Xone:K3 + Ableton Live — faders/knobs do not behave correctly when switching layers

Xone DJ
1

Hi,

I’m having an issue with the Xone:K3 when using Layers with Ableton Live.

For example:

  1. On Layer 1, I move a fader to the top.
  2. I switch to Layer 2 and move the same physical fader to the bottom.
  3. I switch back to Layer 1.
  4. The fader is physically at the bottom, but the Ableton parameter is still at the top.

When I move the fader, Ableton does not immediately follow its physical position. I have to move it until it reaches the previous value (pick-up).

I have tried Ableton’s three Takeover Modes: None, Pick-Up and Value Scaling, but none gives me the behaviour I want.

What I want: when switching back to a layer, the physical position of the fader should immediately control the Ableton parameter, without having to “pick up” the previous value.

Is there a way to disable the K3’s own soft pick-up behaviour, or configure the K3 so that Ableton handles the takeover instead?

Thanks!

2

Hi @Santiago_Farias

What you describe is how K’s Latching Layers is intended to function with ALL CONTROLS option selected. Latching is associated with the hardware device itself, rather than the host software

What I want: when switching back to a layer, the physical position of the fader should immediately control the Ableton parameter, without having to “pick up” the previous value.

Following your example;

The fader is physically at the bottom, but the Ableton parameter is still at the top.

If the physical fader didn’t pick up the previous parameter value when Latched, before reassociating the hard and soft fader positions, it would result in the software fader immediately jumping from top to bottom, thereby switching the associated parameter from max to min.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but I don’t think that’s the behaviour you’re looking to achieve?

Is there a way to disable the K3’s own soft pick-up behaviour, or configure the K3 so that Ableton handles the takeover instead?

To free up the K3 faders completely from Latching Layers, select Option 1 (LATCHING LAYERS OFF), or use one of the other options (2- 4), then use the host application’s Takeover Modes as you like.
Alternatively, create a custom Xone:K3 UNIT MAP which assigns the same (‘Layer 1’) MIDI CC values to the same control element across all three Layers - or for whichever Layers you wish to control the same soft parameter in the way you describe.

Hope that make sense?
Al

3

Thank you very much for the explanation, and sorry if my example made it more complicated than necessary.

Basically, what I wanted was to be able to access Ableton’s different Takeover Modes. The one I was mainly interested in was Value Scaling; I just used None in my example to make the behaviour easier to explain.

Now I understand that this only works with Latching Layers disabled, and that the K3’s Latching Layers behaviour takes place before Ableton can handle the takeover.

I really appreciate the information and the clarification. Thank you!