
So, a little background first... I have a lemur multislider to filter various tracks on my ableton 9 live set, and I'm trying to get some leds blinking when there are clips playing on the corresponding tracks, so I can quickly know which track is playing audio, even if the track is completely filtered, and don't have to look at live... I don't have a clue on how to do this.

Here is my question : how do I do that, without having to install a/many plugins in live?
It seems like live control 2 for example uses MIDI to monitor the clips on the launch page, or at least it won't require a m4l plugin.

Anybody knows how to do that?

Hi
The 2 ways I know of to do it would be to connect your template to a MIDI remote script (which are the python scripts that controllers use to communicate with Live via MIDI) or to use Max for Live.

To use the MIDI remote scripts you will either have to hack/modify an existing python script that sends the Clip information of the live set, or know python language and there is an available library for implementing this.

If you know Max, then you can access the Live api to get the clip information and send to your template via OSC or MIDI. Or perhaps you can find a max for live patch that already does this and hack it.

It is not super easy to implement if you are unfamiliar with these tools, but with a little time, patience and maybe even luck you can make it happen for sure. Max for live seems easier for me, but using the MIDI remote scripts is clean and convenient.

Also you may be able to make a work around... but that will depend on if you are launching clips or not from your template, not as integrated either.

Let me know if you want more info in one of the methods, or look into it!

Hi Ndivuyo,

thnk you for the info! Sorry for the late answer, I didn't find much time to tweak my Lemur template these days
I'm not very familiar with max or python, although I already use max plugins and Clyphx, but I'll obviously have a deeper look.
The thing is LiveControl2 uses level meter monitoring on the Launch page, which would be ideal as I already have it and could reuse the code, but I still remain unable finding which strings do that, and the logic beyond. Do you have any idea where I should look?

Well as far as i know livecontrol2 uses the midi remote scripts, so to take from their method you will have to know enough about python/scripting to "hack" it, which may be pretty challenging depending on how hard of a feature it is to implement.

As for where to look, is tricky for me. Here are some resources for the midi remote scripts with python:

//Pieces repository:
https://github.com/gluon/AbletonLive9_R ... _Framework

//Remote Scripts for live:
https://github.com/gluon/AbletonLive9_RemoteScripts

//Framework description or function/methods/etc
http://julienbayle.net/AbletonLiveRemot ... Framework/

//Instructions for using
http://www.keithmcmillen.com/blog/contr ... ts-part-3/

//session box scripts
https://github.com/dataf1ow/Session_Box

The other thing you can do is learn python or max enough to make sense of how to access Live's API or steal and use parts of scripts/patches.
Also just search around, tear stuff apart ad see what you can figure out. Yea there'll be soe headaches lol but you'll soon enough be able to do a lot!

Hope it helps!

Hi Ndivuyo,

thank you so much for the links, didn't even know about these sites. I'm not afraid of headaches, so I'm diving right into it
Have a great day pal!

Ok yea, for that stuff it will be helpful to learn some basic python. Codeacademy has a quick course with their own compiling and console for errors. Definitely could do a lot learning and working with this stuff!!

I didn't post anything with Max for live help, which quite honestly will be an easier approach unless you already have python experience.
To learn that you should do some basic max tutorials (should be on cycling 74 site) just so you know the lay of the land.
Then you should search for a tutorial(s) on working with the Max API. Then you can use the LOM (Live Object Model) to see what and how you can access the API of Ableton. I really think this is a less daunting approach than trying to dive into the Python scripts.
Then you can take what you learned from your m4l workings of API and head into the python with slightly for direction... maybe.

Good luck!! Ask in cycling 74 forum and here for help. I think several users have made templates with midi remote scripts. Hopefully you'll get their attention

OK, I decided to keep on working from the LiveControl template and give it a shot. So far I managed to mostly isolate the components which provide clip launch, color, names and other information from Live.
I quite feel like there's still much work ahead, as I now have to figure out all the logic beyond.

What I would like to do here is get only one line, eight rows, with cells showing the active clip (name, colour), instead of getting multiple lines and having to touch the Tracks buttons to jump to the playing clip. That way it would be much better than simple leds indicating clip activity.

Anyone could give me hints on this? Or even which parts of the code I could inject into custom switches, so these would display the name of the playing clip for each track, or nothing if no clip is played?
I attached the Lemur file.

Ugh.. one day I will. Don't have the Python scripts.....
Sorry!
How is the progress?

Well, as for now I'm quite struggling with editing the lemur code, everything is here, but now I have to simplify it so it only gets the clips information, and sticks to a single line...
I'm trying to understand the logic that parses live to get the data, but that's quite a big challenge for me, so it might take a bit longer...

The python behind livecontrol is there, but that's no sources, all compiled I guess :

https://liine.net/assets/files/lemur/Li ... lation.zip

I'll share my progress whenever it gets significant though.

Yea most of them be compiled. If you are hacking **** you might just have to deleting/ editing some stuff and see what happens.
I know a guy (wu or wul or somethin?) made a Push for lemur called some other similar or opposite verb, dunno. Anyway, in the forum post for it there are descriptions of the modified python scripts to use for it. Maybe (if they not compiled) you can take a look at those scripts?

good luck, yea if this stuff is unfamiliar its a pain in the ass, especially cuz you are jumping right into the thick of a thorough project. Like being in a dark room! I know what it's like ;