Ok. It’s actually just for fun, but picture the potential. So please send me your compositions for cursor & select boxes!

There are many people out there using the Novation Nocturn (me included), since it was one of the first controllers that did a lot for little money. The tight integration between hardware and software does the trick. Having read about the Automap-feature made me really looking forward to get this device into my hands, since it’s always such a hassle to manually assign each and every control you have.

However, the Automap-feature turned out to be useless for me. It works only with AU/VST-Plugins. Not right in Ableton itself. You can control Live with it, though: Turn on a Midichannel in the Automap server software and manually map Midi-controls within Live (see Novation FAQ for this). But this technique clearly has not the same ease-of-use and awesomeness as the Automapping feature.

I want to easily control Rack-Macros on the fly. Without assigning the knobs individually! And guess what? There is a way! There is a small hidden feature inside Live called Midi Remote Scripting. I recently read about it on CDM, did a custom script for my Nocturn, and – tadaa – Automapping inside of Live. Peter shared his Config-files for both Korg’s nanoPAD and nanoKONTROL. So I will share mine for the Nocturn, so you will not have to read the whole article on how to do it yourself. Just follow the steps!

1. Turn on MIDI

Make sure, that you have your Input- and Output-Ports activated. Decide which Channel you want the Map to send on.

You should see something like this now:

2. Download the Config-File

Find it here or here.

3. Move it to the correct directory

Unzip the file and move the complete folder (including the UserConfiguration.txt) to the following directory:

Mac: [Your home folder]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/[your version]/User Remote Scripts/

Windows: [Windows boot drive]/Users/ [your Username]/AppData/Roaming/Ableton/[your version]/Preferences/User Remote Scripts/

The foldername (in our case “Nocturn“) is the name that will appear in Ableton’s list of Control Surfaces. Rename it if you like.

4. Check if MIDI-Channels match

The Config-file I gave you is set up for MIDI-Channel 1. If you also activated Ch1 one, go on.
If not, change the GlobalChannel in line 11 of  UserConfiguration.txt.
Caution: if your desired Channel is 9, type 8 (as the 16 Channels are counted from 0 to 15).

5. Activate Control Surface inside of Live

In Live’s preferences go to the MIDI-Settings.

Make your selection like in the picture above.”Nocturn” (or the name you chose for your folder) will now appear in the list of available Control surfaces. Select it along with Input and Output on “Automap MIDI”.  It’s important to choose the Nocturn as Input and Output, so the Nocturn always reflects changes you do with your mouse.

6. Enjoy!

Now, if everything went right, you can control every device, that is in focus. The blue hand in the title-bar is the indicator for which device you’re controlling. Nice!

I know, for rack-macros it feels a bit strange to have Nocturn-Knobs 1-4 control the upper row and 5-8 the bottom row, instead of seperating the controls as it’s layed out on the Nocturn (feels a bit counter-intuitive). But this setting is the most flexible. Think of controlling EQ Eight with 4 bands, for example. Each 2 knobs control frequency and gain.

7. Niceness-Addon for the advanced ones…

If you have AutomapServer 3.0 as a PRO-Version, it is possible to assign Keystrokes to Nocturn-buttons. This comes very handy. Look at my example:

Shift+Tab brings you to your device-chain if you are in clip-view. If the focus is somewhere in the clip-grid, hit Alt+Down to bring focus to your device chain. If you have the focus once down there, you can navigate with the Left and Right buttons to switch between the different devices and effects you have.
With all of these Keystrokes layed down on the Nocturn you can tweak all of your effects without ever touching the mouse. Really nice…

If you have questions or problems, just let me know. There is always a way…

[UPDATE] I made this for Ableton Live 8.0.4. Can’t test it on other versions, sorry…
(Consider flattering if you took anything out of that tutorial. Much appreciated, thanks!)

I don’t want to go into detail, because the article is pretty much everything you should read to get started. However, if you’re like me you read some introducing paragraphs, then thinking: “Oh, I don’t need to read all of this, guess i can get started right by fiddling myself”. And then it does not work. Argh! I lost 2 hours of my life trying to get to the mistake. After finding the solution I thought I share it, for you to not get into the same trouble…

My mistake: I overlooked, that in the Config-file Midi-channels are counted from 0-15 (as in Arrays). My desired Channel was 9, so I typed 9. Program translated this to Channel 10, so in Live there was no signal on Channel 10. Rule: always type in your channel minus one.

Another possible mistake Peter hinted: Putting the files into the wrong directory.
On the mac the config-file goes into ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/[your version]/User Remote Scripts/[your Presetname]/UserConfiguration.txt
Windows: [Windows boot drive]/Users/ [your Username]/AppData/Roaming/Ableton/[your version]/Preferences/User Remote Scripts/[your Presetname]/UserConfiguration.txt

Now, that you have everything working, enjoy your newly gained control. For example control all your Instrument- and Drum-racks with only 8 Midi-mappings. Just select the rack’s title bar and the knobs are automatically assigned, as long as you see the blue hand. Nice.