Macro for Ableton Live not working

Questions & Suggestions
1

Hi there! I am using a trial of keyboard maestro on mac osx Monterey… but it is not working as I expected..

I use keyboard maestro to speed up my workflow on Ableton Live, I would like to press “command + F” then type text “instrument rack” then key stroke “enter” or “return” (don’t know which one would work the best) double times… I have a delay of 0.3 between every action, but everything is acting weirdly: sometimes it works but 1 time every 20… when it is not working the macro stops after typing text, without hitting “enter” double times… I tried to increase the delay time but no change, I tried to change “enter” with “return” no change… I tried to change my macro key from f1 to shift+1 no change… I checked all my permissions and it is all ok…

any suggestion?

Thanks

2

Hi @enrico89, welcome to the forum.

I don’t use Ableton Live, but I know that other people here do, so it’s likely that a solution will be found! I suggest that you post your macro (I find the “manual” method the easiest).

If there is no difference between using Enter and Return when manually performing this task within Live (as there probably isn’t), it won’t matter which key you use in KM either.

You might try adding an extra, longer pause before KM the simulated “Return”.

I’m not sure that it will help much with this issue, but, if you have not already done so, try running “Help > Interactive Help” from within the Keyboard Maestro Editor.

3

Hi! Thanks for answering!

I just realised that with other macros the “Return” keystroke works… so it is something related to this specific macro which contains more keystrokes.. here it is.. I tried to add a pause between the first two keystrokes but nothing changes…

Insert instrument Track + Rack.kmmacros (4.0 KB)

INSERT INSTRUMENT TRACK + RACK MACRO
INSERT INSTRUMENT TRACK + RACK MACRO444×805 51.5 KB

4

It does sound like a timing issue.

After it stops without pressing return, what happens if you press return manually?

You likely need a short pause after Command-F, and after typing instrument rack, Return, you may need another short pause before the second Return.

Generally you need pauses when the focus changes, or when the app is messing around with the field.

5

Yes it is a timing issue.. the problem is that the time that Ableton takes to create a track increase when the project is big and heavy on the cpu… Indeed if I increase a lot the pause after that the track is created (4 seconds) the entire macro will work always … but it’s not c

onvenient to set a super long delay time because when the project is lighter all that pause time is not needed…

Searching here I founded this topic https://forum.keyboardmaestro.com/t/pause-macro-until-result-of-last-action-create-new-track-has-actually-occurred-on-screen-in-ableton-live/28173

I tried to set an image capture and a pause until conditions are met but it is not working… don’t know why…

Untitled
Untitled785×1234 88.9 KB

6

In that case you need a way of telling when the track is created. You might be able to do this using a Found Image condition.

7

the problem is that when a new track is created the name of the track (and so the image containing the name on the mixer channel that KM should search) it’s a number that changes depending on the other channels that I have in the project.. so it is impossible to create a search image… the solution in the post that I linked is the best option I have.. but I don’t know how why it is not working here..

8

Is it in a fixed location that is visible on the screen through the whole process? If so, then you could do this:

image
image769×499 52.7 KB

Make sure the Capture Area action has the Always Nominal Resolution turned on.

Capture the area, and then pause until that area changes. Assuming the change is big enough to be detected.