# Articulations Maps for Ableton Live ...



## Infiniquity (Apr 29, 2014)

Hi everyone,

Though Live doesn't seem to be the DAW of choice in this forum, I wanted to share with you one of the solution I use for articulations switching in a convenient way. Very similar to what can be achieved with the so called expression maps although it is limited to KS. This is the solution that I found to be working across all the different libraries (all have KS, not all have CCs).
It is based on Midi Effect Rack to define KS map. I made one map for Each instrument with a coherent KS structure. Example here is for BML Sable V1. 

I'm also wondering if anyone uses another method ?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0IDrsKOxzSkenpWUDNCSFJ6SGM/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0IDrsKOxzSkYUV4WEtVR0pZV2c/edit?usp=sharing


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## G.E. (May 1, 2014)

Can you go into more detail about how you are doing this ? Also,did they add multiple midi clip editing in Ableton Live yet ?


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## FriFlo (May 1, 2014)

If Live were my daw of choice, I couldn't be happier, as you can do almost anything you desire with max of live. Sadly, live doesn't meet my expectations in terms of editing capabilities compared to Cubase. So, I use max standalone for my customization. But for anyone who is using live: try m4l! Just a tipp from a very happy max user ...


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## Infiniquity (May 1, 2014)

G.E. @ Thu May 01 said:


> Can you go into more detail about how you are doing this ? Also,did they add multiple midi clip editing in Ableton Live yet ?



Only using a Midi effect Rack to indicate C0 is indeed legato, etc ... In the midi editor, I then get the legato key indicated instead of C0.

No they did not add multi midi clip edition. Nor the multi envelope.


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## rupect (Feb 22, 2017)

Very clever - just finding this now, returning to Ableton after some time in Logic. 

What MIDI Effect did you put in the rack? Is there also an effect in the rack with the playable range on the effect rack's keyboard range to allow the notes to sound?


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## Matt Riley (Feb 23, 2017)

Interesting!


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## IoannisGutevas (Feb 23, 2017)

G.E. said:


> Also,did they add multiple midi clip editing in Ableton Live yet ?



There is with this: https://isotonikstudios.com/chaos-culture/midi-multiclip-editor/ . Best thing that happened to Ableton Live imo.


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## Sean Jorden (Jul 21, 2018)

For anyone having trouble with this, check out this youtube video




insert midi effect rack
create 128 chains (use CTRL-A, CTRL-D)
Click on key, right click and choose distribute ranges equally to have one chain per note
name chain accordingly
remove unused chains
right click on chains and choose 'show names in midi editor' *<-- most important part*


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## x-dfo (Feb 10, 2020)

This might be worth checking out (sorry for the necro, just wanted to help out other people googling this)








articulaCtions (v1.3.1) Expression Map/Articulation ID for Ableton Live


a straightforward MaxForLive midi device to control articulation changes/keyswitches à la Cubase Expression Map/ Logic Pro Articulation ID.Easy to set up. Control your big sampler (Kontakt, EastWest Play, MachFive, UVI...) librairies articulations/keyswitches with automation lanes, from the...




gumroad.com


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## RyanRhea (Nov 30, 2020)

x-dfo said:


> This might be worth checking out (sorry for the necro, just wanted to help out other people googling this)
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I just got this, but I'm still new to all this Midi stuff. How the heck do I make this work? Got it installed, set up some articulations... but now I don't know how to make it actually work with my keyboard controller.

Also, does this wok with EW Play at all, or only Kontact? Can I switch between tracks in Ableton, or does this only work within a player like Kontakt?

Thanks!!


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## briantully (Apr 14, 2021)

Has anyone figured out a workaround or solution for getting parity with Logic's "Articulation Sets" or Cubase's "Expression Maps" or even Reaper's "Reaticulate"? I'm gutted to discover that Ableton Live doesn't have this capability.

As for the articulaCtions Max Device linked above, I purchased it on Gumroad, and frankly I think it's a bit of false advertising. After figuring out how it works (there is no documentation to be found), it merely allows you to map existing keyswitches, nothing else. However I have a Kontakt library that has Articulation Sets and Expression Maps files that have way more articulations defined in addition to the default keyswitches. Sadly these articulations cannot be mapped in the articulaCtions Max Device because they are not defined as keyswitches in the Kontakt library.

Anyone know of another method to map these additional articulations that are not keyswitched by default?


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## manuhz (Apr 14, 2021)

KeySwitch & Expression Map for Ableton Live | swub







www.swub.de


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## briantully (Apr 14, 2021)

manuhz said:


> KeySwitch & Expression Map for Ableton Live | swub
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks @manuhz ! I'll definitely check this out. Although based on the first sentence of the setup instructions, it sounds like it might be the same developer of articulaCtions? LOL



> *The set-up of the device is not difficult and very straightforward.*


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## mussnig (Apr 18, 2021)

briantully said:


> Thanks @manuhz ! I'll definitely check this out. Although based on the first sentence of the setup instructions, it sounds like it might be the same developer of articulaCtions? LOL



Hey, I have both devices and tested them intensively for some time (and of course I use them regularly). And I also communicated with both developers - they are different persons.

Anyways, KeySwitch & Expression Map is extremely powerful and lets you combine multiple ways to switch between articulations (KS, Midi CC, Program Change, Rack Chain Selector and even secondary KS, i.e., if you need two KS to activate an articulation). It even takes care of delaying your notes so that you don't need to take care of triggering the KS slightly before.

That being said, I recently realized that there seems to be some bug and each instance of KeySwitch & Expression Map takes approx. 270 MB of RAM, which is of course crazy. It seems it was less with the previous versions but still way too much. I contacted the developer (who really seems to be a nice guy, btw) and he confirmed the issue (and it seems he was quite surprised about this - I also only realized this by chance when I was building a template). He told me he will look for the cause (maybe some flags M4L need to be set different etc.) and I hope he will have a fix soon (especially because articulaCtions isn't as flexible and I can't do everything I need with it - also, I only have 16 GB of RAM).

I even wanted to write a more detailed post about KeySwitch & Expression Map (because I really think it's awesome) and some other devices which I use to make something like "dynamic track loading" more or less possible. But I will wait until that bug is fixed ...


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## briantully (Apr 22, 2021)

mussnig said:


> Hey, I have both devices and tested them intensively for some time (and of course I use them regularly). And I also communicated with both developers - they are different persons.
> 
> Anyways, KeySwitch & Expression Map is extremely powerful and lets you combine multiple ways to switch between articulations (KS, Midi CC, Program Change, Rack Chain Selector and even secondary KS, i.e., if you need two KS to activate an articulation). It even takes care of delaying your notes so that you don't need to take care of triggering the KS slightly before.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much for the detailed response @mussnig  I purchased KeySwitch & Expression Map and will try to make sense of it all


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