Producer Tips: Ableton Hidden Tricks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9Iq_AQ8ehM

-ShowDeviceSlots
-EnableMapToSiblings
-AutoAdjustMacroMappingRange
-NoVstStartupScan
-EnableArmOnSelection
-ThinningAggressiveness=0.6

-NoAutoArming

-_PluginAutoPopulateThreshold=-1

How to use Options.txt

First you have to create a text file called “Options.txt” in the same folder where Live’s Preferences.cfg file is located. Here’s where to find the preferences folder (Live 6.0.9 or higher):

Windows XP

\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\

Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8

\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\

Mac OS X

/Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/

Please refer to the following knowledge base article for further information onhow to access hidden folders on Windows and Mac OSX.

You can activate several options in the Options.txt file but use only one per line. The syntax is very simple; each option begins with a hyphen and some options also require an additional underscore (see examples below). If you use the wrong syntax you will get an error message when opening Live. You need to restart Live to activate the option. The file format of the Options.txt must be plain text.

“ReWireMasterOff”

Disables Live’s ReWire master functionality.

Example: -ReWireMasterOff

“ReWireChannels”

Number of ReWire channels appearing in the ReWire master when Live runs as ReWire slave.

Default = 16
Min = 0
Max = 64

You must choose an even number of channels.

Example: -ReWireChannels=32

“PluginAutoPopulateThreshold”

Auto-populates the plugin parameter list if a plugin has a number of less or equal than X parameters

Default = 32
Min = 1
Max = 128

“-1” will always populate the list with max. 128 parameters, regardless how many parameters the plugin has (= similar to Live 7 behaviour)

Supported since: 8.1.1

Example: -_PluginAutoPopulateThreshold=32

“ThinningAggressiveness”

When recording automation data, Live smoothes the recorded data with a pre-defined value. The default value is = 0.45

Higher value = more breakpoints eliminated.

Example: -ThinningAggressiveness=0.1

“DontCombineAPCs”

Deactivate the APC combination mode: don’t align and sync the session rings of multiple APCs so they can be moved independently.

Supported since: 8.1.4

Example: -DontCombineAPCs

“AbsoluteMouseMode”

Alternative mouse mode without resetting mouse position – useful for tablets, touch screens, remote desk etc.

Supported since: 8.1

Example: -AbsoluteMouseMode

Note: When enabling Absolute Mouse Mode, some actions that require relative mouse movements may experience problems, eg, fine-tuning a parameter while holding CTRL / CMD. Therefore we would recommend to only enable this option if other steps do not resolve this problem.

“EnsureKeyMessagesForPlugins”

This option solves a problem with certain VST Plugins (such as NI’s Reaktor), where keyboard data does not reach the plugin.

Supported since: 7.0.2b3

Note: PC ONLY!

Example: -_EnsureKeyMessagesForPlugins

https://www.ableton.com/ja/articles/optionstxt-file-live/