Prevent komplete kontrol s88 mk2 from losing focus when changing tracks(ableton)

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nelligan tetrault
nelligan tetrault Member Posts: 31 Member
edited October 2024 in Komplete Kontrol

Hello,

on a single track of ableton I run ONE instance of maschine vst with all of my instruments/sounds, which I like to control with my s88 mk2.

Then I have some empty tracks in ableton that recieve the audio out from the maschine track. Problem is, whenever I select a different track (than the maschine vst), the keyboard "loses focus" from the plugin state. It goes into midi mode because these other track don't contain KK or kontakt.

I then have to switch back using instance - select -, which is VERY annoying and unecessary. I just want the keyboard to stay as is. Anyone know a way to do that?

For auto-select on clip activation, I know I can disable in ableton pref : turn off "Select on Launch", but I still need to select tracks during live perf. to tweak effects on them.

Thanks

Best Answer

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 3,382 Expert
    Answer ✓

    That is more how Live works with a control surface. Push does the same thing.

    For MIDI devices you can lock a MIDI device to a track or device but if you use a device with a control script itb does what it is programmed to do and that is usually to follow you within the set so selecting tracks sets the keyboard to focus.

    You could try and lock the keyboard to the Maschine track, but likely that wont work unless you do everything in MIDI mode.

Answers

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 3,382 Expert
    Answer ✓

    That is more how Live works with a control surface. Push does the same thing.

    For MIDI devices you can lock a MIDI device to a track or device but if you use a device with a control script itb does what it is programmed to do and that is usually to follow you within the set so selecting tracks sets the keyboard to focus.

    You could try and lock the keyboard to the Maschine track, but likely that wont work unless you do everything in MIDI mode.

  • nelligan tetrault
    nelligan tetrault Member Posts: 31 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/137954#Comment_137954

    Hi Jester, thanks for replying!

    Regarding the last part of your reply : how would you try to lock it ? (right ctrl on ableton device : lock ctrl surface?)

    Also, i'm trying to understand the intended design for forcing this change in focus. I know that KK can only host one vst at a time (I think?). Does that mean that most users would duplicate tracks after tracks containting it's own KK vst - then change track to change instrument? For a live setup that needs +12 instruments, that must be a loss in cpu to have that many instance of komplete?

    In my case for my live setup: I use ONE instance of maschine and I have pre-loaded my instruments into groups. Empty tracks are ready to recieve audio from maschine. Much cleaner like that, thus the need to stay in focus on that specific track. Within this one vst, I can easily change instruments either from KK or from my maschine.

    Btw maschine does not lose it's focus regardless of which track's selected, why not the s88 ;) ?!

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 3,382 Expert

    Regarding the last part of your reply : how would you try to lock it ? (right ctrl on ableton device : lock ctrl surface?)

    Yes, tho likely wont work.

    Also, i'm trying to understand the intended design for forcing this change in focus. I know that KK can only host one vst at a time (I think?). Does that mean that most users would duplicate tracks after tracks containting it's own KK vst - then change track to change instrument? For a live setup that needs +12 instruments, that must be a loss in cpu to have that many instance of komplete?

    Well if you use KK V3 then yes, this will impact on CPU more than V2 but also consider how DAWs utilise a multi-core CPU over multiple tracks Vs a single track. Often you can have worse performance loading too much into a single track/instance because a core is assigned per track.

    Btw maschine does not lose it's focus regardless of which track's selected, why not the s88 ;) ?!

    Maybe in the Control Surface section of Live you do not have Maschine setup as a control surface for Live?

    I dont use Maschine in Live so not sure, I just know after years of watching people have the same questions about why Push cannot be locked to a track in a set, this is the reason given by Ableton officials is because control surfaces have scripts that tell it what to do as you click through a set. Most people want this to happen, for dedicated control of things you use specific MIDI devices instead of "global" controllers.

    A workaround would be to deselect the keyboard in control surfaces. That would allow you to manually select an instance and should not then switch when selecting tracks but you will then loose all DAW control and mixer control from the keyboard. Also, the script auto-selects on next launch to to make that stick you have to remove the script from the live script folder.

    Best thing to do is test things out, i'm going from an old memory on how things work. I barely launch Live these days.

  • nelligan tetrault
    nelligan tetrault Member Posts: 31 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/137986#Comment_137986

    Hey Jester! Reporting back as a happy man! Where "locking control surface" failed from the device on a track, your idea of simply removing the control surface from the preference works! Thus, my keyboard can stay focuse on the one instance I need. As I have a push 2, I did not need at all to use KK for navigation in ableton!

    Thanks a lot for thinking outside the box!

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