Controlling Ableton Live 9 with MFC-101

M

mjlongo

Member
I am trying to setup my MFC101 so that I can press button #15 on the MFC and have it mapped to the play button in Ableton Live 9.

I am currently setup like this: Cat5 from my MFC (ver 2.17) to my Axe FX (ver10.05). From my Axe FX, I am using the USB port into one of the USB ports on my laptop running Windows 7 and Ableton Live 9. Within Ableton, I went to the preferences section and enabled the Axe FX choice that appears in the midi section. I turned on the Remote and Sync buttons for both In and Out midi. On my MFC, I edited button #15 to be "None" and I set the button mode to Momentary. On AxeFX, I have set the midi through to both on and off under the I/O section and neither seems to make a difference.

With this setup, I did NOTHING else and Ableton Live is sending tempo changes to my Axe FX (which is great!). I verified this by selecting each of my songs that were already setup in Ableton. When each song is triggered, I can visually see that the tempo on my Axe FX is changing and matching to the songs tempo. Therefore, I believe I have established a midi connection of sorts from Ableton to my Axe. I do want Ableton to control my AxeFX for patch changes, etc so this is good. But I'm after the reverse!

My problem is that no matter what buttons I press on the MFC, my Ableton does not appear to respond. According to Ableton, one is supposed to be able to switch on midi map mode and map devices to any available control. However, nothing from my MFC appears to be seen.

To investigate this a bit further, I tried to monitor the midi input from my Axe FX using midi-ox. The strange part here is that I can only see midi events being triggered when I press the up/down buttons, or buttons 1-5. And only when I am NOT in reveal mode (which I have to use for scene selection). So I tried to midi map my Ableton to one of these "working" buttons and I still get nothing.

Any assistance with this would be great. Thanks!
 
Check if "USB Adapter Mode" is enabled on the Axe-FX. It should be. Your description sounds like it's not, and the messages you're seeing in MidiOx are sysex generated by the Axe-FX at preset change, which aren't affected by that setting.
 
Thank you for the reply Bakerman. Does USB Adapter Mode come into play if I used the Midi In/Through ports instead of USB? Because I was using that method before attempting to use the USB over Midi.
 
Hmm, okay then I'm not sure what the problem might be because my first attempt at this was via using the midi ports into a midisport into my computer. I definitely tried with midi thru on. Failing that, I then used the USB ports of the Axe. I did not try turning on the adaptor mode though but if the connection using the midi ports failed to work, I do not have high hopes for using the USB cable method.
 
Bakerman.....I just got home and your suggestion of turning on the "USB over Midi" was the answer. I am able to fully control my Ableton now via my MFC. Thank you!!
 
Bakerman's a marvel!

I'm at the beginning of the same sort of process; using Ableton Live 9 as the basis of a one-man show, including lighting.

It would be great not to have to carry round another midi controller for Live, so I'm hoping to do the same sort of thing:

1. Use Ableton to do my guitar patch changes,
2. and use the MFC to control the Ableton scene changes and other effects

I'm at the early stages of wondering about what's realistic...

Is it in fact realistic to expect the MFC and Expression pedals to control Ableton parameters? I also use my Axe for playing in a rock band, so would use it in normal Preset mode for that.

But for the one-man show, I was thinking of using the MFC in Song Mode, with the bottom row changing the Ableton scenes as well as the Axe patches; and Up/Down switching both Axe and Ableton into the next song.

I'm keen to do looping in Ableton, so would have to assign further IA switches to looper functions - maybe the first five on Reveal....?

I'm not clear on the basics of this - particularly whether what I'm thinking about would require me to re-programme the MFC every time I needed to change the type of gig I'm doing... That in itself if unavoidable would make it simpler to bring along another midi foot controller.

Thinking laterally, it might also be simpler to have all my guitar for the on-man show come from Ableton - but that would be a bit tragic, and something I'm keen to avoid!
 
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