The $10 Ableton Footcontroller

[oscarsstuff]

fuck I have a laptop :/

[toshonetime]

@oscarsstuff hey i know this is 6 months old, but just buy a usb or blootooth keyboard and ur golden 8-)

[oscarsstuff]

@toshonetime too late, I don't play anymore :/

[toshonetime]

@oscarsstuff oh thats so sad :,(

[Phads]

great idea!! thank you!!!

[jstandsforlove]

ok, i'm new to ablive and managed to pulled the trick, BUT there's a delay (<0.5s, wich is already too awful) between my guitar/violin playing and the computer playing the sound. there's also a little delay before recording function loads and stuff.

is there anyway of getting rid of it besides upgrading my pc? (i'm running it on a vaio 2.2ghz 4gbRAM with intel dual core processor).

i'd really appreciate some halp.

[Penkytheone]

@jstandsforlove The delay you have is pretty normal, it's because you are using windows with a cheap sound card, but, thank's god, we are in the 21st centuary, and it's the crise, so you are not alone in that case :D. So people created a software called "ASIO FOR ALL", You can download it for free on google, it's an amazing software deleting delay. <3

[ironbirdhouse]

@dragonzith yeah the space bar is already a shortcut to stop the song and if you hit the key map button or ctrl-k, click on any of live's controls, and then hit the key on the keyboard you want to control them it maps them automatically. In live's session view you could map a set of keys to control each of lives "scenes" which are groups of clips which could contain your verse and chorus, and live would launch them the bar following when you clicked on them. Great software.

[dragonzith]

how could I use this other then loops, can I use the key to change from the vers to a chorus in between songs? and stop it?

[toshonetime]

@dragonzith if you still dont kwno... use scene-launch mapping 8-)

[bryankho]

hahaha, very inventive!

[sk6mix]

creative :)

[MOMBITABA]

I LIKED VERY MUCH! THX FOR THE IDEA! ALL THE BEST, JOHANN

[brownbigb]

i like how you are so completely out of time with the click track that it becomes poly-rhythmic.

[theANT47]

How did you make this is it just a qwerty keyboard with keys removed?

[djline2]

cool shit dude, nice job

[OrbVroomer]

I like it !! I build triggers out of found objects & metal parts I form into crazy triggers with piezos. Check out my one man band-- all live -no tracks ,just some LFO;s that sound like loops & a couple of synth tricks. Is it that a piezo device ?

[surbvtr]

did you just assing keyboard keys and put the keyboard on the floor with the unused keys removed or does the keyboard send midi signals with a virtual cable thing?

[alejandrolevel]

Hi Michael, and thank you so much for uploading this super useful information!!!

I direct and sing in a vocal band, currently using a Boss RC-2 Looping pedal for live performance, but I'm running out of tracks! Can I use Ableton and the QWERTY keyboard setup to simply activate/deactivate prerecorded tracks while on stage? Or to apply real-time effects to my voice while singing live?

[dontbelievethahype]

Yep, you can map any of those midi controllable parameters to a key on the keyboard, and then activate them via a single button.

[SyncrisisVideos]

Hey, thanks a lot. We are a three piece band (a drummer, a keyboard/synth player and an engineer/vocalist). We were trying to figure out solutions to do complex pieces (multiple keyboard parts) during our live performances, and this video inspired our solution.

You rock!

[opticmovies]

could you use this easily live? Like on stage, to trigger backign tracks?

[michaeluna]

You can.  I do.

[myfaceispurple]

yup....thats why they call it ableton "LIVE" =D i know alot of DJ's that use this live....its not the best, but if you dont have like 6 grand to spend...its prolly for you

[Raxmole]

hey. what's the best then?

[theINSIDEout001]

Heh. It kinda sound likes "Dead Souls" by Joy Division.

[xeight]

Thank you so much! I was just about to shell out 150$ to pick up a midi foot controller, even though all i really wanted to do was trigger loops with ableton. I already made mine, and it works great! I also gorilla glued foam pads to the keys for easier playability. Thanks again, youre a life saver!

[aspersemusic]

I want to try building a housing for it, or even (if i find it is possible, replace the key's switch for a pushbutton. i mean, a switch is a switch right?

great stuff, created youtube account just to thank the creator.

[friguy1]

How do you hook everything up and make it play like that? you got any videos on how to hook everything up?

[michaeluna]

In the "more info" section above and to the right, I've got a link to an article that lays the whole thing out, step-by-step.

[friguy1]

Cool thank you very much,I will check the website.

[daraleksa]

THANK YOU!

I was looking for this "how to..." for months

[trunkeight]

Pure Unmitigated Genius.

We can only ask how!

[leroyluck]

great vid, i have a few questions tho: how do you hook up all the instruments? (i have a 2 channel dj mixer, could i plug instruments into that then that into line in on a pc??(im not familiar with LIVE)) someone asked if the original keyboard is usable, and you said it wasn't, does that cause problems if you want to make adjustments?? i had another but cant remember right now.

cheers in advance

[michaeluna]

Hi Leroyluck, to answer your questions:

1. All the instruments run thru a mixer, then into my sound card's line in.

2. Since I removed most of the buttons on the keyboard and threw them away, the keyboard itself can't be changed. However, the scripting software I use to assign functions to the keys is always changeable.

You'll find a more in-depth explanation of what's happening here at the link provided in the "more info" section of the description above.

[flux302]

damn such a simple but good idea.

[bernieburnalot]

Dude, this killer. Great demo too!

[DemoColorScheme]

This is brilliant !! I might even try this out soon.

[spiride]

ahahahahhahahah

mate your a visionary,

i think if you took your shoes off you'd get better key deffinition

seriously though, nice work

[TheDjRealm]

awesome trick!!

[Gorgmeister]

very nice! Its a bit hard to see. Have you in any way connected the buttons to each other? if not, how do you avoid pressing many buttons at the same time?

[eArtrash]

he removed the KEYS that he didnt need

[acousticmtl]

Finally!..i knew it..way to go budget boy. Definitely gonna make her..really appreciate the accessability part on the how to's of this project..thanks a mil dude

[dokumentary]

Very Cool. You Rock, Man! Keep it up.

Peace and rEVOLution in '08.

[agustinalvarez]

man, u r a genius!

[guitarkilla]

what the hell is that annoying tapping sound in the background?

[michaeluna]

It's called a metronome. Musicians commonly use one to keep time.

[matymetal]

oh that response!

Loving the DIY controller, I'm just about finishing mine...

Love the KP2!!! and I'm thinking seriously of getting a mini KP (guitar player too)

Great stuff... congrats!

[TheStoicAgnostic]

so you do need some type of midi switch to do all this looping sheeit?

that's cool what u did though

[michaeluna]

Thanks for reminding me that I forgot to add a link to the complete how-to article. You can now find that link in the "more info" section above.

[Warunix]

Wow...awesome idea. I think I'm going to make one as well for my live set...this is going to make things a lot easer!

Nice!

[nuemerik]

Made one of these yesterday, works great! I only made it with 5 banks instead of 6. I couldn't space the 12 keys properly with my old mac keyboard.

[michaeluna]

Excellent! If you get a chance, post some pics to createdigitalnoise dot com. Thanks!

[redsprocket]

16-bit!

[chadmagiera]

you are a master blaster