TUTORIAL- Using Maschine to control Ableton Live by DJ Limbs

Hi internet! DJ Limbs here checking into The Studio to talk a little bit about Maschine and Ableton Live. Sam ShardStyle hit me up about the site, and I’ve been looking for a good spot to share some of the stuff I’ve learned and The Studio looks like a dope spot to do that! So…

Using Maschine to control Ableton Live

Now you can do a google search and find all sorts of websites and forums talking about the pros and cons of using Maschine vs Ableton Live for music production. Many also talk about getting the best of both worlds, and I think what I cooked up with the help of many of these sites further helps take advantage of both of these excellent pieces of hardware and software.

The coolest part about the setup I’m sharing, is that it brings Ableton’s clip controlling “red box” to Maschine. The “red box” is a feature that usually only comes with gear like Novation’s “Launchpad” or Akai’s “APC40” and allows users to trigger any clip they want (no matter how big the project) through midi. There have been talks about peripheral secret handshakes and all that to make the box work in Ableton, but thanks to _Framework at http://remotescripts.blogspot.com/, I found you can really get that special box to work with any midi controller, and Maschine is one of the best examples. Currently, my tutorial is mac only but I’m pretty sure it’s easy enough to do on a PC (most of the difference will be where you place files) Here’s how to set it up:

Unzip “TutorialFiles.zip” right here and make sure you see all of these files:

MaschineLiveControl.ncc is a Maschine Control Editor preset that has all the Midi mapping needed for this to work. Load up the Control Editor and click “Open Configuration” then pick this file.

“MaschineGrid” is a Python script that holds all the “red box” programming. Much of the code was modified from what I learned at _Framework. That website has almost all the knowledge you need to really dive in and customize almost any MIDI controller you want to work tightly with Ableton. You need to place this where Ableton keeps its MIDI Remote Scripts.

Goto the Ableton application in “Applications” and select “Show Package Contents” then place the “MaschineGrid” folder in your Contents\App-Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts folder

“LiveMaschine” is a User script that includes a few more basic controls (mostly transport controls). It’s probably possible to set this all up in the Python script, but it’s easier to do them here, so why not use both. Place the “LiveMaschine” folder into Users\<your login>\Library\Preferences\Ableton\Live <your version>\User Remote Scripts\

Now the files are in place, load up Ableton and go to the MIDI Preferences.

(Ignore that Launchpad setting in the screenshot)

Select “MaschineGrid” in one of the Control Surface drop downs

Set Input and Output to “Maschine Controller”

Select “LiveMaschine” in another Control Surface drop down

Set Input and Output to “Maschine Controller”

You should be set. Once you close the settings, a 1×8 box should appear that can then be controlled by Maschine.

“Control” moves box up (“Scene up”)

“Browse” moves box down (“Scene Down”)

“Snap” moves box left (“Scene L”)

“Autowrite” moves box right (“Scene R”)

“Step” plays a scene

Buttons 1-8 play corresponding clips within the box (On Knob Page 2…more about that below)

The pads correspond to drum racks, Page A are set at max velocity always, Page B are pressure sensitive. You can change these however you want pretty easily.

The knobs and buttons at the top are what control clips/macros, they’re organized by pages, which you can further customize/build.

Knob Page 1 – Macros and CC buttons

Knob Page 2 – Volume and Clip Launch

Knob Page 3 – Volume and ArmFrom this basic setup, so much more customization can be made to fit your workflow. At one point I had a Page dedicated solely to controlling Beat Repeat and it was fun as hell to play with live. I hope to record a video of this stuff in action sometime but till then, have fun with it and if you have any questions about it, feel free to post it on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/djlimbsEnjoy!DJ Limbs is a badass DJ, producer, and contributor to the I Paint My Mind collective. DJ Limbs is Victor E Carreon, currently based in Chicago, IL via Geneva, Switzerland and Manila, Philippines.

Check out:

www.djlimbs.com

www.facebook.com/djlimbs (for asking questions about this tutorial)

get@djlimbs.com for booking

Writer for Join the Studio.  Im an artist, Turntablist/DJ, producer, designer, student at SAIC, and I run The Studio with a bunch of other awesome people. Art portfolio: www.behance.net/samrolfes Free music: www.soundcloud.com/shardstyle JOIN US: http://jointhestudio.com/join

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 21st, 2011 at 13:57. It is filed under Music, TUTORIALS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.