Re: Macworld readers, I need a solid.

[Chris Sewell <lunamusic@mac.com>]

Thanks, I'll definetly check that out. Abletons unwillingness to  
provide midi control of keystrokes is truly ponderous.
I had high hopes for Live 7, but no, not this time either.

On Dec 3, 2007, at 3:56 PM, Andrew Chaikin wrote:

> Chris Sewell wrote:
> >>>>>
> Since the guys Ableton still have not provided midi control
> of keystrokes, this might allow me to switch live sets remotely.
> Bome has yet to make good on its promise of a Mac version of
> Midi Translator and the Midistroke doesnt really work well.
> <<<<<
>
> Chris,
>
> If by "remotely" you mean using a midi device as opposed
> to the keyboard, switching live sets is indeed possible,
> without a remote control.
>
> I'm a former Bome fanatic who switched to Mac.
> The solution I whipped up involves MidiPipe and
> QuicKeys.
>
> MidiPipe lets you assign AppleScripts to Midi events.
> QuicKeys is a macro program for Mac. It's not cheap,
> but it's super-powerful.
>
> So in QuicKeys, you can write a macro to open a
> specific file when a certain key is pressed. Let's say
> you assign Ctrl-A to Song 1, and Ctrl-B to Song 2.
> (Not Command-A and B -- Ableton uses those already.)
>
> Let's assume your Midi device has two buttons that
> send out 192,1 and 192,2.
>
> Then in MidiPipe, we run the following script when
> a Midi event comes in:
>
>   on runme(message)
>     tell application "System Events"
>       if (item 1 of message = 192) and (item 2 of message ≥ 1) and  
> (item 2 of message ≤ 2) then
>         tell process "Live"
>           set frontmost to true
>           keystroke "P"
>           if (item 2 of message = 1) then keystroke "a" using  
> control down
>           if (item 2 of message = 2) then keystroke "b" using  
> control down
>         end tell
>       end if
>     end tell
>   end runme
>
> ... which says:
> If a Midi event of 192,1 or 192,2 comes in, then
> - make Live the frontmost window
> - type "P" into Live (more on this in a sec)
> - type Ctrl-A or Ctrl-B
>
> Voila. Hit one of your buttons, and the file opens.
>
> - - - - -
>
> Unless of course Ableton puts up some dialog
> boxes.
>
> - If the Ableton set is currently playing, you'd get
> a "This action will stop audio. Proceed?" dialog box,
> which you don't want. So if you assign "P" (or
> whatever key you want) to Live's stop button, the
> script above will stop Live playing before closing
> the file. (That's what the "keystroke P" line is for
> in the script above.)
>
> - If your current Live set has changed, you'll get
> a "Save changes to ____ before closing?" dialog
> box, which we have to handle. So in Quickeys,
> my file-opening macro looks like this:
>
>   1. Open file "Song X"
>   2. Check for menu item "About..." in menu Live
>   3. Type Keystroke "Command-D"
>
> ... which basically says: if, after trying to open
> a new file, Live puts up the "Save changes?"
> dialog box, hit Command-D for "Don't Save."
>
> - - - - -
>
> QuicKeys is super-easy to work with; with MidiPipe
> you're sort of on your own. But the above system
> does work, and has been bulletproof for me onstage
> for 2 years now.
>
> Hope this helps...
>
>
> Kid Beyond
> email@kidbeyond.com
> http://kidbeyond.com  |  http://myspace.com/kidbeyond
>
>