This article is for Ableton Live 10 and previous versions. Ableton Live 11 introduced MPE support and the built-in devices 'Wavetable', 'Sampler', 'Simpler' and 'Arpeggiator' all support MPE . For a full guide to setting up the Seaboard in Live 11, please see Ableton Live 11: How to use MPE with the Seaboard RISE 2Short answer
Ableton’s built-in instruments (such as Analog, Collision, Impulse, etc.) are mono-timbral.
To unlock the Seaboard RISE and GRAND’s full expressive potential you will need to create an instrument patch which responds to the Seaboard’s dimensions of touch. Then create 10 MIDI tracks, which are receiving on a MIDI channel between 1 and 10, each with identical instrument patches.
Detailed answer
The Seaboard RISE and GRAND use multiple channels of MIDI to achieve polyphonic dimensions of touch but Ableton’s built-in instruments are mono-timbral so we would need 10 of them to fully respond to the Seaboard’s polyphonic dimensions of touch.
However, we can still use Ableton’s built-in instruments and take advantage of their synthesis power by following the steps below.
Step 1: ROLI Dashboard Settings
Ensure that ROLI Dashboard’s MIDI Settings are set as shown below.
We have selected:
- MIDI Mode: Multi Channel
- A Channel Range of 1–10
- Press Mode: Channel Pressure
What about Glide & Slide tracking, and Press tracking? Those settings aren’t important for setting up the Seaboard with Ableton Live’s built-in instruments.
Step 2: Create your first MIDI track
Create ➝ Insert MIDI Track to add a MIDI track to your Set. Under MIDI From, select the Seaboard Ch. 1.
Load your desired instrument into this track and select the patch that you want to hear from the Seaboard. At this stage you might want to set ROLI Dashboard’s Channel Mode to Single so that all of the notes are transmitted on the same channel while you experiment with your patch’s response to the dimensions of touch.
Step 3: Duplicate your MIDI track 9 times
Using ⌘ -D (Mac), or ctrl – D (PC), duplicate the first track 9 times and set the channels under MIDI From so that each track receives on a channel from 1–10.
Step 4: Play
Arm all 10 tracks with ⌘-click (Mac), or shift-click (PC) and play!
If you change your mind about the patch, go to ROLI Dashboard and set Channel Mode back to Single. Preview the patch on track 1 then you can copy it quickly to the other tracks by duplicating again.