Cued songs and Max For Live Device

General
1

I prefer to navigate my setlist via midi instead of using the touch screen (I’ve had accidental launch incidents on bouncy stages using a touch screen). However, I don’t want to use a dedicated midi device just for Ableset navigation. Since AbleSet cannot share midi mappings with Ableton, I am currently using ClyphX in Scene View so that I can use a rotary encoder to scroll the setlist and launch a song scene from my midi keyboard by jumping to the song’s title locator when a button is pushed. Would using M4L allow me to map the encoder to AbleSet’s setlist and launch the songs in the same way by mapping an encoder/button combo without breaking my other midi controller mappings in Ableton for that midi device? Or does it just launch and not navigate?

The second part of my question is: If I am able to scroll up and down the setlist in AbleSet in the manner described above, is there any way to have the “Next Song” display change to the song that has Focus, instead of the next song sequentially on the list? I currently tend to move focus in Scene View to the next scene that I want to launch while we are playing and let it sit there until I’m ready to launch the next song. I don’t use a fixed setlist order live, and I would like a way to notify band members which song I am going to launch next before I actually hit launch to cue it up. (I understand about Jump modes, but I’m using them a different way)

2

Hey @Bhammer !

You can control AbleSet from your existing keyboard using the AbleSet Controller Max for Live device. It exposes buttons like Play, Pause, Prev/Next Song, Prev/Next Section, and Play Cued Song, and you can MIDI-map them just like any parameter in Live without affecting your other mappings.

About the encoder: the device only provides buttons, so an encoder would need to send CC in a way that Live treats as button presses. Whether that works depends on the controller, and in most cases simple note/CC mappings are far more reliable.

Regarding “Next Song”: AbleSet doesn’t have a separate “focus” state. When you trigger Prev/Next Song, that song becomes the queued song, and the Next Song label updates immediately.
The Cued Song button will then launch it only after a STOP (“.”) locator or when Live is stopped at a song’s start, as a safety feature.

In short: you can navigate songs and sections from your keyboard and cue the next song visibly before launching it, but encoders may not behave consistently for scrolling.

Here’s the MIDI mapping / M4L documentation if you want to dive deeper.

Hope that helps!