I manage a large setlist with my band (150-200 songs) and we jump around constantly during the show depending on what is working with the audience. We currently run the set in session view and use a midi controller with a rotary knob to scroll quickly through the songs. Is there a way to do that with a fader or knob with AbleSet? Any help or potential other solutions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-aaron
Hey @atz459, welcome to the forum!
AbleSet has the ability to MIDI-map controllers, but I’m not sure how the rotary knob of your controller works. Could you elaborate on which model you’re using, and do you know what kind of MIDI messages are sent when you turn the knob?
If you like, you can also upload a short video of what your current setup with the controller looks like and how you’re using it to scroll through session view.
I’m looking forward to your reply!
Hey Aaron, I’m in a similar situation (long setlists with hundreds of alternates below). I have an iPad on stage connected via USB-C to ethernet running to a network switch that’s connected to our two playback computers. On that iPad, I can search for songs within AbleSet using Chrome’s “Find in Page”. Here’s a tip on that I posted in another thread here:
Just a tip regarding “Find in Page” searching from my experience: for anyone reading that’s using an iOS device like an iPad to control your show on stage, Safari will only highlight its search results, while Chrome will automatically scroll to the first search result (and to subsequent results as you select the arrows next to the search query field).
Due to this, I only use Chrome for AbleSet on any stage devices (all iOS) that are controlling our show. Also, I had to disable the “Native Find in Page” Chrome Flag experimental feature.
Hey Leo,
Currently trying to get a Presonus Faderport FP2 to work as our main controller although I’m willing to purchase just about anything if I can get this to work.
The endless encoder knob is putting out a value of: cc channel 1 value 18
The fader on this controller puts out: Note Channel 1 when stationary, Channel 3 when moving with a value of 0-112
Our keyboard player controls the set while playing so having something close by and easy to turn or slide would keep things easy.
I was messing with using this controller in our old Session mode view and was able to get the fader to work by assigning it to the Scene Select command in Ableton. I know that no such command exists in the arrangement view, so I’m wondering if I’m out of luck.
Here are a couple of links to videos of using the endless encoder knob and fader to scroll the scene list on the right.
I’m new to all this and trying to learn, so please ask for any additional information and I will work to get you whatever you need.
Edit: so I was able to get the endless encoder knob to take the next and previous commands with the Max Live device. The fader was not working, but I will test more with the knob to see if I can navigate quick enough.
Thanks,
-aaron
Hey @atz459,
I’m glad to hear you found a way to map the encoder to AbleSet’s Max for Live device!
If you’d like to have more flexibility, you could try using AbleSet’s own MIDI Mapping feature. This allows you to map more commands to your incoming MIDI messages and includes support for MIDI notes, CC values, and soon program changes.
Let me know if you have any further questions or feedback!
Thanks Leo, I just watched the video last night about doing the MIDI mapping in AbleSet. I’m going to explore that option as well to see if I can do some things I’m thinking about.