Squarp as Clip Launcher in Live

Pyramid
1

So I’ve been bashing my head in trying to use squarp as a clip launcher in Live
I’ve scoured the entire youtube and forum looking for an answer.
Today I did get a random result in which a clip showed a cc attached to it while I was messing with the Squarp Pyramid’s midi out settings.
Any tips are appreciated, and of course I’m using it over usb
might try over a midi interface

The reason I’m going for this approach is so I can do more live shows without setting up
like a open mic scenario (someone on reddit was very discouraging about this)

2

Do you want to launch specific clips or have it work like a control surface like an APC 40 (such as, 2 rows of 8 clips can be triggered fron Pyramid Pads and then you can scroll down so the pads trigger 8 different clips)?

Itd make more sense to me to send note data to trigger samples and cc data to modulate devices, which would make your sets more portable to alternative rigs (like, with synths instead of computer)

1 Like
3

This is exactly what I would like,
I haven’t been able to get the clips to react like to the pyramid like a launch pad similar to the novation
I saw someone doing this during their set (legowelt)

4

If i understand what youre asking, i think you need to write some python code. Are you familiar with Python?

At least thats the way that Id approach it since we need to change the relationship between the Pyramid incoming MIDI data and how Ableton sees & processes this info.

Or you can just hard code a MIDI Note to a specidic clip. Much easier. Depends in what you want to achieve, i guess

1 Like
5

if you want the clip to launch by just pressing a pad on the pyramid?

before I give a couple of ideas…
id say the best approach is just to buy a launchpad mini … unless you actually plan to do some kind of sequencing of this launching - as the following will never be as good/integrated as using a launchpad etc.

the other alternative solution is to not use Ableton clips, but to rather sequence things from Pyramid instead.

anyway ,these are ideas I would try if I was getting more experimental with Ableton integration.

there are a few approaches
a) using live mode,
assign a midi note for each clip in live
trig from live using the ‘keyboard’ , each octave is a view on 8 clips

honestly, not that useful as you don’t have any feedback of whats going on.
you can only use 8 of the pads, since the smart pads are basically ‘duplicating’
its not quantised (but Ableton can take care of that)

b) using track mutes
assign a midi note for each clip in live
create a pyramid track for each clip, which one note

the trick here is matching length of note to live clip (so clip is not continually retriggered) , or perhaps using gate mode on Ableton clips and overlapping notes?

c) using pyramid sequencer
assign a midi note for each clip in live.
create a pyramid track for each clip, each track has a note. set track mode to trig
create a sequence (one to launch track)
run sequencer in perform mode

so, now pressing a pad in sequence mode, will trig tracks, and so launch Ableton clips

the main limit is the 32 sequences of the pyramid
however, you can use this more like scenes in Ableton, i.e. combinations of clips

theres a lot of subtle improvements you can do above.

  • put the clips of one Ableton track into patterns on the same pyramid track.
  • use mute states on tracks when playing the sequence, to bring in/out clips that are launched.
  • use pyramid tracks to launch scenes in Ableton
  • use different sequencer modes e.g. switch in an out of play mode, to automate at times during performance.
  • theres some fun to be had with pyramid with launching sequences.

this would be my preferred method I think, as its quite open to playing with, and id have thought suited a live setup quite well…

there are a couple of things you might have to be careful of

  • synchronisation between pyramid and live, and also what quantizing/launch options you are using on both.
  • as there is no feedback from Ableton to Pyramid, it’d be easy to get ‘lost’ and out of step… launchpads/push use bidirectional comms to deal with this

I guess you are already trying one of the above, so it be interesting to know which , and what specific problem you’re having?!

tech note:
you will need to , in live midi preferences

  • switch on ‘remote’ for the pyramid usb connection.
  • setup Ableton as either clock master or slave to pyramid
    (unless you turn off all clip launch quantisation on live, or pyramid )
2 Likes
6

Oh I see, so if I take a clip I can assign a note to it without any midi keyboard and then if I were to use the midi keyboard it would respond to that note.

I wonder if I can use the drumrack and route a note to each clip
Idk
I have been using the pyramid to sequence vst to record into my hardware mixer, so that easy peezy
I appreciate the input and I’m going to try some of this out.
I guess I could try python in the future?

7

I just drag my clips to the drumrack and have pyramid trigger them. If you want to launch them manually from pyramid you could fill a drum rack with clips and then trigger them in pyramid’s live mode. It can get a little messy but it works.

2 Likes
8

Call me provincial, but it seems you are trying to use a katana to do the job of a butter knife. The suggestion of a launch pad, is a solid one, or maybe a QuNeo, if you want to put a lot more power at your fingertips.

Generally speaking, Ableton does not like to be clocked or sequenced externally. It doesn’t really like midi clock, it wants an audio-rate clock, that is derived from the resident CPU.

If you really want to get clever, try digging into ClyphX, and use the QuNeo or Launchpad to trigger ClyphX clips. Depending on how you have the Pyramid set, you could even launch ClyphX clips to play whole blocks of commands into the Pyramid from Ableton, taking advantage of its superior midi timing and stability as well as its real time mangling capabilities.

Food for thought.

1 Like
9

I know the pyramid is overkill
But it’s better than buying another piece of gear haha
But I will look into a launch pad, they’re cheap, and it would be less of a worry out there in the wilds. Im also looking into some of this quneo :slight_smile:

10

As for the pyramid being clocked I’ve had no problems so far
I’m able to do just about anything I did without it hooked to Ableton

11

When you get your head around what the QuNeo can actually do, it’ll blow your mind. If you want to use it without a DAW, you’ll need to get a KMI Midi Expander, but trust me, it’s worth every penny. Consider this: every pad on the Quneo is pressure sensitive, and the drum pads, can throw four midi notes, each with velocity and aftertouch (pressure), or as drum pads, they can each function like the X/Y pad, throwing two CC’s from X and Y values, plus pressure, and every velocity, pressure and X/Y value are all completely assignable to whatever you want. They don’t just have to be Velocity and Aftertouch messages. And if you want to, you can assign each pad to a different midi channel as well. The Quneo is seriously an adult tool.

Not only that, but it’s beer resistant, too. I’ve personally tested and confirmed this and embarrassing number of times. The only tough part, really is remembering to screenshot or write down/print out a sheet with the assignments you’ve made until you have them memorized. When you use it as a standalone tool, you’ll want to turn your midi echo on, and your outs to “out and thru” on the pyramid so that it will send multi-channel info, but once you do that, you can set the pyramid to multitrack and really unlock a ton of possibilities.

It can be as much or more than you want to keep track of, if you decide to take things in that direction. Personally, I’ve yet to take it all the way there, but as I type this, I’m inspired to do so. So… thanks for asking questions. It gets other folks thinking.

2 Likes
12

This has also probably sorted by the OP… but I’m new to the forum and trying to be helpful to those coming after me…

I would also suggest purchasing a launchpad as it’s pretty fool proof to do exactly what you want with one… however I would suggest to anyone wanting to do this that wants to stay somewhat within a budget just look around for a OG launchpad… they work as clip launchers without the support software… Pretty multicolored lights aren’t absolutely necessary for clip launching…

13

I kicked around both of these ideas and honestly I just sorta rearranged my work flow a bit and did some more muscle memory, I don’t mind keybinding because at the end it’s all about the music. I have fun still. I appreciate everyone’s input, still enjoying the fuck oit of my squarp. Such a beast sequencer

1 Like