just got myself an sps-1UW+ mk2. loving the thing so far. however I’m trying to figure out ways to integrate it into my ableton live setup. much of what I’ve read online is many years old, however I’ve found there are two ways of going about this;
use the onboard sequencer and trigger program changes from ableton live
map drum rack to machinedrum to trigger sounds
I’ve read that only by using the first method can I take full advantage of the parameter locks. I’m wondering if there is a way to route CC Midi data from Ableton so I can control parameters from there; sans parameter locks (unless it is possible).
I’ve read there is a Max4Live device for this as well; however I’m running Standard and don’t have that option yet.
Please share any tips you might have for using the MD and Ableton, as well as any methods that may help to present efficient workflow.
I can tell what has proven to be the most effective setup for my needs…
at first my MD was clock-slaved to ableton (via motu micro lite, a midi inteface), but I found ableton clock to be not so tight as necessary…especially when some of the MD track were sended to its internal delay…you could hear it slowing or speeding up at times…definitely noticeable (I did some reserches and it seems to be an ableton clock related issues…but I didn’t go further. anyway, afaict, hardware clock is more reliable than software ones).
I’m much more happy the other way round, meaning MD is the master clock, and ableton the slave. much more stable. (I also have a Nord Modular G2, also slaved to ableton, but this is another story…)
I trigger patterns in the MD with ableton clips, which are triggered by a novation launchpad. basically every MD’s pattern is assigned to a different midi note. I don’t use midi notes to trigger single sound in the MD for now.
thanks ram. i was thinking the same actually, since i really do prefer the sequencer on the MD and the parameter locks.
however, when i go into live to launch clips, it seems that my programs play for an extra loop before switching to the next. have you ever experienced this issue? could it be a latency problem?
could be two things: the clip you are launching may be quantized, so it doesn’t start immediately, or/and your MD is in QUE mode, that means when you trigger a new pattern, MD waits for the end of the one that is playing.
you can change this behaviour in GLOBAL > CONTROL > MAP EDITOR, it’s page 60 in the manual.
You can send MIDI CC messages on four MIDI channels to control the sounds on the 16 tracks of the MD. The details are given in Appendix B of the MD’s manual.