State of Crufty - Midsummer night's dream, 2013

State of the Crufty

Earlier this year, Ableton finally released Live 9.  I was in the 'suite' pre-order bundle, so my Live came w/Max 4 Live.  That's what I'm using today, and I am always discovering little workflow ehancements--great stuff! 

The lack of sysex is kind of a drag.

The shift off Reaper 4.3

I had spent quite a bit of time setting up a Reaper template, I was loathe to shift off. I had built a custom midi oriented theme, setup all my patch lists. *sigh*  The timing seemed tight.  BUT i was having mondo issues actually controlling my synths.  How do I send CCs?

Reaper's midi plugin is kinda crappy. Actually, a whole lot of crappy.  Only 5 ccs?  That will never do!

So I installed Ctrlr. woww...the workflow killed me.  I spent 3 weeks trying to get a custom Jomox 999 module--all cc mind you--and I couldn't really get it to work inside of reaper.   I'm sure it was operator error.

So I back burnered my ctrlr+reaper  stuff.  Ctrlr is a great alternative, however I was getting frustrated. I know its "in between" right now, and open source guys deserve all the credit for the change they bring.  So no complaints about ctrlr nor reaper...I know reaper's not open source, but the prices is $60 for what amounts to almost unlimited upgrades.  Cheaper then beers w/buddies!

Shift onto Live 9

Live 9 included Max 4 Live (M4L).  I didn't bother with a manual...who needs that?  I downloaded an Orbit 9090 M4L module and took a look.  Hmm...not to scrappy!  I actually was able to figure out how to use M4L w/some poking about. Props!  Definitely a mature environment.

I set about creating panels for all my synths! Nice! Actually works pretty well.

Workflow Today

Today, I use live as a midi sequencer.  I'm not very good at recording, so I have one audio track and I record everything in real time to that first cell.

After I record a jam, i drop the resultant wav into Reaper, where I have a master bus fxchain preset I apply.  I render to wav, then drop the resultant wav in "Max" to convert to mp3.  Convoluted, I know, but..it works.  My workflow is really smooth and I'm afraid to change!  I can bang out an idea in under an hr or two.  No wires, just two power switches and a default template. 

Do have one gripe about Live--forgetting my Midi channel settings each time!

I'm still tweaking the masterbus chain.  I want something fire and forget: time is at an essence!  

Promise to myself

I have promised myself no more sample packs, no more plugins--not unless plugs help w/ master bus. No plugins w/dongles, that is for sure.  

Future Posts

Before I forget...

1. My current HW setup

2. Making Max4Live Midi Devices, including a python script to convert Reaper patch lists into something I can copy and paste into M4L

3. My current live setup

4. Reaper FX Chain