One of the things I have been missing in Ableton Live is the ability to see all of the devices/plugins of all of the tracks at once. It’s a bit annoying having to hop tracks to see what devices each one has loaded up.
Well, one of you (thanks Martin) pointed me out to a solution. Ableton have in fact created the feature to show device slots in Live but left it out for some reason. However with a little tweak we can make it happen.
So let’s spill the beans. If you prefer a video you should go check the original video tutorial at Sonic Bloom blog.
Before we begin, please note that I have only been able to test this with Live 8 and Live 9. There are reports this does not work with earlier versions of Live. Let me also note that while I haven’t had any problems with this yet, I am pretty new to Ableton Live. There is probably a reason why Ableton have decided not to include this feature. So be aware of possible bugs in the attic.
Now, once you set it up it looks like this:
Tidy huh?
Instructions
All you need to do is create a file called Options.txt with a line ‘-ShowDeviceSlots’ and place it in the right directory.
I’ve made the file ready for you: download Options.txt (right/ctrl click, save as). See instructions below on how to find the right directory to place it on your system.
If you wish to do it yourself:
- Create a text file called Options.txt (this has to be in plain text format).
- Inside the file write ‘-ShowDeviceSlots’ (without the apostrophes).
- Place the file in the same folder where Live’s Preferences.cfg file is located (this folder could be hidden, see instructions below).
That is all! Start up Live and in the lower right side of the screen you will notice a new “plug” icon which allows you to show/hide device slots in the clip view.
Note: If you are seeing empty device slots, you probably have to make your tracks wider for the device names to show up.
How to find the right directory
- Mac OS X: Macintosh HD:/Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x/
- Windows XP (Live 4 and later versions): C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Ableton\Live x.x\Preferences\
- Windows Vista and Windows 7: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x\Preferences\
How to access hidden folders
Windows XP:
To make the Application Data folder visible on Windows XP, do the following:
- Launch Explorer.
- Select Tools/Folder Options/View.
- Check “Show hidden files and folders.”
Windows Vista and Windows 7:
To make the AppData folder visible on Windows Vista or Windows 7, do the following:
- Launch the Windows Explorer.
- Click on ‘Organize’ → ‘Folder and Search Options’ → ‘View’.
- Check ‘Show hidden files and folders’.
Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” and 10.8 “Mountain Lion”:
- To make ‘Macintosh HD:/Users/[username]/Library’ visible on Lion or Mountain Lion, press and hold the “option/alt” key, and you can choose “Go to Library” in the Go menu of the Finder.
- To access the top level of Macintosh HD on (Mountain) Lion open ‘Finder Preferences’, select / check ‘Hard disks’ on ‘Sidebar’ tab under ‘Devices’ section.
Further options
There are some further Ableton Live customizations that you can do with the Options.txt file. These (unlike the show/hide devices option) are officially listed by Ableton.
You can read about those on their website here.
Have fun and remember to subscribe my email newsletter to stay current with Resoundsound.com!
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Great tip! I posted it on my blog (brazilian portuguese) with a link pointing back to your site. Thanks!
Cheers Walter!
Does not work in Live 7.
Thanks for the info. Forgot to mention I’ve only been able to test with Live 8 and 9. I’ve updated the post with this information now.
Kinda lame that they would not even include it in the options. I don’t have any use for this personally, but I can see how it could come in handy.
Yeah I come from Logic where I’m used to seeing all the plugins at the same time. Helps keep tabs on things.
i just get empty banks.
http://i.imgur.com/3DvR1RO.png
any ideas?
Not sure – it could be that the reason they left this feature out from the official release is that it doesn’t work in all situations.
I also have a ‘borrowed’ version to just toy around with.
(running 8.2.1) – might be worth mentioning that its not a guaranteed thing.
if you resize the width of the track they seem to show up
and ya, I’m assuming the bugginess is why it is a hidden feature and not an official feature
Yeah. I have now updated the introduction with a little disclaimer, cheers.
it’s not really about making them wider it just seems like changing the width, whether making them wider or thinner, refreshes the names of devices
Expand the track’s width and you’ll see the device labels.
Nice! wouldn’t have thought of that!
great tip…thank you…
But unfortunately renamed names don’t show up and also renamed audio effect racks still show up as “audio effect rack”….
Absolutely subscribed to your newsletter, and shared this at mahoneytech.com – thanks for the great audio resource!
Good stuff, thanks!
This trick is really good, i’m going to re-share it on my websites and link back to your webs.
Nice one Harry!
You could replace the Windows-locations with %appdata%\Ableton\Live x.x\Preferences\
If you use that in the Run command (hotkey: windows-logo + r) you’ll be moved to it’s location, whether the directory is hidden or not.
Awesome trick, thank you! I’m sure they will make it official soon.
THANK YOU!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
Many thanks for the tip my friend!!!
All good!
superb
thx
I recently purchased Ableton Live 9 suite a couple of weeks ago and just started using it and noticed that I can’t rename Tracks! I click on the Track and when I try to type a new name in – the track either duplicates or all sorts of other things happen. None of which included renaming my tracks. Even if I group them and try to rename the master – nothing happens. The track won’t receive text.
I have tried 2 different Keyboards and even uninstalled and reinstalled. Ableton Support was not very helpful – I have found a few other people online that have the same problem but with no solution.
I am using Vita 64 Bit, Live 9 is 32 Bit. It is on a Dell Inspiron 530.
Any help would be appreciated!!! Sad I want to make full use of name, but not being able to rename tracks via ctrl+r or right clicking and selecting ‘rename’ is a serious problem. [/i]
Not heard of such problem before – you should definitely get in touch with Ableton’s tech support to solve the issue.