Sometimes, the solution is no better than the problem – such as when you use the keyboard to fold and unfold tracks instead of using the mouse. To solve this particular problem in a more elegant way, we need a way to send a series of keystrokes to Live in one step. There are a number of ways to do this, but one particularly simple on is to use Charlie Robert’s excellent MidiStroke.
This is a utility that lets you send keystrokes from your MIDI controller. Here’s a MidiStroke setup that will solve this problem nicely:
Take a look at the left hand side. The setup above assumes that you have a button on your MIDI controller that transmits MIDI CC 11 (num) on channel 1 (chn). The button will send a value of 127 on the first click, and 0 on the second (value).
When a 127 is transmitted, all the keystrokes on the right will be sent to Live from top to bottom: 1 to select the track, Option+Up Arrow twice to make sure the title bar is highlighted, and + to unfold the track. When a zero is sent, the keystrokes are almost the same, except the last one is minus (-).
Now, this may seem like a lot of hoops to jump through to fold and unfold a group track, but that’s not really the point here. The point is that you can make your controller do pretty much anything you want if you’re willing to get this sort of utility into the picture.
Alright folks! I gotta get off this internet connection. We’ll get all caught up with the tips on monday.
