QLab and Ableton Live

[Benjamin Durham]

The Question:Is it possible to control Ableton Live through QLab?

Some background: The sound designer that does all the shows for my theater is a very talented and established designer who insists on running all of his cues through Ableton Live as he's more familiar with it, and it provides certain features that I guess he can't get via QLab. We've always run the video and sound cues on 2 separate computers to account for this and keep the show running smoothly. We're in the process of trying to turn our most recent show into a touring show and are therefore trying to consolidate what we'll be touring with, and the idea of bringing two computers is obviously not ideal. The designer won't budge on Ableton, so I thought I'd check in with you guys to see if there's any way to have QLab trigger Ableton's cues, similar to triggering a MIDI command, but on the same computer. Is this possible?

Thanks for any input,

Ben

[Greg Leeper]

I've had Ableton send midi over ethernet to a second laptop to control Qlab - but not tried in the other way around nor on just one machine.  

It seems what you need to figure out is how to pass midi between 2 apps - on one machine?

[Angus Turner]

The IAC Bus allows this to happen. Haven't used it personally but it basically loops back the midi within the computer.

Thanks
Angus Turner
angus...@gmail.com

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[Benjamin Durham]

This is intriguing. Anybody know anything more about this?

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[Sean Dougall]

If you mean about setting up an IAC bus, here’s the gist:

- Launch /Applications/Audio MIDI Setup

- In the MIDI window, double-click on the "IAC Driver" icon

- If "Device is online" is unchecked, check it

- If there are no busses added in the Ports table, click on the "+" button to add one

The bus appears as both an output device and and input device, and as Angus said, basically just loops right back. Because of that, you have to be somewhat careful not to set up any MIDI feedback loops, but otherwise you can treat it as a cable going out from any one application to any other on the same machine.

Also, IAC is generally much, much more reliable than MIDI over ethernet, though of course it only works within one computer.

Sean

[Benjamin Durham]

Thanks, I'm going to try exploring this setup and see if I can have any luck.

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Ben Durham

818-850-1683

[micpool]

You may find the later posts in this thread on the blue room forum quite informative

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/index.php?showtopic=43862

Once you have got your MIDI working on the IAC bus the idea is to write some MIDI cues in Qlab e.g noteon 60 127  and title them with what you want them to do in ableton e.g PLAY

then in Ableton options/ edit midi map

Highlight the ableton  control, track cc etc you want to automate in Qlab. In Qlab fire the cue that you want to operate that feature. Switch off edit midi map and away you go.

Mic

[Benjamin Durham]

Mic that link is a beautiful thing! It's answering all the questions I've had about this setup. Thank you!

Ben

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Ben Durham

818-850-1683

[micpool]

One of the  best resources for learning about the theatrical use of Ableton Live (and using QLab to control it) are the videos of Gareth Fry's training sessions for the UK Association of Sound Designers. Parts of which are pretty mind-blowing.   They are only available in the members area of the ASD website.  The ASD is quite a new organisation and at the moment only really has UK designers as professional members as a lot of the benefits are only applicable to UK residents, but non UK based people can join as associate members. It's 50 Pounds (approx 80 dollars). I think for some people it would be worth it for these videos alone, you might spend a similar amount  for travel and accommodation if you attended a similar event locally. Theres also videos of an advanced Qlab 2 training  session. 7 archived back issues  issues of the associations magazine in the archive and sound effects library  offers which can completely offset the cost of membership. Details here.

http://www.associationofsounddesigners.com/joinus