First of all i have to say this videosync app is really great and brings up a lot of new possibilites within Ableton! I have been testing the demo version for some days now, with a lot of fun. Thanks.
However i was wondering if it would be possible to also send out audio from within your ‘Simpler’ plugin. Because I’m looking for a way to trigger audio and video at the same time (like you do with audio in a sampler). I was hoping that this ‘Simpler’ plugin would do that, but as far as i can see it only outputs video, right?
It’s of course possible to load a video to different clips and trigger these parts clip by clip, but then clips are also playing at the same time instead of cutting off each other.
I think it would be great when it would be possible to import a video (together with audio) to the simpler plugin or into Abletons drumrack and trigger the video/audio by midi notes, be able to adjust the length of the triggered part, pitch / stretch it etc. Is this something that we could expect in the future? Or is there maybe a way to contribute / alter your patch to something like this?
Indeed, our Simpler device only outputs video. That is a deliberate decision since I believe Ableton’s Simpler is way more powerful than anything we could ever recreate. Therefore, our Simpler is trying to mimic as much as possible from Live’s Simpler in a way that, when the settings are identical, video and audio will stay perfectly in sync. Audio handled by Live, video by Videosync.
One of the many ways to achieve what you want is, for instance, by using Drum Racks and Instrument Racks. For instance, you can put an Audio and Video Simpler in an Instrument Rack, so they both react to the same note. Of course, you can also place this Instrument Rack in a Drum Rack. Or combine two Drum Racks in one Instrument Rack.
Regarding pitching and stretching, in Classic Mode, the video will speed up and slow down in the same way as Live’s Simpler does. You can also enable Warp to change the playback speed, depending on Live Set’s BPM.
Thanks for your quick reply. Now i see it your way! Might be even a better way indeed.
I’ll try the option you mentioned with the Instrument rack, and will be reporting back soon!
I’ve explored the video simpler plugin together with Live’s simpler some more, and it indeed works best doing it your way. I still having some trouble finding out some things, but that might also be a bit of a Ableton Live’s issue…
For example; when i would like to switch between 2 video’s in simpler, i now setup a instrument-rack with 2 sets of a Simpler video+audio plugin. In the instrument rack you can map for example the lower keys to video+audio #1, and the higher keys to video+audio #2. However it seems that it’s not possible to set a root key in the simpler video plugin, is that correct? An other method would be to switch between the 2 plugin sets by using the ‘chain’ option, but then you need something that modulates the ‘chain’ itself. What would the best setup when i would like to switch between different video’s in a instrument rack?
Other issue;
When i map several plugin parameters to a Midi CC number in Live, how would it be possible to sequence the value of this CC number? For example, when i would like to trigger a distortion effect on both audio and video at the same time, i now setup a distortion plugin after the Live’s Simpler plugin. And another kind of ’ pixelate’ plugin after the Videosync master plugin. I can use my midi controller to control both value’s / parameters at the same time, but i cannot ‘sequence’ it, for example in a Live Clip, because those plugins are on different channels…is there a way to do this?
Indeed, you cannot set a root key in Simpler at the moment. What kind of combination of audio and video are you trying to achieve? Are you setting a root key in Live’s Simpler?
For a workaround, you could use Live’s MIDI Pitch device in the chain of the Video Simpler to pitch the note as you need to.
For sequencing the Pixelate and Distortion effect at the same time, I can think of two possible solutions.
Of course, the easiest way to control a video plugin with an envelope in a Clip is to put the video effect on the same track as the distortion effect. To have even more control over both effects, you could group the two in an Audio Effect Rack and use a Macro to control both at the same time.
Another option would be to use the ‘Map8’ device from the Max for Live Essentials pack. This device can link to parameters from devices anywhere in your Live set and allows you to automate these parameters from within your clip.
My idea was to import a couple of video’s (4bar length for example) and map these on different octaves on my midi-keyboard. So video 1 is sliced in 12 notes on octave 1, video 2 is sliced in 12 notes on octave 2 etc…
And then i do that in the same way with the audio from these video’s. In this setup you could switch between / or map different (small) video’s on different parts of your keyboard / midi controller. And still, they are on the same instrument track.
It’s a small workaround but the pitch device does this trick indeed. Of course i could also render 1 large video and then map it over the whole range of notes, but it’s less flexible i guess…
Then, the Map8 plugin works fantastic for this.
Thanks again for your help!
Ah, so you’re using the Simpler’s slice mode. So since C1 triggers ‘Region 1’, this does not work when using the slice mode in racks. In this case, I think the pitch device is the best workaround. Live’s Simpler does not have a root note setting either, right?
True! The most effective way is indeed using the pitch device.
Other question: Is there some way to not end a slice (or video) with a black screen?
I’m trying to ’ play ’ a video of a character that’s talking. So, it’s sliced up in for example 16 pieces, and i’m hitting random keys so that the speech of the character is chopped up in different ways.
When i sequence notes in a grid, the black screen won’t happen because i can make the notes fit the grid perfectly. But when playing ‘live’ it happens that at the end of a slice the black screen occurs before i hit the next note. (which gives it a bit of a stroboscopic effect :)).
I understand that this is perfectly logical because of the way the simpler is programmed, but would it be possible to make the slice or video end on the last (or first) frame? In that case the screen doesn’t go immediately to black…which would be, in some cases, more usefull i think.
1] True, when triggering short slices of video, there’s a big chance black frames pop up. This is especially the case when playing ‘live’. Because people are less accurate compared to computers
2+3] I think that would be a great option to add!
I think when only the ‘note-on’ function is added, the ‘problem’ of black frames would still occur, but a little less often. But If you also could adjust the speed of the fade-out time of the last frame, the ‘problem’ is solved. In my case it would be best if the last frame could stay visible forever if the fade-out knob is turned fully open. And then i think if the fade-out knob is turned to zero it should have a fade-out time of zero seconds, which then probably results again in black frames again. However, then it’s up to the user to choose a value somewhere in between zero and infinite fade-out time for the last frame.
That function would mimic the ‘ableton simpler’ a bit more.
You might even consider a sort of ‘ADSR’ way of triggering the video. With also a attack time that is adjustable. But i don’t know how much effort that would be to implementate.
Would be awesome if you could come up with some sort of function in the next release!
Yes! For instance, you can now also unlink a track’s volume to the video opacity. We added this feature after the beta you received, so I recommend downloading the latest version from our website.
