Ableton Arm Exclusive

Hi,

I'm facing an odd situation that I didnt find on the forum and I wanted to find a solution.  I am using a KMI SoftStep v1 with Ableton on a MacBook along with a variety of other controllers.  I've mapped keystrokes in Ableton and set up a single translator for each pedal to do two things: arm a track and cue the Track Launch to record / play.  In Bome MT, I am using the physical key output to send two keystrokes to the Bome Virtual Output.  The setup works fine with the SoftStep directly connected to the MacBook, but when I conect the SoftStep to a powered hub Ableton acts like Arm Exclusive is turned off and the selected Track Arm channels remain in an armed state.  I have unplugged every other device and disconnected them within Ableton. I still receive the same results.

Has anyone experienced this anomaly or know how to fix it?  Thanks so much for your help, I've struggled with this for days!

Mark

Hi Mark,

Could you post your project file? I will have a look? Do you have other devices connected to your hub? If so, please make sure the incoming message for Arm and Record/Play messages are only set up to look for the MIDI message coming from your Softstep.

Also, is there a reason you are using outgoing keystroke mapped messages for these actions instead of MIDI mapped messages? In general, MIDI mapping is more reliable.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Hi Mark,

 

I'm glad you got it working.  Please see the following tutorial on how you can better manage your MIDI inputs and outputs.

This seems to clear things up for a lot of users.

 

https://youtu.be/KunN2A1rKMY

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

 

Hi Steve, You're too fast! After typing my post, I tried it again and it glitched. I deleted my post then saw your post. I'll give the video a watch and send my project file if I'm still having trouble. Mark

Hi Steve,

I'm still hitting a wall on this. My thinking is that if I am sending keystrokes messages to Ableton, and all of the other controllers (Launchkey, Launchpad, and KAT multi-percussion pad) are sending MIDI messages there shouldn't be a conflict.  Anyway, here is the project file.

Hi Mark, I see you have 2 devices defined

SoftStep Share which is going to BMT 1 in the MIDI thru path

Then you have BMT 1 goint to SSCOM Port 1 in a MIDI thru path.

Should I assume that BMT 1 is going to Ableton Live for the first through path and that BMT 1 is coming from Ableton Live for the second thru path?  Are you using MIDI in Ableon Live? Could you show me how you have Ableton Live MIDI set up? I'm not sure you want any MIDI Thru paths at all with what you are doing. Especially since you are sending keystrokes with your SoftStep.  

Also, as I mentioned earlier, it might be better to use MIDI learn as sometimes Ableton Live cannot consume keystrokes as fast as MT Pro can send them.  Can you map the outgoing from your translators to different MIDI notes in Ableton Live and instead of Key Mapping.  If you SoftStep is indeed sending just Notes 60-64, you might not even need MT Pro to do what you want it to do and just define your SoftStep as your incoming device (as a control surface) in Ableton Live.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Hi Steve,

You were correct!  I disabled the two MIDI thru paths and I was able to accomplish the goal of sending the keystrokes with one problem... Keystrokes from the keyboard and sent from the SoftStep end recording immediately.  The recording does not continue to the end of the measure like it does with MIDI messages sent from a controller.

Since it seems that MIDI messages are desirable, I am going to ask what seems like a pretty basic question.  Can I sent a single MIDI message (like a MIDI note on) to trigger multiple MIDI out messages?  My end goal is to be able to trigger multiple "events" with a single foot control.  For example, press 2 on the SoftStep to stop recording track 1, quantize it, arm track 2, and record track 2. Another example might be to press 3 on the SoftStep to duplicate a scene, play the scene, arm a new track, and record.  I know I can perform the steps individually through MIDI, but can one MIDI event trigger multiple MIDI events.

Thanks again,

Mark

Hi Mark,

Yes, you can use the same incoming trigger for multiple outgoing actions by creating multiple translators with the same incoming trigger each with a different outgoing action. If there is a specific sequence that you need, set a different delay for each outgoing action.

If things are stopping when releasing the pedal, you might want to see if you need to set up the incoming action as a toggle instead of momentary. To do this, you set a global variable and toggle it's value with rules on each press.

Example

Incoming Note-On  MIDI channel 1 note 10 value any value

Rules:

// toggle the value of ga

ga=ga^1

// default value 0=note off

qq=0

 

// set to max outgoing value

if ga!=0 then qq=127

Outgoing : Note on MIDI CH 1 Note 10 value qq

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

 

Thank you again for your help with this issue, Steve.  I'll work on it and let you know how it goes.

 

Mark