mobius loses input ability in ableton live after changing scenes

[georgeludwig]

I have an issue where I've got Mobius running as a VST plugin on Live 8 on Mac OSX. I set up Live so it leaves the plug-in window (Mobius) on top. And I've got a MIDI foot controller that tells Live to change scenes, and another key controller (Xtempo POK) to handle Mobius.

Everything is fine, except after I tell Live to change scenes, Mobius no longer responds to key input. It's not an issue with focus; I click on the Mobius screen, and after still I cannot control mobius with the keyboard. But mouse navigation still works.

If I close the Mobius window and re-open, then Mobius responds to input again, up until the next time I change the scene.

Any ideas?

[Jeff]

Thanks I'll look at it. Keyboard input is always touchy when Mobius
runs in "Single Plugin Window" mode, which unfortunately is the only
way it works on the Mac. The host creates and controls the window
and it can change things without my knowledge. It appears
that the vast majority of plugins either don't support keyboard
control, or if they do they use a very limited set supported by the VST
interface. As usual Mobius breaks the rules and tries to tap into
the keyboard device directly so it can use things like complex
Shift key combinations that VST doesn't support. This generally works
when I open my own window.

[georgeludwig]

Thanks Jeff, really appreciate it! I've been ripping my hair out buying a seemingly never-ending stream of hardware and software trying to get to the looping promised land. I really don't want to have to get a Behrengher MIDI foot controller...too big and too many wires! The POK would suffice for controlling both Mobius and scene selection in Ableton if this input thing worked... :)

[georgeludwig]

I figured out a workaround at least for my problem. I don't know what the actual underlying issue is, but I discovered that when I set Mobius to respond only to keystrokes that did not require a key combination (i.e., no SHIFT+F1, only F1) that everything works fine!

I never had this problem under Windows, so it took me a while to figure it out.
I don't where the problem really lies, but I think I noticed that even using the built-in keyboard rather than the POK that Mobius had problems.

Anyway, I am a happy camper now! My rig is TEH AWESOME!!!

[Jeff]

Interesting. One possibility is that there are Mac applications or maybe
OS X itself that is listening for certain key chords, I'll try Shift-F1 and
see what happens.

Sorry I didn't notice this before but I just looked at the POK.
A bit pricey but Very Nice! It looks like they took the guts out
of a wireless keyboard and built a nice enclosure around it. Have
you noticed any latency in the switches?

[Per Boysen]

Hi guys,

Key commands are usually pre allocated assigned per default in OS X. But it is simple to go into the OS X System Preferences to turn them off. I always to that because I'm used to Ableton Live having the F keys as "mute buttons". I stole that from Ableton and always set up the F keys for muting tracks in Mobius when looping under different hosts.

And @George, since Ableton Live also offers key commands you also have the option to use Live's key command assignment to assign computer keys to Mobius parameters. Actually Ableton has always recommended that you should use the host Live's system reather than a plug-in's system form Key control.

Are you planning on going into Max For Live as well? Looking very exciting!

[georgeludwig]

Per, that's very interesting, it didn't occur to me that I could use Live to assign the key contorls instead of Mobius. I'll try that today! Also need to try the latest version of Mobius. I've been having stability problems, and sometimes Mobius still loses the ability to receive commands.

I'm not planning on using Max for Live...it's a great concept, but I might just be a little old school. However, if you come up with some brilliant thing (and I kjow you will!) that I just have to try, you might convince me. :)