I've been investigating a few controller options for producing in Ableton..
I usually set up in Ableton with a bunch of Simpler channels. One each for the Kick, HH, synth sample etc. I find this easier to edit than drum racks if you want to edit one sound / pattern. Each channel has usually: a distortion VST, filter and EQ with A and B sends to delay.
At the moment I just click around with a mouse but especially for trialing distortion levels, ADSR etc, it's not ideal. But any controller option would have to be as quick as the mouse - or I'd just revert back to it and it'd be a waste of time.
Maschine is very popular but it kind of seems pointless to me to strap on another 50% of a DAW to my workflow when I'm happy working in Ableton. Exporting back and forth (while you can drag and drop) just seems unnecessary.
What I'm thinking:
NanoKontrol handles all the mixer functions / track arm / track select.
MPK: switches to the active track
Keyboard - keyboard for the active simpler - this way I can have for e.g. an 808 across a keyboard
Knobs: Bank A - Macro controls for the Simpler - ADSR, Start, Length, Pitch
Bank B - Macro controls for distortion VST, EQ (low cut and high cut) and filter (LP & HP & peak for each)
Leftover knobs would go to A, B sends and delay controls
Pads: Ideally bank A for active track and bank B: C3 for 12 tracks (but I suspect this isn't possible). The pads I could use for drums but as I prefer to stay away from drum racks - it's probably not necessary, I can always draw them in or tap them out in each channel.
Importantly, the macro knobs would switch to the active track and its value (I believe this is possible through creating a script).
If I got more into synths then I could create macro knobs for the synth and these would map automatically when I selected that track.
I know that's a long post but thought I'd throw it out there. I believe this is all possible? Is there a better way to do it?
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