newbie needs help getting started with MT and LIVE 5

Hey all,

I installed MT and I'm trying to get it set up with ableton LIVE 5 to do some looping in a live performance situation...

I understand the basic principles, but I can't seem to get this to work. And there's no help files with MT, so I'm sort of in the dark - checked these forums, but can't find any tutorials for dorks. (if anyone can point me to a decent basics tutorial, please do so)

So, from scratch, how do I do this?

I've mapped keystrokes in LIVE to start recording/playing a clip and to stop the clip. I want to assign those multiple keystrokes to a translator in MT.

So far, I assigned the midi in from my soundcard (which is connected to my controller/trigger), I've created a new translator, used the 'capture midi' to assign my trigger to fire off the translator, BUT when I select the tab to enter the keystrokes, I'm only able to enter one keystroke, and not multiple.

Next, MT is receiving the midi signal from my trigger, and it appears to be translating (the midi in and translating leds light up), but the midi out doesn't fire off. Now, I'm not sure how to set up the midi out to get this message to LIVE, so again, I'm stuck.

So, then, how do I set up multiple keystrokes, and how do I set up the midi out so that the keystrokes will fire off in LIVE? Do I need to route this stuff thru midi-ox, er something like that?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!!!

ob

Hi ob,

actually, you've come quite far on your own! But you're right, a user manual is definitely missing in Midi Translator and this is one of the top priority things for the next versions.

Some things I'm not sure you did right:

In the Edit Translator window, there are 3 (or 4) main tabs:
- General (with name and other options)
- Incoming (which message/key is the trigger to execute the translator)
- (Rules: in the Pro version, modify the variables, conditional execution)
- Outgoing: this is the action to execute when the incoming action is triggered

Therefore, to output keystrokes, select Outgoing, and there select Keystroke. In that field, you can enter any sequence of key presses. E.g. if you want to press the key A and then Ctrl+B and then Alt+C, place the cursor in the keystroke field and then enter the keys just like that. It will display: "A Ctrl(B) Alt(C)".

Now when you use your MIDI controller, you should see the MIDI IN and Translating LEDs blink. One more thing to understand: Midi Translator is actually simulating keystrokes, just as if you're typing on your computer keyboard. Now that requires that you activate the application that you want the keystrokes to receive.

The 1.5 version (and above) will not output any keystrokes by default if Midi Translator is the currently active application. This is to safeguard against accidentally changing anything in Midi Translator by way of keystrokes. Therefore, activate Acid, and Midi Translator should press the keys, all 3 LEDs should light up (the tray icon should also show the left (incoming), the middle (translating) and the right (outgoing) light). And Acid should execute the Start/Stop actions you defined.

If not, you can always test with another application, e.g. Notepad, to verify that Midi Translator is "typing" the correct keystrokes. In the 1.5 version (and above) you can select the Log Window to make Midi Translator list down all actions. Note that the log window should be closed once it's not used anymore, because it has quite some processing overhead.

Let us know if that helps!

Regards,
Florian

Thanks for the reply Mr. florian, your post was indeed helpful...I've managed to get things rolling!

When you have a chance, I have a few more questions for you:

1. is there a way to pause between outgoing keystrokes? in other words, I want to fire off several keystrokes with one trigger, but I want to pause for about 4 seconds between the keystrokes.

I've tried using two translators:

The first translator to fire off the first keystroke (which starts a clip recording in LIVE 5). This translator has its “stop processing after this translator" flag unchecked so that it moves on and executes the next translator.

and the next translator to fire off another keystroke (which stops the clip that is recording [in LIVE 5, when a clip is recording, you can press stop and the clip will only stop recording once the quantize setting has expired, i.e., two bars worth of time]). I can see from the LEDS that this translator is being processed, BUT, I can't seem to get the outgoing keystroke in this translator to fire off...

Any advice on trying to pull this off?


2. the next question is: what is the midi out used for?

3. and finally, I've read that some folks have been using MT in conjuntion with MIDI OX, and I was wondering why that would be necessary...

Thanks again for your time (feel free to bill me), and MT is a great product!

ob

Hi,

glad it worked!

1. Regarding a pause between keystrokes: this can be done with Midi Translator Pro, see:
http://www.bome.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=453

This solution is somewhat clumsy, I'm working on a general "delay this action by XX milliseconds" for any translator for a future version of Midi Translator.

2. MIDI OUT can be used to send different MIDI messages to another MIDI device, or MIDI software. People use it to translate, e.g. custom sys ex messages to general controller messages, or to change the channel of MIDI messages, or to remove certain messages, but let pass others, or... And, with Midi Translator Pro, you can also do the reverse of what you're doing: issue MIDI messages when typing on on the computer keyboard.

3. I don't know either why anybody would want anything else than Bome's Midi Translator well, I don't, but I guess that OX has some functions which MT doesn have (yet).

4. Regarding user support: it's generally free for customers who have purchased Midi Translator.

Regards,
Florian

Thank you so much Florian!

That's pretty much LIVE 5 looping in a nutshell! I'm off to da races...ob