Ableton Live/controller mapping related q's

Hi! I’ve downloaded TouchDesigner FTE and it’s great, I haven’t been this happy about a piece of software for a long time. Anyway… I’ve got a few beginner problems with it that I can’t figure out on my own.

  1. How to audio sync it with Ableton Live in Windows 7? The article on wiki is written for XP and I can’t select an audio output as a default recording input in 7, though I can use the ‘what-u-hear’ input, but the sound quality is just horrible…

  2. How to MIDI sync it with Ableton Live? I’m using MIDI Yoke inputs/outputs, MIDI In CHOP displays signal from Live, but I can’t move any further from there… How to map it to anything? (this is basically the same problem I’ve got in step 3)

  3. How can I map faders/knobs/etc. on my MIDI controller to parameters in TD? MIDI In Map works, I can see changes I do on my controller in it, but I quite don’t get how to map it to anything…

  4. TD doesn’t work with Live’s timing/transport controls. I’ve opened the Beat dialog, selected Listen/Tap… Nothing.

Thanks for your time and help in advance… I’m pretty sure this isn’t the last time I’m asking about something here.

Read through this article about using the MIDI Mapper dialog: http://www.derivative.ca/wiki/index.php?title=MIDI_Device_Mapper_Dialog

Once you have the MIDI data coming in from Ableton, you can start connecting it to things, see below…

First start by learning how to export CHOP channels, which this article goes over.
http://www.derivative.ca/wiki/index.php?title=CHOP_Export

This will show you how to connect the MIDI channels you have coming into TouchDesigner directly to parameters. The way to map these MIDI channels control panels like faders/knobs/etc depends on the control panels you use. If you use TUIK control panels found in the Palette (look up TUIK and/or Palette in the wiki) you can usually directly connect CHOP channels to an ‘override’ input on the TUIK panel, making sure that the range of your input is within the correct bounds. If you are using custom build control panels, there are many ways to connect your MIDI CHOP channels, but the CHOP exporting technique mentioned above will likely be used to some effect.

If you have confirmed that timing messages are coming into TouchDesigner from Ableton, then you just need to select the MIDI Clock button in the Beat dialog playback will start/stop when Ableton does. (this assumes you are using the ‘official’ build 3715, not an experimental build)