In the previous post, we covered using MIDI notes to automate functions in Ableton. In this post, we’ll do the same thing using MIDI Control Changes. MIDI Control Changes, or CC, are somewhat similar to MIDI notes but we tend to use MIDI notes as “buttons” and MIDI CC to control knobs and faders. Let’s dive in with an example.

Creating Our Automation Channel

In order to get started we need to take a MIDI track and assign it to the IAC Driver. If you’ve not got that setup, check out this link. Click on an available MIDI channel and on the right hand side, assign the output to the IAC Driver.

Creating A Control Change

Next, we’ll create a control change in that MIDI clip. Create a blank MIDI clip, select an area on the timeline and Cmd-Shift-M (insert empty MIDI clip). Double click on your blank MIDI clip and navigate to the envelopes tab, located to the right of the notes tab. Under envelopes, make sure the drop-down menu is set to MIDI Ctrl and in the drop down next to MIDI Ctrl, select an unused channel, we’ll be using CC 1. Click along the dotted line to create points.

TIP: MIDI CC ranges from 0-127 (128 units including 0). Depending on what you’re assigning it to, 0 is the lowest value and 127 is the highest. So in our example we want our MIDI value to start at the bottom, 0, and as the clip progresses, we want it to end at the top, 127.

Adding A Plugin

To demonstrate how this works, we’ll assign the control change we created to control the filter frequency knob on our Auto Filter effect. The audio filter is located in Audio Effects >> EQ & Filters >> Auto Filter. Drag this onto a blank channel.

Assigning Our Control Change

The last step is to assign the control change to the filter frequency knob so that when the MIDI clip plays it turns the knob on the filter. Press Cmd-M to enter MIDI mapping mode. Start playback a bar or 2 before your MIDI clip starts and after starting playback, click on the knob you want the CC to change before the playhead reaches the MIDI clip. You’ll know it’s been assigned because the mapping browser will be populated.

You can double check that the automation works by playing it back to see if the MIDI CC in the MIDI clip turns the knob on the filter effect. Exit MIDI mapping mode, Cmd-M, then start playback again and keep an eye on the filter frequency knob on the auto filter to see if it works.

Closing Thoughts

We hope that this post & the previous one have given you a foundation for beginning to work with automation with MIDI notes & control changes. In the subsequent posts, we’ll be using MIDI to automate functions for live performance, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!