Arm a track and record a clip (for live looping)

Hey,
I'm new here.
I am looking for a way to set Ableton so that when I hit a key on my MIDI controller (or on my computer keyboard), this single key both launches record on a specific clip and arms the track where that clip is located. Basically I want to hit ONE key that will both arm the track for recording and also launch play or record on the chosen clip.
I'd like to record clips live, without having to arm the different tracks where clips are located. That would allow me to switch instruments without having to wonder if the right track is armed (or the right midi channel selected).

Can Bome do this? I'm very not familiar with this, I've watched videos and read stuff here and there and it seems very complicated for me so I wanted to know if I would be able to achieve this before learning further.

Maybe someone already made this even... It seems like an obvious and practical function.


I also would love to add a feature for Live that would auto arm a selected track, like Reaper does.

Thanks for any help.

Hi Stelvio

What you want is totally possible. What you'd need to do is have two translators, both with the same incoming message. So, in effect, you'd have two signals sent from the same button.

The first message would launch record on a specific clip, and the second would be on a slight (1 to 2ms) delay that would arm it to record. That's pretty easy.

It would look like
And just make sure Ableton is set to receive those MIDI messages accurately.


Jared

Thank you so much, this will make everything so much easier...
So I'm going to learn all this, pfffiou let's go
Do you think the second message delay will be a problem for playing live, or just barely noticeable?

In my experience anything less than 7ms is not anywhere near noticeable to the listener. You can easily compensate for 10ms or 12ms with some practice if it's necessary. Beyond that it can get kinda crazy. But nobody's gonna notice 2ms.

Thank you Jared!
Do I need to create a translator for each Live clip I want to trigger? (could be a lot)
Or will this now work as default (like every time any clip is launched it will arm the track where it is located — that would be the best I guess)?

I did what you advice (like so http://i.imgur.com/FXjY4.jpg ) but I don't really get the logic yet. Tried the manual but it's a little cryptic for me as I'm lacking previous knowledges about midi I guess. Is there a step by step tutorial for newbies somewhere? Could only find one in foreign language on Youtube.

We don't have step-by-step guides yet. Once my life calms down I'm going to start working on them.

The problem with this workflow is how Ableton handles it, honestly. Unless you have a controller like the APC40, and even then, you can't set any controller to be smart about what clip is being triggered. So you'd need every clip to be logic'd in. Now, every clip is in a channel. So as long as it is in the same channel it only needs the same "arm" message, but a different "play" message.

Make sense? Trust me, with a little work this stuff gets easier and easier.

I realized setting auto arm when a track (or anything in the track) is selected would probably solve the problem of having to first arm the track before you can record a clip. Plus it's really handy regarding work flow as well (I'm used to this from Reaper).

Well for now I don't understand anything Like I don't get the logic really.
I tried for like 3 hours non-stop now and I didn't get it. I might try again tomorrow.

Alright, we'll start small and I'll walk you through. What kind of controller are you using?