Noob Problem With Momentary FX

[SparksSmith147]

I have a Midifighter 3D and am starting out with Ableton. I watched the Mad Zach tutorial on Momentary FX. It worked almost perfectly the first time, except it was fading out with each time it looped. Now it won't work at all. Here's what I'm doing:
1. ctrl + m
2. Clicking on loop
3. Pressing button for sample and holding
4. Pressing an empty button
5. Releasing the empty button
6. Releasing the sample button
7. ctrl + m

My questions are:
1. Am I doing something wrong here?
2. My computer has been having weird problems today, could it just be a glitch?
3. When I can get my momentary FX back, what can I do to stop it from fading out and just be a constant loop?

Thank you for reading and I'm really excited to learn how to do this

[joshlikesdrums]

Hey Sparks,

I've used my 3D for momentary FX (in particular, a Beat Repeat/Glitch Rack I built) a lot in Ableton and I think you have a couple issues. First, you mentioned a loop. Does that mean you're trying to play an audio loop but only when you press a button (like in a finger drumming performance)? If that's what you want to do, then you'll have to change some settings with the loop first.

Go into the Launch settings of the loop. You can get there by double-clicking on the clip itself and clicking on the little "L" button on the bottom-left of the clip window. Once that pane is open, you just set your Launch Mode to "Gate" (which is what makes it momentary) and your Quantization to "None" (which allows you to play it free of the global quantization setting).

Once you have those settings worked out, simply assign the clip to a button on your 3D in the Midi Map Mode (cmd(ctrl) + M). No need to press and hold anything anymore. The video you're referencing is with an older Midi Fighter. The new 3D will make the assignment momentary automatically (I double checked my settings in the Midi Fighter Utility to make sure).

This goes for FX as well. I have assigned On/Off controls or FX buttons, like Beat Repeat's "Repeat" button, to buttons on my 3D plenty of times and never had to change a setting in the Utility, or hold down or press any buttons. Just simply make the assignment and you're off to the races.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you're still experiencing issues and we can work them out together!