Clipper User Manual R1-1
Contents
1. Due to the way Octaves are implemented on the Ztar in order to enter a MIDI Note 0 for any channel you must set Note 24 as the lowest available note then transpose the ZONE down by two octaves or 24 half steps to offset the entire keymap to start at MIDI Note 0 While ordinarily 127 decimal is the highest allowable note in MIDI because of the aforementioned reason the top note on String 5 becomes 144 and the Zone offset of 24 adjusts the top note back to a correct value of 120 3 Create two Zones that use this special Keymap These will be used to send the control commands for each key as it corresponds to a clip in the Ableton session Zone2 Low Boundary String1 Fret1 High Boundary String5 Fret24 Set this Zone to MIDI Channel 15 Zone3 Low Boundary String6 Fret1 High Boundary String6 Fret24 Set this Zone to MIDI Channel 16 If you are not using Ableton or simply want to play guitar on the Clipper but have the LEDs light the keys as you play Set the Fingerboard to use three Zones 1 Zone 1 uses a keymap with an assigned Guitar or other selected tuning of your choice and directed to MIDI Channel 1 or any channel other than 15 or 16 This will map the notes that you hear 2 Set two other Zones to use the special Lighting keymap that assigns a unique note message to each key LED using channels 15 and 16 This map assigns Notes 1 120 for channel 15 and Notes 1 24 fo2. Gate Full intensity when active Momentary operation You must hold down the button to play the clip This is handled by Note On on button press and Note Off issued button release Normal keyboard mode Toggle Full intensity when active Press once for the clip to play and repeat press again for it to stop Ignore Note Off Successive Note On s toggle the function Repeat mouse down note on repeatedly plays the clip retriggering at the time interval of the clip s launch quantization when released the clip plays out like Trigger mode Button Flashing Ableton buttons flash when they are Armed that is the clip is ready to Play or Record but is waiting for the actual Start time to come around before firing The start time is usually the downbeat but other Launch Quantizations are available Recording Mode When recording to a Clip color is Red We aim to represent the status of the little Clip arrow at the left of the Scene row which is sometimes solid and sometimes blinking The fingerboard Clip button becomes Red and is steady state or flashing depending on the Recording status 1 Recording may be started by pressing a Record button in which case the recording starts immediately and the arrow glows solid Red 2 Recording may be Armed with a 2 bar count in where the LED flashes and when the recording actually begins the LED glows solid Red Playback Mode The fingerboard Clip button is steady state or flashing depend
3. them This will become apparent if you stop seeing visual feedback on the fingerboard LEDs Double check your Merge settings if you lose communication from Live to your Clipper More Index Bugs Clip Array Clip Lighting and Visual Feedback Color Zone Sysex Message format Moving the RedBox MIDI Note Lighting functions MIDI Continuous Control Lighting functions Note Offs Scene Launch Keys Tuning Maps 21 13 11 16 14 14
4. a MIDI guitar controller with a keyboard like fingerboard having a touch sensitive key for each note position The keys can easily be mapped to control a Live Session or instance of Ableton Live running in a host PC or Mac With some modifications the Ztar can be made to reflect the status of the session s display screen as well The Ztar or any MIDI controller directs Ableton Live by sending MIDI commands which are interpreted and re mapped by Live to perform various internal functions of the software These MDI commands are standard and need no special coding from the device side other than a simple user setup to make the specific assignments When there are a lot of controls to be mapped it is more convenient to create a profile or Control Surface script using Python that is loaded into the program when the device is plugged in Also when it becomes necessary for the remote device to show the Host s programs status host to device output software must be created also using Python scripts which are loaded into the same master profile for that device An Ableton Live Session displays on the computer screen an array of colored boxes that form the Clip Grid and change dynamically as the music performance proceeds In order to have a remote control surface display this same dynamic status information from the current Session in the host computer Ableton communicates the various color changes to the remote peripheral control surface
5. either the Mac or Windows OS that offers 60 color choices These 60 values are mapped into our available 7 bit color value and selected from an embedded table in the Clippper When the Live session starts the Ableton color map is sent to the Clipper as the colors are used Other color maps may be loaded into the Clipper as well and several alternative maps are included Ableton Live carries internal variables that store all of its dynamic status including current color status for each on screen clip location among other things That information is available using calls to the Python based LiveAPI Using this information we are able to extract the dynamic clip color status and output to the Clipper via MIDI data to update its LED array Setting the Color Number The Color number is used by the ZtarOS and the Clipper software to assign a given color to a zone of keys when playing the Clipper as a musical instrument other than the Ableton session usage Simply set the CZone Local and change the color number to view the colors in your selected color map e The Color number adjustment in this menu is always visible but you cannot adjust it when in the Redbox mode You need to have Czone Local or Czone Off in order to adjust the color value Color Zone Sysex Message format When the Zone boundaries are changed for the RedBox Zone the ZtarOS will send a Sysex to Ableton Live to reset the size of the RedBox to match The following information is sent
6. to 0 127 VU String 6 29 Fires all of the LEDs on String 6 in sequence value length lights sequential number of frets according to 0 127 VU All Strings 30 Fires all of the LEDs on all Strings in sequence value length lights sequential number of frets according to 0 127 VU Fret 1 VU Fret 2 VU Fret 3 VU Fret 4 VU Fret 5 VU Fret 6 31 32 33 34 35 36 Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 1 like a VU meter CC data values of 0 127 scale from no lights to all 6 rows lit in 12 increments From bottom to top Rows 1 4 green Row5 yellow Row6 Red Each key lights at half brightness for the lower half of its own range Any given data value will light all keys from the bottom to the scaled level Each lighting increment corresponds to a data increment of about 10 and a half For example a datum110 decimal lights Row6 Red at half brightness Row5 Yellow full brightness and Rows4 1 Green full brightness Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 2 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 3 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 4 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 5 like a VU meter Value of 0 12
7. via a USB MIDI connection As the activity of the Live session changes with different audio and MIDI clips turning on and off playing recording and cueing for the next operation the computer display is continually changing to reflect the current status and the remote surface will update to correspond with the computer screen including color matching the status LEDs for the Live clip performance matrix or Clip Grid Ableton Live provides an API for creating modifications to the operation of Live When a new hardware Control Surface is defined for Live a set of assignments maps the MIDI messages from the Control Surface to the internal functions of the Live software This mapping is created by use of a Python script that loads manually or when Live recognizes the connected enumerated USB MIDI device MIDI Notes and MIDI CC messages are commonly used to control the Live software In addition to mapping the MIDI notes input to control Live the Python script can extract the dynamic status of the individual virtual buttons and pot encoders on the Live GUI including color information for the buttons When the current color state of a button is determined the corresponding location on the remote Control Surface can be made to light up to match the appearance of the software That said we can most easily define the necessary control stream to the LEDs in the StarrLabs peripherals by using standard MIDI messages from the host comput
8. 7 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 6 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and VU Fret 7 VU Fret 8 VU Fret 9 VU Fret 10 VU Fret 11 VU Fret 12 VU Fret 13 VU Fret 14 VU Fret 15 VU Fret 16 VU Fret 17 VU Fret 18 VU Fret 19 VU Fret 20 37 38 39 40 4 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 7 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 8 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 9 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 10 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 11 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 12 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 13 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentia
9. IDI commands select the desired Tuning Map and then use the SetToBackground command NOTE OFFS The Clipper deals with note off messages according to the mode of operation In normal run mode depending on assertion of the Enable Background command a Note off corresponds to either the selection of Color 0 or the pixel value of a previously set background Color 0 is normally Black OFF however any other color may be set into the Color 0 location of the Clipper by loading a new color map Fade time when the Fade time value is set to gt 0 the MIDI Note Off triggers a Fade timer for each pixel location When the Fade timer expires the lit LED will extinguish Latch Mode When Latch Mode is set the Note Offs are ignored LED Fingerboard Command Specification Special MIDI Note Functions on Channel 16 Notice that the minimum velocity value available for your use is the number 1 Velocity 0 is reserved for the Note Off function Command Comments CLEAR FRAME 127 Ignore velocity clears to 0 unless clear to background mode set INIT ZONES 126 ignore velocity REFRESH 125 ignore velocity ENABLE ZONE 124 velocity ZONE 1 31 bit6 1 enable 1 disable Displays Zone lighting Bring to foreground LEFTRIGHT 123 velocity 2 LEFT 1 RIGHT mirror about the Y axis SHIFT RIGHT 122 velocity offset O no effect gt 1 Shift Right one position Bit6 0 Rotate
10. Starr Labs Clipper Clip Based Live Interactive Performance controller USER Manual R1 1 12 27 12 User Manual RO 2 Beta release 12 7 2012 Firmware Revision 3 0 12 1 2012 Copyright 2012 Starr Labs The Clipper fingerboard is a programmable music control surface with multicolor LED visual feedback in each key The key action is a standard Ztar fully polyphonic touch sensitive fingerboard The Clipper s embedded software is designed to act as a remote Ableton Live clip control matrix as well as offering a variety of dynamic lighting effects In addition the Clipper integrates the standard Starr Labs MIDI guitar functionality with many MIDI control setup options Using our standardized LED controller MIDI command set you can create many types of interactive applications such as games and teaching software This document primarily describes the detailed User setups to the Clipper for use with Ableton Live These setups are pre loaded in your instrument and this is your reference to the menu screens pertinent to the interactive lighting features e Ableton Live property of Ableton Inc Contents Overview Ableton Live to Clipper Detailed Interface Specification MIDI message Format Setting up Ableton Live to work with the Clipper Setting up the Clipper to work with Ableton Live Zone Setup Keymap setup MIDI Merge settings Color settings Images Tuning Maps LED Controller Command Specification Appendices and Chart
11. TAR 104 Mirror about X axis Velocity 7F Tabletop body is low LED number Velocity 00 Guitar head is low LED number Set Char lower 128 103 velocity text character in lower 128 of ASCII table Set Char upper 128 102 velocity 128 text character in upper 128 of ASCII SET CHAR DIRECTION 101 velocity sets the direction Chars scroll from 0 from head gt 0 from body SELECT SCRIPT 100 Velocity selects a Script 0 aborts Available scripts are listed in a table below A Script is an embedded macro that can display images text and or lighting effects The opening splash screen is a Script This or any script is aborted by asserting Select Script with a value 0 ENABLE BACKGROUND 99 Enable Background velocity 1 clear to black velocity 2 Enable background When an LED is turned on then turned off according to some dynamic function the off state may be either an image saved to the background or simply black SET COLOR MAP 98 velocity is color map number SELECT IMAGE 97 velocity is the number of the image to display Image 0 31 are RAM images 32 128 are ROM based images SET STRING 6 96 velocity color index SET STRING 5 95 velocity color index SET STRING 4 94 velocity color index SET STRING 3 93 velocity color index SET STRING 2 92 velocity color index SET STRING 1 91 velocity color index Display Tuning Map 90 veloc
12. Wrap image Bit6 1 Do not wrap image Rotate Right vel gt 1 Shift Right vel gt 64D SHIFT LEFT 121 velocity offset O no effect gt 1 Shift Left one position Bit6 0 Rotate Wrap image Bit6 1 Do not wrap image Rotate Left vel gt 1 ShiftLeft vel gt 64D SCROLL UP 120 velocity offset O no effect gt 1 Shift Up one position Bit6 0 Rotate Wrap image Bit6 1 Do not wrap image Rotate Up vel gt 1 Shift Up vel gt 64D SCROLL DN 119 velocity offset O no effect gt 1 Shift Down one position Bit6 0 Rotate Wrap image Bit6 1 Do not wrap image Rotate Down vel gt 1 Shift Down vel gt 64D BLINK ON upper 16 118 velocity 128 led BLINK ON ower 128 117 velocity led BLINK OFF upper 16 116 velocity 128 led BLINK OFF lower 128 115 velocity led BRIGHT upper 16 114 velocity 128 led BRIGHT lower 128 113 velocity led DIM upper 16 112 velocity 128 led DIM ower 128 111 velocity led RedBox Scroll Up 110 Velocity Ignore not used by ledfb firmware talks to Ableton RedBox Scroll Down 109 Velocity Ignore not used by ledfb firmware talks to Ableton RedBox Scroll Right 108 Velocity Ignore not used by ledfb firmware talks to Ableton RedBox Scroll Left 107 Velocity Ignore not used by ledfb firmware talks to Ableton Unused 106 nused REVERSE LEDS 105 Velocity Ignore Toggles the LED states TABLE TOP GUI
13. alue of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 24 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color MIDI Sustain When Latch Mode is On incoming Note Off messages will be ignored rather than turning off their intended LEDs Velocity lt 65 Off velocity gt 64 On Sets the coarse timing delay for clocked script looping functions like the Swirl effect in 10 millisecond increments Delay velocity x 01 seconds Sets the fine timing for clocked script looping functions like the Swirl effect in 0 1 millisecond increments Delay velocity x 0001 seconds The coarse and fine values are additive The dynamic LED data frame buffer is copied to a RAM image location Velocity Image number v 0 9 APPENDICES AND CHARTS Operation Notes and Bugs The Ableton Live color map from your computer is not a contiguous spectral array of colors but is pretty random in its color assignments When these colors are selected by sending ordinary MIDI note messages the colors may appear random A linear spectral map is included in the Clipper Sometimes when switching between songs with different RedBox dimensions some of the LEDs won t refresh Usually pressing the song selection button a couple extra times will remedy this Sometimes your MIDI Merge setting will get messed up even though you don t remember changing
14. ber BothX Merge both Notes and Sysex data to the opposite output Note If any zone is enabled as a Redbox zone the MIDI Merge assignments will be set so that both MIDI In and USB In will communicate with the LEDs That automatic Merge setup is as follows MIDI Left Input crossed MIDI Right Input normal If all zones are either Off or Local Merge is disabled The automatic setting is only applied when you change the CZone type in the Fretboard gt Tune Trans menu so once you have set up your zones you can then go to the MIDI RX menu and change the merge options manually and independently to the two ports if you wish But the next time you change a CZone setting it will reset the merge options Color Settings Terminology Color Map A defined palette of colors Indexed Color An arbitrary palette of colors whose various colors may be selected by an index number Color Map Index A number that selects a given color in a color map In the case of the Clipper the indexed color map consists of 127 colors and the MIDI velocity is the color index The Ableton Live color map is an indexed color map of just 60 colors Direct Color The color hue is directly defined by its component Red Green and Blue intensity values The Clipper uses 15 bit color resolution which may define 32 000 different colors An arbitrary selection of these colors may be loaded into an indexed color map Ableton Live currently uses a color picker from
15. er The format is simple and it carries enough data payload in a simple message to light any arbitrary LED Also it affords some unique opportunities for direct musical control of the LEDs aside from their use in the Ableton Live context The Clipper fingerboard is a guitar format keyboard with 6 Strings columns x 24 frets rows of touch sensitive keys for a total of 144 keys We may add more Strings to cover expanded arrays Each of the 144 keys is fitted with a 3 color LED for a total of 432 LEDs This array of LEDs may be controlled in full color by sending an encoded color value to each pixel or triad located under each key The colors themselves are encoded in 15 bits allowing a total of over 32000 colors These color values are arbitrary and when we re connected to Live we use Live s color table so that you can match the LEDs to the clip colors in your session The colors are then re mapped inside the Clipper so they can be selected by a 7 bit MIDI note velocity value From the point of view of the host computer the array of LEDs is a list containing a 7 bit color value for each of 144 locations Ableton Live Clip array This is a Ztar zone of arbitrary size that reflects the RedBox within the Clip grid on the Ableton Live screen In performance mode clips are loaded recorded or launched When we set up the Ableton Live Zone on the controller we will define X Y boundaries on the fingerboard That becomes a static bo
16. ing on the Playback status The Ableton Record Playback Arrow shows the status 1 Playback may be started by pressing the play button in which case the playback starts immediately and the button glows at full intensity with the assigned color 2 Playback may be Armed with a 2 bar count in where the LED flashes and when the recording actually begins the LED glows its solid color MIDI message format Each MIDI channel can address 128 note numbers A full MIDI Note On message is composed of 3 7 bit bytes A full frame of color data assigns a 7 bit value to each fingerboard location 144 7 bit bytes Byte 1 Status byte in binary 0101nnnn where 09h MIDI Note On and nnnn is a 4 bit channel number Byte 2 MIDI Note number Onnnnnnn where nnnnnnn is a 7 bit note number This is used to address each LED location Each key on the fingerboard has a unique channel note address Send MIDI Note Off to turn off an individual LED Both a literal Note Off and a Note On velocity 0 Byte 3 Velocity value Onnnnnnn where nnnnnnn is a 7 bit value This normally encodes the force of a key strike In our case this is used to encode the color value for each LED pixel These color values are index numbers into an array on the device that holds a list of values to create 128 unique colors including OFF 0 no light Note there are two ways to turn OFF an LED Additionally once a MIDI status byte has been issued from a MIDI controlle
17. ity zone number Send To Background 89 send the foreground to the background Set Tuning 88 Pre defined Tuning Maps are stored in ROM The full list is provided below Velocity Tuning map number Guitar Piano etc 1 ClearTuning which clears the background The full list is described on Page 12 SCROLL IMAGE SET FOREGROUND COLOR SET BACKGROUND COLOR Rotate RedBox 90 SYNC 87 86 85 84 83 A selected image is scrolled over the short dimension of the fingerboard Velocity step timing for the Scroll delay 0 Velocity color map index of the foreground color Velocity color map index of the background color a a Velocity Ignore not used by ledfb firmware talks to Ableton Rotates the Ableton RedBox Reset the Blink timer and other internal step timers MIDI Note Messages on Channel 16 continued OFFSET FOREGOUND COLOR INDEX SET FRETMARKS OVERLAY COLOR ENABLE FRETMARKS OVERLAY Velocity is added to all color selections for indexed color pixels i e foreground colors If the resulting color index exceeds the length of the color map the value wraps around to the beginning of the table Velocity color for the Fretmarks Velocity 1 disables the Fretmarks Velocity 2 enables the Fretmarks MIDI CC Messages on Channel 16 Channel 15 Unused Latch LEDs 64 Off lt 65 On gt 64 Once set all LEDs will re
18. lly up fret 14 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 15 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 16 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 17 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 18 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 19 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 20 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and VU Fret 21 VU Fret 22 VU Fret 23 VU Fret 24 LATCH MODE SET SCRIPT CLOCK COARSE SET SCRIPT CLOCK FINE STORE RAM IMAGE 51 52 53 54 64 75 76 77 color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 21 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 22 like a VU meter Value of 0 127 scales from no lights to all lit fading in brightness and color Lights LEDs sequentially up fret 23 like a VU meter V
19. main lit until the command is reset MIDI CC Messages used by the LED fingerboard Only on channel 16 BRIGHTNESS 7 Scale global brightness from Master Volume Channel 16 SCALE RED 20 Adjust the brightness for all Red LEDs on the SCALE GREEN 21 Adjust the brightness for all Green LEDs on the SCALE BLUE 22 Adjust the brightness for all Blue LEDs on the SCALE SATURATION 23 0 127 Scales the intensity of all colors Applies to images tuning maps and foreground colors VU String 24 Fires all of the LEDs on String 1 in sequence Data value length of the lit string All LEDs are lit from Fret1 to the scaled data level CC data values of 0 127 scale from no lights to all 24 columns lit All LEDs will light from Fret1 up to the scaled data value Each Fret column corresponds to a data increment of a little more than 5 VU String 2 25 Fires all of the LEDs on String 2 in sequence value length lights sequential number of frets according to MIDI data 0 127 VU String 3 26 Fires all of the LEDs on String 3 in sequence value length lights sequential number of frets according to 0 127 VU String 4 27 Fires all of the LEDs on String 4 in sequence value length lights sequential number of frets according to 0 127 VU String 5 28 Fires all of the LEDs on String 5 in sequence value length lights sequential number of frets according
20. o be clear the horizontal row is a Scene and the Column is a Track The analogy for the column is a Bass track or Piano track for example The Scene is then the whole Band or Composition comprised of all Tracks Only one clip can play per track or column at a given time Setup the Red Box The Ableton Red Box is a scrollable window on the Live screen that highlights the block of currently active clips in the much larger Clip Grid array The Red Box is scrollable in both X and Y directions Some terminology regarding Zone Boundaries The Clipper is modeled after a guitar fingerboard which is described in terms of strings and Frets A String is comprised of the 24 consecutive keys in each of the 6 rows running the full length of the fingerboard A Fret is comprised of the 6 consecutive keys in each of the 24 columns running across the width of the fingerboard The interactive Live setup is composed of three Zones on the fingerboard 1 2 3 A zone to receive the lighting information from Ableton Two zones to send Clip control commands to Ableton In the case of a 12 string fingerboard four zones are needed for independent access to each key as we put both Channels 13 and 14 into use here Open the Ztar Zone menu The Tuning Transposition sub menu has a Color Zone field that may be set to RedBox or Local or Off Setting the soft switch CZone to something other than Off simply mean
21. one setup in the controller Ableton only controls what s in the Live Zone The colors of the various Clips will scroll through the LiveZone as the RedBox scrolls on the Ableton screen Likewise visual feedback from scrolling the RedBox from the controller is shown on the computer screen Other Zones on the fingerboard that are not controlled by Ableton can have their color data controlled separately either from the Ztar or an external computer To be clear where the boundaries of the RedBox on the fingerboard are fixed but the LiveZone is scrolled the lighting values of the clips outside of the Live Zone do not show on the fingerboard The Non LiveZone areas are for other performance purposes to be colored separately The Ztar OS has utilities for creating zones with a base color 1 When a Clip location is empty the color is a low intensity White to highlight the LiveZone 2 When a Clip is loaded in Ableton the fingerboard key color assumes the clip s color 3 When the Clip is idle the color is half intensity 4 When the Clip is playing the color is full intensity Clip Launch modes These are ordinarily set in the Ableton Clip Launch Mode setup dialog Trigger once the button is pressed it latches and plays the clip until it reaches it s end or a Stop button is pressed This will usually be the stop clip button at the bottom of the track but can be any blank clip with an active stop button in that track Note offs are ignored
22. ources MIDI Remote Scripts Mac OSX Applications Live 8 x x Live app Contents App Resources MIDI Remote Scripts The name of this folder will be the name of the control surface in Ableton Live Currently the standard name is Ztar but feel free to rename it something you like and will remember for the next step Once this folder has been copied re start Ableton Live open up the Preferences menu and navigate to the MIDI tab There you will be presented with a grid of dropdown menus In the control column open one of the dropdown menus and scroll down to Ztar or whatever you renamed it Then in the next two columns to the right select your input and ouput ports for the instrument In the lower half of the MIDI preferences window you will see a grid with options for all of the active MIDI ports Make sure that both Track and Remote are set to On for your previously assigned input and output ports The Sync option is for sending receiving MIDI clock messages and can be left off for most use cases We recommend leaving it off to reduce the amount of messages the Ztar has to handle Now Ableton is ready to interact with your Clipper enabled Ztar but is your Ztar ready We have Ableton ready setups available on our website which can be programmed into your Ztar via System Exclusive MIDI messages SysEx You can also set up the necessary fingerboard zones with using the following instructions Setting up the Ztar Clipper
23. r the channel number is then established and most controllers will enter what is called Running Status which dispenses with the status byte and sends only 2 byte messages containing just the note number and velocity information When the channel number must be changed or a different type of message must be sent then the controller drops out of Running Status sends a new Status byte as necessary and re enters Running Status In the case where there are more than 127 LEDs in the array a channel switch will be necessary to address the full array We can use arbitrarily MIDI channels 15 and 16 which are rarely used in most MIDI setups Two channels yield 256 programmable locations which will easily cover our requirements The array is ordered starting with String 1 Fret 1 which is the lowest fretted note on a guitar for a right handed player The highest note location on String 1 is LED location 24 Setting up Ableton Live to work with the Clipper The Clipper communicates with Ableton s Live API using MIDI Remote Scripts These Python scripts are available on our website and interpret incoming standard MIDI messages and translate them to API calls within Live You can edit these if you want but if you just want to get things going right at the start we recommend that you simply copy the folder containing the remote scripts into the following operating system specific locations Windows Program Files Ableton Live 8 x x Res
24. r channel 16 Moving the RedBox Up wee Note 110 Channel 16 Down Note 109 Channel 16 Right 9 Note 108 Channel 16 Left Note 107 Channel 16 Rotate 90 Note 84 Channel 16 Note the RedBox boundaries may also be changed within the Clipper s onboard user interface by changing the Zone boundaries for the RedBox zone MIDI Merge settings You can assign any of the following Merge settings to each of the MIDI ports independently e The Ztar has 2 full MIDI Ports Left and Right You can think of them as 1 and 2 The Left MIDI port Input is our standard MIDI In connector on the Ztar The Left MIDI port output drives our normal MIDI Out connector and the USB Output The Right MIDI port input is attached to the USB input The Right MIDI port output drives the input to the LED controller board Go the UTILITIES More gt MIDI IN menu and set the Merge settings The RedBox Zone setting should make these settings for you automatically Merge Off Notes Sysex Both NotesX SysexX Bothx Notes Only merge incoming notes from the selected input port to the same corresponding output port In 1 Out 1 or In 2 Out 2 Sysex Only merge incoming Sysex data to the selected output Both Merge both Notes and Sysex data to the selected output NotesX Merge only incoming Notes to the opposite MIDI Port number In 1 Out 2 or In 2 Out 1 SysexX Merge only incoming Sysex data to the opposite MIDI Port num
25. row at the bottom and Scene Launch buttons at the right most column So if you want to use the entire 24 fret x 6 string fingerboard you will have a Clip Grid of 23 frets x 5 strings The 24 fret will be Scene Launch buttons for the 5 scenes If you are using the full fingerboard for Ableton set Low Boundary String1 Fret1 High Boundary String6 Fret24 Set the Zone function to Keys Off so that it does not send any MIDI note messages Set Color Zone RedBox The Color number does not matter 2 Create a Keymap a Keymap is a map showing the note assignment to every key on the Ztar fingerboard When you re tune a Zone you are creating a new Keymap The Map for each Zone is shown in the Zone gt Key Trans gt Tunings menu Hit the EDIT softkey to edit the selected map by individual keys e In our LED fingerboard instruments this has been created as a default and you should not need to create this map yourself It is also available as a Sysex file on our website String 1 Fret 1 Fret 24 String 2 Fret 1 Fret 24 String 3 Fret 1 Fret 24 String 4 Fret 1 Fret 24 String 5 Fret 1 Fret 24 String 6 Fret 1 Fret 24 LED locations 1 24 Channel 15 MIDI Notes 24 47 LED locations 25 48 Channel 15 MIDI Notes 48 71 LED locations 49 72 Channel 15 MIDI Notes 72 95 LED locations 73 96 Channel 15 MIDI Notes 96 119 LED locations 97 120 Channel 15 MIDI Notes 120 144 LED locations 121 144 Channel 16 MIDI Notes 24 47
26. s QUICK Ableton Mac PC setup Index Hardware setup e The Clipper can be connected to your computer with a MIDI cable to the Clipper s MIDI Out Port or a standard USB A B cable e At full brightness the LEDs require more power than a standard USB2 0 port can provide The Clipper must be powered by Phantom power through the MIDI cable in order to run the lighting Power is supplied to MIDI cable by our PB 1 interface adapter and the AC 9VDC wall adapter You can still connect to your computer via the USB cable which will carry only data USB power will only support the MIDI control functions of the instrument e A3 position power switch is provided USB lt OFF gt MIDI Overview of the Ableton Live interface When configured as an Ableton Live controller the Clipper functions much like other commercially available Clip grid controllers but with added functionality Other grid controllers have a limited amount of visual feedback usually representing only the state of a clip with LED blinking brightness and three colors For instance Yellow for standby blinking Yellow for cued Green for playing Red for recording However on the Clipper the color of each LED represents the color of each respective clip in Ableton s Session View GUI with brightness and blinking representing the clip states When a clip is loaded it is at half brightness When a clip is cued to play it blinks between half brightness and off When the clip launches i
27. s that the Zone will now send a MIDI sysex message that contains the Zone s boundaries and color information whenever the Boundaries or the Color are changed Also this Sysex message can be sent when the Ztar Song onboard preset is selected If RedBox is set Zone Boundary data are sent via Sysex to MIDI Out A which goes both to the MIDI Out jack and also the USB port Lighting information is returned from the Host computer on MIDI In B which is connected internally via MIDI Out B to the LED controller in the fingerboard If Local is set Zone Boundary and Color number data are sent via Sysex to MIDI Out B which is connected internally to the LED controller in the fingerboard Use the R L switch to convert the color zones or to tell Ableton whether you re playing Right handed or Left handed Find this in the FRETBOARD gt TUNE TRANS gt MORE menu The only function of this option is to adjust the R L flag that s sent out in the sysex message it has no effect on fingerboard tuning You now press the softkey to select the field and then use the up and down buttons to change from R L to L R Note that the left right swap in the TUNING menu will not affect this flag Keymap setup 1 Zone 1 is created with the boundaries you want to represent the RedBox for your Ableton session This will be used by Ableton to control the lighting on the fingerboard The RedBox will have a re sizeable ClipGrid a StopClips
28. t lights up at full brightness This allows the user to color code a Live set and not have to look at the computer screen throughout a performance Thus the Clipper liberates the computer musician from the laptop stand allowing for greatly improved virtuosity Imagine how much cooler you will be when you aren t hidden behind a computer screen twisting knobs and pushing buttons on a tabletop control surface SO COOL If you re interested to try programming the Clipper for your own lighting effects it s easy with our dedicated MIDI control command set Using standard MIDI Note and Continuous Control messages you can light the LEDs to any color program and stream text and images scroll the display blink individual LEDs and other functions Using the setups in the Ztar OS you can create Zones of color Tuning maps for different guitar tunings load and select images and create animations Now that you re excited about your new Clipper fingerboard let s get into the specifics Ableton Live to Clipper Detailed Interface Specification Ableton Live currently at Rev 8 3 is a popular music software application that allows a user to record and playback clips of music in a wide variety of ways all synced to a master beat It is also popular to use a Remote Control surface a small console with buttons and knobs and often LEDs for stratus feedback using semi proprietary command sets developed specifically for each peripheral The Ztar is
29. to Live Transmits the boundaries of zone z 1 32 in the current song as a Sysex message in the format SFO 00 01 42 pp nn nn II ll ZZ LS LF HS HF RL CC csum SF7 where pp packet type 7 bit unpacked data 40 nn nn subtype number 14 bit 00 03 II Il data length 14 bit 07 ZZ zone number LS lo string LF lo fret HS hi string HF hi fret RL R L switch O right 1 left CC color index 7 bit The Clipper currently can hold 10 full fingerboard frame images which may be uploaded using the companion LED control software for the PC Images are stored as MIDI SysEx files which may be dumped to the Clipper using any standard MIDI SysEx utility The capacity will be upgraded to 32 images and more in the future TUNING MAPS The Clipper stores 5 Tuning maps which are used to represent fixed images that may reside on the fingerboard underneath any dynamic lighting effects that may be active 1 Fret Marks shows guitar fret marks at the standard fret locations 2 Tertiary guitar 12 colors 1 per chromatic scale note name Guitar tuning 3 WhiteBlack 2 color The fingerboard is tuned to standard Guitar tuning and the keys are coded according to the Black and White leys of the piano 4 Tertiary fourths 12 color 1 per chromatic scale note name Straight Fourths tuning 5 WhiteBlack Fourths Two colors as on the Piano Straight Fourths tuning starting at a low Open E natural Using the proper M
30. to work with Ableton Live These setups have already been included in the Ztar ABL OS version The following instructions explain how the setups are created and the way the Ztar interacts with Ableton Live The Ztar and the Clipper LED Controller communicate with any external MIDI device including Ableton Live running in a host computer by means of standard MIDI note and Continuous Control messages as defined in the Clipper LED interface specification For this purpose we reserve MIDI channels 15 and 16 for our various MIDI control functions On the output side the Ztar fingerboard uses a special keymap that assigns a unique channel and note number combination to each note location on the fingerboard Keymaps are selected edited and stored in the Fretboard Tunings Menu and where a unique set of eight full maps may be saved for each Song or master preset in the Ztar On the input side the same range of messages on Channels 15 and 16 are used to address the individual LEDs Also there are a variety of embedded functions in the Clipper that may be accessed by other Note and CC messages as listed in the Clipper LED Command sheet Some terminology as regards the RedBox within Ableton Live the RedBox is the active clip zone The corresponding area of the fingerboard assigned to the RedBox is called the LiveZone The LiveZone is fixed once it s set up on the fingerboard The RedBox will scroll through it Just t
31. x for your performance and also defines the boundaries for the RedBox Thus the RedBox size is arbitrary Maximum size is 5x23 for Clips with a sixth row for StopClips and a twenty fourth column for Scene Launch Live only controls the Live Zone on the Clipper All other Zones are unaffected Automatically the Stop Clips Row is lit at the Bottom in Red and the Scene Launch Column is lit in Green Launch Scene Keys This is the column of Green lit keys placed to the right of the clip keys array for the LiveZone on the Ztar for a Zone of any size This is also called the master channel The function of each of these keys is to trigger all keys in the corresponding row in the clip key array The bottom key in the far right column is Stop All Clips Stop Keys This is a row of keys placed below the clip keys and the launch scene keys The function of each of a Stop key is to stop all clips in the corresponding column in the clip key array The rightmost key stops all clips in all columns Blinking stop clip button The stop clip buttons should blink during pre roll to indicate that a button push on that stop clip has been initiated The stop clip button should blink until the downbeat where it stops the playing clip bringing it to half brightness and returns the stop clip button to full brightness non blinking Visual Feedback The lighting for the keys enclosed by the RedBox is controlled by the Ableton script according to the LiveZ
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