The first time I tried to use Ableton with multiple sounds on a live gig was a nightmare. I was working with the Arturia Keylab 88 and mapped a few on the onboard pads to a dummy clip to change my sounds. After setting everything up, and getting it to work a few times, I thought I was done and ready to play. What I had failed to check was if my MIDI mapping’s worked correctly. This was a glaring oversight for sure.
Anyway, I got my stuff all set up for the top of the set and I was doing just fine playing my piano sound. As the set started to progress and get more intense I thought it would be the perfect time to start up my Hammond patch. I hit my patch change button and instead of hearing the silky juicy tones I was expecting my samples started to do all sorts of crazy things. There was clicking and cracking, a little bit of whistling, and all the eyes in the house were on me; not because I was awesome, but because I was making a hot mess of strange noise.
Not the way I wanted that to go.
I couldn’t figure out what was wrong for the life of me. I decided to use the key mapping function to change patches for the night and figure it out later.
After much searching, and not actually knowing what I had done incorrectly, or where even to start looking, I figured out that it had everything to do with built in Ableton Midi Preferences.
A giant nightmare on stage, but such a simple fix when I knew where to look.
This was the case with most things on my journey moving from Mainstage to Ableton.
Ableton Midi Preferences
Mainstage is incredibly straightforward with the use of keyboards and controllers. Plug it in, map the keyboard to the keys, and any knobs or faders to the on-screen controls and you’re done. Very intuitive. Very user-friendly.
Not always the case with Ableton. BUT Ableton is not just trying to be difficult. It has been made to be completely customizable, so everything needs to be separated out. This includes midi preferences.
Ableton isn’t just used for playing keyboard (as I’m sure you well know) but when you think of Ableton as more of a DAW/DJ rig/live performance instrument it makes a bit more sense. Ableton needs to know what to do with the hardware you plug in so you can have complete control (no puns intended) over what each device is doing.
Imagine this dialogue:
Ableton: Oh, hey there. I see you’ve plugged in something new. What should I do with it?
You: Well, I want you to make it automatically work without me answering that question.
Ableton: None such luck good friend. Is this for playing notes? Controlling parameters? Both? And also do you want your device to control me? Or me to control the device? Or Both? Also, how’s your day job?
You: Uhhh… ::closes Ableton and opens mainst….:::
Me: Wait! I can shed some light here!
The Three Settings
Track: Used for playing and recordings notes and CC parameters
Sync: Used to sync Ableton’s internal clock with an external clock
Remote: Used for mapping hardware controls to onscreen parameters
These settings work in two directions. So you’ll notice for each device there is both an input and an output.
My Ableton Midi Preferences: And Why I Use Them
My Keylab 88:
Input: Track on, Remote on
Output: Nothing on.
My input track is on because I use my keyboard to play notes, and my remote track is on because I use the pads to control certain midi effects in Live.
You’ll notice my output is off for all categories.
Track is turned off because I am not sending notes or CC messages back to my keyboard.
Sync is turned off because I am not using any tempo functions that would require me to turn on sync.
Remote is turned off because the KeyLab has a built-in visual feedback filter. THIS IS NOT STANDARD. So my pads automatically toggle on and off whether or not it is plugged into Ableton. If you are using any other type of controller that sends LED feedback, you will want to turn remote output ON.
My LaunchControl XL
Input: Remote on
Output: Remote on
The only thing I am using this controller for is to map parameters.
Both input and output should have remote turned on.
Keyboard General Settings
These could change based on your specific needs, but here is something that will generally work and get you started.
Step 1. Plug your keyboard into your computer either via USB midi, or a Midi cable to an interface, or converter.
Step 2. Navigate to preferences, make sure input track is on, and input remote is on. Turn remote output on only if your keyboard has LED feedback, and leave it off if it doesn’t.
(If your keyboard has a built-in arpeggiator you would like to use, make sure sync output is turned on)
Step 3. Make awesome music
Controller General Settings
Step 1. Plug your controller into your computer either via USB midi, or a Midi cable to an interface, or converter.
Step 2. Navigate to preferences, Turn remote on for both input and output.
Step 3. Make awesome music
Drum Machine General Settings
Option 1: Sync your drum machine to Ableton’s clock.
Turn sync output on.
Option 2: Sync Ableton’s clock to your drum machine.
Turn input sync on.
You’re all set to go with solid Ableton midi preferences. If you have more questions, I would love to hear from you. Join us on our facebook group here to ask them!