Cheat sheet
Every button and combination on a few pages, what the colours mean, and what to do when something's off.
- Everywhere: transport, devices, modes
- Strips, mixer and audio, Session and drums, melodies
- Colours, settings and the status bar, when something's off
Everywhere
These work in every mode.
Transport
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Play | Play / stop |
| Shift+Play | Stop |
| Metronome | Metronome on / off |
| Tap Tempo | Tap the tempo (the pads show it) |
| Tempo | Tempo ±1 BPM a click (the pads show it) |
| Shift+Tempo | Song position by bars (the pads show the bar) |
| Shift+Record | Capture MIDI |
| Shift+Nudge + | Nudge the tempo up while held |
| Shift+Nudge − | Nudge the tempo down while held |
| Record | Arrangement record |
| Session | Session record |
Devices and views
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Bank ◀ | Previous parameter bank |
| Bank ▶ | Next parameter bank |
| Dev On/Off | Device on / off |
| Dev Lock | Lock the knobs to this device (hold: its name scrolls) |
| Device ◀ | Previous device |
| Device ▶ | Next device |
| Shift+Clip/Dev View | Undo |
| Shift+Detail View | Redo |
| Clip/Dev View | Clip / Device view |
| Detail View | Show / hide the Detail view |
| Shift+Metronome | The beat on the device-row LEDs on / off |
| Device knob | The device's eight parameters (the rings follow the bank) |
Modes
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Pan | Knobs pan (and the pads show Session) |
| Sends | Knobs on the sends; again = the next send |
| User | Knobs free for your own mapping (and the pads play) |
| Shift+Bank | VU meters: a tap keeps them, a hold shows them while held |
| Shift+User | Another layout for this track (drum ↔ melodic ↔ sequencer) |
Strips, mixer and audio
Track strips, faders and knobs
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Track Select 1–8 | Select the track (hold: its name scrolls) |
| Arm | Arm the track (Shift: the other exclusive-arm way) |
| Solo | Solo (Shift: the other exclusive-solo way) |
| Activator | Mute / unmute: lit while the track plays |
| A|B | Crossfade: off → A (yellow) → B (orange) |
| Master | Select the master track |
| Shift+Sends | Show / hide the return tracks on the strips |
| Shift+Track Select 1–8 | Clip launch quantization: none, 8, 4, 2, 1 bars, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 |
| Shift+Faders | Peek at the volumes on the pads (and pick-up) |
| Faders | Track volumes |
| Master fader | Master volume |
| Crossfader | The crossfader |
| Cue Level | Cue (pre-listen) volume |
| Knob | Track panning |
| Knob | The selected send (press Sends again for the next) |
Audio layout
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Pads | The clip: whole clip on top, the shown part in 32 slices |
| Scene buttons | What you edit: START · END · LOOP · WARP · PERFORM |
| Up | Zoom in |
| Down | Zoom out |
| Left | Move the shown part left |
| Right | Move the shown part right |
| Nudge − | Fine move down (a quarter slice) |
| Nudge + | Fine move up (a quarter slice) |
A press on Pan, Sends or User longer than a third of a second is momentary: the mode goes back when you let go.
Session and drums
Session (Pan or Sends)
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Pads | Launch a clip (an empty slot on an armed track records) |
| Clip Stop 1–8 | Stop the track's clip |
| Scene buttons | Launch the scene |
| Up | Scroll up a scene |
| Down | Scroll down a scene |
| Left | Scroll left a track |
| Right | Scroll right a track |
| Shift+Up | Five scenes up |
| Shift+Down | Five scenes down |
| Shift+Left | Eight tracks left |
| Shift+Right | Eight tracks right |
| Bank | Hold: the overview of the whole session |
| Shift+Pads | Select the clip slot |
| Nudge − | Hold + a pad or scene: delete it |
| Nudge + | Hold + a pad or scene: duplicate it |
| Stop All Clips | Stop every clip |
Drum layout
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Left 4×4 pads | Play the drum pads (the selected pad is white) |
| Up | Scroll the drum pads up a row |
| Down | Scroll the drum pads down a row |
| Shift+Up | Scroll up four rows |
| Shift+Down | Scroll down four rows |
| Right 4×4 pads | The 16 steps: tap to add or remove a note |
| Top pad row | One pad per bar: tap = show it, hold + tap another = loop them |
| Clip Stop 1–8 | Step length, finest on the left (1/32t … 1/4) |
| Left | Previous 16 steps |
| Right | Next 16 steps |
| Nudge + | Duplicate the loop, notes and all |
| Nudge − | Page follow: the steps follow the playhead |
| Scene buttons | Velocity for new notes: 127 · 100 · 75 · 50 · 25 |
| Shift+Clip Stop 1–8 | The quantize grid |
| Shift+Scene buttons | Record quantize · quantize the clip · quantize the selection |
| Shift+Left 4×4 pads | Select a drum pad without playing it |
Melodies
Melodic layout
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Up | Octave up |
| Down | Octave down |
| Right | Next scale |
| Left | Previous scale |
| Shift+Right | Root note up a semitone |
| Shift+Left | Root note down a semitone |
| Shift+Clip Stop 1–8 | The quantize grid |
| Shift | Hold: the scale page (root, scale, In Key) |
| Pads | Play (rows a fourth apart, the bottom left is the root) |
| Pads | Pick Live's root note (top rows) and scale (bottom rows) |
| Scene buttons | In Key / Chromatic (top) and the quantize column |
Melodic sequencer
| Control | What the buttons do |
|---|---|
| Up | Keyboard octave up |
| Down | Keyboard octave down |
| Clip Stop 1–8 | Step length, finest on the left (1/32t … 1/4) |
| Left | Previous 16 steps |
| Right | Next 16 steps |
| Nudge + | Duplicate the loop, notes and all |
| Nudge − | Page follow: the steps follow the playhead |
| Shift+Clip Stop 1–8 | The quantize grid |
| User | Keyboard ↔ Gate view (note lengths, latch) |
| Shift | Hold: the scale page (root, scale, In Key) |
| Pad rows 4–5 | The keyboard: select keys, or hold a step and tap keys |
| Pad rows 2–3 | The 16 steps: tap to add or remove a note |
| Top pad row | One pad per bar: tap = show it, hold + tap another = loop them |
| Scene buttons | Velocity for new notes: 127 · 100 · 75 · 50 · 25 |
| Pad rows 4–5 | The held steps' length (tap pad n = n steps) |
| Scene buttons | Latch the held step into the note before it |
Colours
What the LEDs say, straight from the script's own colour table.
- playing
- recording
- about to start
- records here
- scene starting
- empty drum pad
- the selected drum
- muted drum
- soloed drum
- empty step
- the playhead
- root
- in the scale
- selected key
- in the held step
- Live's scale
- gate length
- the clip
- the loop
- loop edges
- warp marker
- the held chop
- PERFORM
Pulsing (a soft glow in a second colour) means going on: playing, recording, the chosen level. Blinking means about to: a clip or scene waiting for its launch.
The buttons outside the grid have one colour each, on or off. A|B is yellow for A and orange for B; a Clip Stop blinks while its track is about to stop.
All 128 pad colours
Settings and the status bar
What the script remembers
Some of your choices are saved with the Live Set, so they come back when you open it:
- the layout you picked with Shift+User, per track
- the melodic octave, per track, and In Key / Chromatic
- what the audio layout edits (START … PERFORM), per track
- the return tracks on the strips (Shift+Sends)
- the beat display (Shift+Metronome) and the quantize grid
The status bar
The bottom left of Live's window tells you what just changed, in words:
| You did | Live says |
|---|---|
| Pan / Sends / User | Encoders: Pan, Encoders: Send B, Pads: Session, Pads: Drum sequencer |
| Up / Down, Left / Right in a melodic layout | Octave 3, Scale: D Dorian |
| a Clip Stop in a sequencer | Grid: 1/16 |
| Nudge − in a sequencer | Page follow: on |
| Shift + Sends, Shift + Metronome | Return tracks: shown on the strips, Beat display: off |
| Shift + Track Select | Quantization: 1 Bar |
| Shift + scene button 3 | Quantized: clip to 1/16 |
| an audio edit | Start: 2.1.3, Loop: 1.1.1 - 3.1.1, Chop: 1/8 |
When something's off
Live reads scripts only when it starts: quit and open Live again. In Preferences ▸ Link, Tempo & MIDI check Control Surface APC40X_MkII with Input and Output APC40 mkII.
They wait about half a second after Live recognises the unit (when the Pan light comes on), so the positions the APC reports at start-up never change your set. After that Live's Takeover Mode decides: None jumps to the fader, Pick-up waits until the fader passes the value. Can't find the value? Hold Shift and move the fader. The knobs never wait: they always carry on from the value they control.
That's the beat display: the metronome is on. Shift+Metronome turns it off.
They're hidden by default: Shift+Sends shows them.
The pads always send full velocity. Use the sequencers' velocity buttons, or Live's Velocity device on the track.
Changing the scale or octave while holding a pad can leave that note on. Play it again to stop it.
Live's log file says what the script ran into: Log.txt in Live's Preferences folder (on Windows %APPDATA%\Ableton\Live 12…\Preferences, on a Mac ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 12…). Lines with RemoteScriptError are the script's. Still stuck? Write to support@apc40x.com with your Live version, your operating system, what you pressed and that log file. Updates and news: apc40x.com.