Discussion and information about (the development of) an Ableton Live MIDI Remote Script / Control Surface for the Electra One
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I have created an Ableton Live MIDI Remote Script to dump an ElectraOne JSON preset for the currently selected device in Ableton Live. See GitHub - xot/ElectraOneDump: Ableton Live MIDI Remote Script to dump an ElectraOne JSON preset for the currently selected device
This is a first step towards making a real, fully functional, remote script for the ElectraOne… stay tuned.
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I already managed to create a simple Ableton Live remote script that allows a generic ElectraOne patch to control the parameters of the currently selected device, without any need for manually setting the MIDI mappings
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Thank you for this project 
I’m really curious what kind of ableton track/device control can be done.
@kirkwoodwest did a nice E1 channel strip with ClyphX and Ableton 10… but ClyphX is still not ported to Ableton 11.
Slowly progressing towards a version that creates an Electra One preset on the fly, based on the currently selected device in Ableton, uploads it to the Electra One and then allows this Abelton device to be remote controlled by the preset created automatically. It is even possible to create custom presets (with nicer, user-defined, layout).
One snag: ElectraOne requires the preset to be uploaded over the MIDI CTRL port, while it ignores any parameter value updates received over that port: so I can either upload presets automatically, or get the values on the Electra One to be synced with changes made in Ableton directly, but not both. (You can only specify one output port in Ableton for a control script).
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That sounds too good! It could be finally a little flexible ableton controller for the blue hand 
(after novation automap, mackie control, push… and touchable)
Thanks. Will work on it the coming weeks, so ., watch this space 
@Martin is there any way to merge the two MIDI ports (1 and CTRL) with a setting or something on the Electra One? Otherwise the remote script would not be entirely self contained (relying on third party solutions to do the merge) which would be less nice.
P.S., Love touchable too BTW
@jhh, can you elaborate this a little bit more? You need to have one port, eg. Port 1 to be able to process the regular MIDI traffic as well as the Electra’s external midi commands and preset uploads. Do I understand it correctly?
Thanks!
Wow Jan Henk this looks awesome. I will try it out.
Can I help out somehow?
I saw you even handle the Booleans by creating a toggle button.
Even my Ableton Push does not doe that 
If I am correct we need the E.one to be able to both process CTRL commands
Or at least uploading presets and being able to send and receive control data going and coming from Ableton.
Looking back at my Zero SL MKII it is also using 1 port to do all communication with the template script .
I uploaded a first ALPHA release of a Ableton Live remote control script for the Electra One. See
Comments welcome!
Yes, I need one INPUT port on the Electra One that accepts both preset uploads AND normal MIDI traffic (so far only MIDI CC). All this because in Ableton Live I can only assign one output port to the remote control script.
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Wow this is great stuff.
I have tested a bit and get parameters mapped for the SSL 4000E channel strip.
After I switched back the port from port 3 (CTRL) to port one I was able to control stuff.
SSL 4000E channel strip is a vst3. I get nice naming of the parameters but no values.
I also tried Camel Audio Alchemy, this is a vst2 and I had to map the controls in ableton by clicking “configure” and then twist the parameters that I want to have exposed.
I also added 2 control surfaces, one with port1 and one with port3 and like that I was able to switch presets and control stuff.
Although the e.one would show an occasional error that a preset could not be loaded. 2 ports means e.one will get double the data i guess.
Great stuff… this will really improve working in Ableton.
Thanks.
I’ve had the occasional loading error too, do not know what causes it.
When you say “I get nice naming of the parameters but no values” what exactly do you mean? Or do you mean that a fader shows MIDI CC values (0… 16383) instead of the actual values for the parameter it controls?
No i do not see any numerical values. Only the label of the parameter.
For example on your “echo” template I see L time, R time and a fader bar.
No numbers.
I just checked again but did see some values when loading “distort”
Only drive, dry/wet and tone show a value
Filter freq, is not show at all.
Anyhow I am already very happy that you created this.
Thanks a lot
I will definitely try to help with debugging.
A yes, this appears to be a bug in the E1 firmware. @Martin Faders with a value range of 0-511 (or -127-127) show values. Any larger range (eg 0-16383) is not shown.
well, it is kind of intended. The faders place the value in the graphics. It was a “design” idea from the very beginning of the project. It does not work well with larger figures, so the value is not shown. There is a hidden parameter in the JSON that can give access to more variants of the controls. One of them is a fader with value placed in the center. I will let that go out when the I have moment to update the docs.
Btw. I am about to finish a version of firmware that accepts Electra sysex messages on all ports. I think it will resolve the issue of multiple ports. I will upload that wip version of the firmware to this thread.
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Nice! Thank you so much.