Final Note on Mapping

Okay, and just as a final note on mapping, I want to show you one of the things that I've set up that facilitates interaction between myself, the controller, and what's shown on screen.

Purpose of Mapping

The primary purpose of most of this mapping and assignment is to enable me to interact with these devices without having to spend a lot of time looking at the screen and working out what's going on.

Setting Up Delay Times

Importance of Screen Interaction

One thing that I do need to look at the screen for is when I'm setting up the delay times for things. The delay time changes depending on the tempos. If I want to synchronize particular delay times with the current tempo and time signature, then I need to:

• Listen (which means I have to actually be playing the delay while I'm doing it, introducing potential errors)
• Visually confirm the specific delay time for that track before applying it

Adjusting Delay Parameters

To manage this, I have two knobs on the device that control parameters from within my delay track.

• The delay track on screen is my second return track.
• The max for live device called "delay time calculator" is used, followed by a delay unit (in this case, the ping pong delay).

Knob Assignments:

• Knob 1: Controls feedback (within the useful range of 53 to 92%)
• Knob 2: Controls the delay time itself

Automatic View Adjustment

Now, if I switch to another track and want to adjust the delay time:

• As soon as I turn the delay time knob, it automatically jumps to the clip view of the delay track.

The way I've done that is by assigning the same MIDI controller to both the delay time knob and the view of that particular delay time device.

Quick Synchronization

This allows me to see:

• What delay time I'm at in the delay unit.
• The values for various synchronized delays.

For instance, if I wanted a quarter note or a dotted or a quarter triplet note delay time, I can see immediately that it would be:

• 315 milliseconds

Since I can see the milliseconds I've applied, I can easily set it to 315 milliseconds. Then, when I apply that delay, it will synchronize correctly.

Conclusion

This is another way you can use MIDI mappings to not only control things but also to bring up the correct information on screen. This approach helps you make the right decisions when preempting a specific transition or performing a particular technique.