Comments on: Custom USB Keyboard for Controlling Ableton Live

By: Charlie Harris

Charlie Harris — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:23:01 +0000

Can someone help me with info on using two or more USB keyboards. How do you get Win to recognise the separate keyboards ?

By: Create Digital Music » Pimp my Ableton Controller: Custom Keyboards, Custom Paint Jobs

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:14:29 +0000

[...] In November, Bill Van Loo showed off his custom-painted Apple QWERTY keyboard for controlling Ableton Live. He’s been painting again, and has now completed his live Live rig with a beautifully-painted Peavy MIDI fader unit. [...]

By: Shoes » Blog Archive » Wednesday 27th December 2006 12:01:02 AM

Shoes » Blog Archive » Wednesday 27th December 2006 12:01:02 AM — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:03:12 +0000

[...] Custom USB Keyboard for Controlling Ableton Live [...]

By: Short Bus » Blog Archive » I’m Going to be a Thief

Short Bus » Blog Archive » I’m Going to be a Thief — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:04:45 +0000

[...] I’m Going to be a Thief Written by maz Well I stole this this idea from a post I saw over at Create Digital Music.Â It’s a pretty sweet, and cheap, idea for controlling your music software, in my case Ableton Live.Â Like the person that did this originally I’ll document my entire process so the world out there can see what I’m doing. I’ve even set up the initial gallery. [...]

By: Bill Van Loo

Bill Van Loo — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 02:44:26 +0000

Well, right now I’m using a one-to-one mapping, so a button corresponds to a clip. I don’t tend to play the type of “2-hour-long-no-pause-DJ-style” live sets any more these days, so I don’t have to have a ton of clips loaded up. Instead, I generally play a few pieces, talking to the audience in between, play a few more. I’ll generally break up my stuff into two Live sets, so having 6 rows of clips is plenty for now.

It must be said, I haven’t had that much time to actually play with the keyboard yet, although it was lots of fun in the testing I’ve done so far. One nice thing about the way it is now is that I can always re-arrange the keys if I find I need something different!

By: MetroSonus

MetroSonus — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:55:09 +0000

You’ve got 40 buttons for clips? Is that enough, or do you group clips and trigger them from a single button?

By: Damon

Damon — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:55:11 +0000

Wonderfully executed…

By: Jaymis Loveday

Jaymis Loveday — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 05:13:12 +0000

Custom keyboard = rock! I have been planning a Resolume keyboard to go with my SFF pc, post New Year. I’ve just picked up an Airbrush as well… Need Dragons or Unicorns on your 201 Peter?

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:48:33 +0000

Oh, yeah, good point, Jeremy. :) Function lock and number lock should give you a fair amount of additional differentiation, at least on my MS keyboard here, for instance. And since you can do what was done here and remove some keys, you could disable keys that don’t function …

By: Jeremy Bible

Jeremy Bible — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:40:53 +0000

Easy fix. CAPS LOCK. Two keyboards. One keyboard with CAPS LOCK on and one keyboard with CAPS LOCK off.
Then you have ‘Q’ on one board and ‘q’ on the other which in Live are separate mappings.

Currently seeking a way to shift lock so we can get all the alternate characters that CAPS LOCK doesnt effect. Maybe just tape down the shift key on one keyboard. Does shift effect just the keyboard that is typing or the the OS? Have to go test.

There are some keyboard remapping programs out there as well that we are finding useful.