The beauty of physical, human motion is that just about anything kinetic, any gesture can work. If you were left only with motion in your toes, you could play a live set. And whereas these gestures were once tied to specific acoustic instrumental effects, in the digital realm, they can be anything.

We’ve seen the rise of the grid controller, popularized by the monome and later seen in mass-market devices like the Launchpad and APC. And while it’s hardly the first “big knob as controller” concept, we’ve seen the encoder celebrated in the monome follow-up arc. So, buttons – check. Encoders – check. How about faders?

Herrmutt Lobby has been building simple Max for Live patches that do more with less. Beat Fader assigns note triggers to control points spread along a fader. This is similar to what the monome community have built with a row of buttons, but instead with continuous input. The fader still works like the buttons – instead of tapping a toggle, you move past a control point, for eight events. As you’ll see in the screen patch, the patch itself doesn’t do much; it’s really up to how you configure your Live set.

In a similarly economical invention, Counter increments a series of notes from a single trigger.

The advantage of Max for Live is that these little creations, long the sort of thing that’d make up a larger patch, now can be dropped as modules into a Live performance set. But you could easily use this idea outside Max for Live, in any tool that processes MIDI events, and with or without Ableton.

As usual, performance virtuosity is what makes the difference. There’s a nice thread on the monome forum about this to read – thanks to them for inspiring this story.
Beatfader [monome community]

Grab the patches for free (if you haven’t already gone and made something similar yourself, though these have nice preset control, etc.):
Beat Fader
counter lobby

Controllers seen above:
Novation Nocturn, street about US$90
Hercules DJ Console, I think the MK2, street around US$250 (but variants available much cheaper)

One video to take us out:

Ready for more dynamic control of Ableton Live, on the cheap? My how-to on MIDI Remote Scripting in Ableton Live was just last week, but it has already inspired new scripts for hardware, this time on the Novation Nocturn. (My examples for the tutorial were the Korg nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL.) The Nocturn is also very easy to slip into a backpack or carry-on, and very affordable at US$100-130 street. It just happens to become more valuable with a little user hacking.

Why the Novation Nocturn? After all, Novation touts their own Automap technology for just this purpose. But Novation assumed you only want to use the Nocturn Automap with your plug-ins and not to control Live. Here’s the non-dynamic hack from Novation:

How to control Ableton Live with the Nocturn?

Musician NCKN (“Nicken”) of Aachen, Germany has a better solution. He uses MIDI Remote Scripting to create a downloadable file that will map the Nocturn’s eight knobs to your device racks automatically. If you did pony up for Automap PRO, it’s useful, too, as it allows mapping buttons to Live keystrokes. (Bome MIDI Translator would be another option.)

Complete instructions and a free download at NCKN’s site. Be sure to check out his music, too; there’s some wonderful stuff.

DIY: Automap in Ableton Live with Novation Nocturn

Beautiful ambient-ish tracks with field recordings and acoustic noises blended elegantly into an electronic production:

Back to the controller that has an Ableton logo tattooed on it, we’ve got still more APC40 hacking going on, too. Darren Cowley sends along his Live rig and a video:

APC40 Customization from Darren E Cowley on Vimeo.

The “short” film clocks in at nearly eighteen minutes, but here’s the basic ingredients:

Korg padKONTROL + the free Farmpad customization tool for Mac + Akai APC40 + the mighty, powerful Bome MIDI Translator for more control over events + the now-discontinued Lucifer VST (which I believe has now been replaced with the audio-recording-manipulating Live Sync Recorder.)

There are some really tasty hacks here. Scene launch buttons glitch the sound or impact launch quantization. Controls provide quick access to recording and playing audio loops. Effects are on summed tracks for DJ-style effects manipulation. There are clever tricks for using lights for additional feedback. It’s all proof that no two people really approach Live or even this fairly clearly-mapped hardware in the same way.

Side note: I received a comment from a gentleman who is color blind and therefore can’t see the red/green light feedback on the APC40. Anyone with tips? I don’t think you want to rip out the APC’s lights, for sure. It does really prove that one size can’t possibly fit all in hardware.

Dynamic control is fantastic. The idea is this: when you switch to a new app or instrument or effect, the hardware controller automatically assigns parameters to controls. That means no messing around with templates, assignment editors, and configuration, and the ability to quickly gain control of your software when editing or performing. Novation’s MIDI-controlling keyboards and control surfaces are likely the best example of this with their “Automap” feature, as found on the ReMOTE line and the cute, DJ-friendly Nocturn.

But doing dynamic assignment also creates some challenges. You have to sort out which parameters get controlled. And most importantly, you need to be able to see what you’re actually controlling.

Automap was, frankly, pretty rocky when it first shipped – when I originally reviewed the ReMOTE SL, a lot of stuff didn’t work at all in some of the hosts. (I remember struggling with Logic, specifically.) But Novation has done a fantastic job of working with all the software you use, from Live and Reason to Logic and Pro Tools, and each release has gotten steadily better. Automap “Universal” 2.0 works exceptionally well with hosts, and plug-in support was starting to come together.

Now, Automap 3 Pro seeks to address those two remaining areas: assign parameters more easily, and see what you’re doing. And for the first time, you’ll be able to use multiple Novations side by side, which means I’m ready to pick up a Nocturn for myself. There’s just one catch, which may win the “Accountants Do the Darndest Things” award of this NAMM show. (Spoiler alert: would you give away or charge for the feature that encourages people to buy more of your gear?)

Heads-Up Display

The biggest news to me is the new heads-up display, which Novation calls “Autoview.”

If you are dynamically assigning controls, you need some feedback to know what the heck you’re actually controlling. That’s why I’m going to gripe endlessly about the lack of a screen on the new Akai APC40 for Ableton Live. Novation has always had lovely little screens built into their hardware. The problem is, an LED is a pretty small screen for people used to looking at 23” desktop displays all day. (I’m only 31 and I’m squinting at it already.)

Oddly enough, if you play with a laptop, you have a huge, gorgeous screen sitting right next to you. You can hunch over it and try to tell what’s happening, but that’s obviously no go.

So Novation has what I think is the ideal solution: a big heads-up display that activates when you grab a controller. (“Ah,” you say, “that is my grain length control,” and go on confidently with your set.)

We saw this basic feature demoed with the Nocturn controller at last year’s NAMM, but now it’s standard on Automap 3 across the whole Novation line. Having both the screen on my device and on my computer screen seems fantastic to me.

Assign Controllers Flexibly

The other main shortcoming of Automap in the past is how to deal with plug-ins with lots of parameters. In Ableton Live, at least, you can throw instruments and effects into Live’s Device Racks, which conveniently have eight macro knobs. That way, the eight encoders on your Novation gear map nicely. But invariably, even in Live I’ll find some plug-in I didn’t put into a rack, and this doesn’t work in all other hosts.

With Automap 3, you can drag and drop parameters onto controls. If you don’t like the arrangement, drag and drop again to swap parameters from one controller to another. (“Yep, grain length really belongs on the bottom right,” says you, and it is so.) That complements the “learn mode” added in Automap 2: click the on-screen parameter and then touch the hardware controller. (That’s very similar to the way Kore’s feature works, by the way.)

Finally, Automap supports assigning the X/Y pad control dynamically. That’s huge for SL owners – and makes me almost wish I hadn’t switch to the SL Compact.

Multiple Devices, New Start-Up Screen

The other big feature is long-awaited support for multiple devices and integrated Mackie HUI support, and there’s a new screen to organize all the new stuff.

Multiple controllers: You can now use more than one Novation controller at once and have Automap working with both of them at the same time. This is really fantastic, especially given that the ReMOTE Zero and Nocturn are both quite compact.

Mackie HUI: This means you get instant control over any DAW that supports Mackie HUI, without specific drivers.

New screen: There’s also a new startup screen for managing multiple devices and the plug-in assignment features. It also brings up links for updating your software and learning how to use all this functionality, with online guides for your software of choice, tutorials, and help.

Now, get ready for some cognitive dissonance:

Pro Pricing that Makes No Sense

I wondered why Automap was suddenly called “Automap Pro.” The answer seems to be that some jittery accountants (or someone else, in a weak moment) decided to charge $30 for Automap 3 Pro. That might be a logical decision if Automap worked on any hardware other than Novation’s, but it doesn’t. It’s not much money – it just doesn’t make much sense.

Here’s where it gets really strange. You can get Automap “Standard” for free. So what did they take out to entice you to buy “Pro”? Multiple device support.

Yep, that’s right. You can use less Novation hardware for free, but if you want to buy more Novation hardware, they’ll charge you for the privilege of using it. (I’m hoping it at least comes free with new Novation controllers, but haven’t seen any announcement suggesting that.)

Also exclusive to the Pro mode:

• XY pad control
• Autoview
• Drag and drop

So, in other words, Automap Standard doesn’t really give you any of the significant new features, except for HUI control and the new startup screen.

I know I’m naive and have terrible business sense, but wouldn’t it make more sense to encourage people to buy more of your stuff? I think Automap Pro is probably worth thirty bucks. I think Novation’s hardware is well worth buying – maybe even more than one unit. But I can’t make this make any sense at all.

Good will from your users is more valuable, Novation – and in the long run, could have a bigger impact on your bottom line. Make Automap Pro free, and encourage users to snap up more of these terrific controllers instead.

I hope at the very least Novation has the sense to do a free bundle of Automap Pro 3 with new controllers. (How many of you would find a bundled copy of Pro enough to put you over the top on buying a new Nocturn, even if you already have something like the ReMOTE SL? I know it’d convince me.)

Still Want It

That said, I still want this update – to me, it finally delivers on all the promise of the whole Automap concept.

And my message to Ableton: I’d love to see a heads-up display integrated into Live, too, especially since the Akai APC lacks a screen of its own.

Stay tuned for an Automap 3 hands-on coming soon. As I write this, the downloads still cover only Automap Universal 2, and the Buy Now page is blank.

Automap Product Page