Wireless MIDI Controller for Worship and Tracks

  Speaker 1 I just found a way to wirelessly control my Ableton tracks from a little controller on my guitar. And in this video, I’m going to show you exactly how to do that. When I’m leading worship on Sundays, I’m constantly looking for ways to make our Ableton sessions feel simple but still dynamic. But if you’ve ever actually tried to control Ableton during a worship practise or a worship service, then you know it can get clunky. You’re either stuck at your computer or tangled up in a bunch of gear or cables. But the good news is, I recently found a super simple and super tiny wireless MIDI controller that anyone on the team can use, even the worship leader. There’s no cables, there’s no mess, just a smooth, easy control wherever you are in the room. So in this video, I want to show you what the controller is that I use, how I use the controller in Ableton, and then I’m going to give you a couple of tips for how to use this on a Sunday with your band. All right, so this little guy right here is the noise machine, straight vibing edition, which I even have a hard time saying with a straight But this thing’s amazing.

Speaker 1 It’s a wireless MIDI controller, and it even fits in the palm of your hand. Check this thing out how small it is. And it’s so tiny, you can even put it inside the pocket of your skinny jeans. Well,. So it connects over Bluetooth. It’s super responsive. And the best part is that you don’t need any crazy setup or drivers to get started. And there’s some great videos on YouTube showing you how to actually connect this to your Mac or PC. So I won’t go into that here because they explain way better there. But definitely check out those videos if you’re serious about buying this MIDI controller. You can map it to basically anything in Ableton: scenes, tracks, effects, whatever you want. But for me, as a worship leader, I’m just using this to start songs, stop songs, turn off and on the metronome, and to solo some pad channels. Let me show you how I do that in Ableton. Here’s my Sunday setlist in Ableton. Today, I’m only talking about Ableton. I’ve never used this MIDI control with playback, but I’m almost 100% certain that you I can use it with playback. I’ve just never done it because I don’t use playback.

Speaker 1 Okay, back to Ableton. I’ve got five songs cued up, each with a session marker. Now, I just want to map the noise machine to trigger each marker and the play button. So I’ll click MIDI, tap on a marker, and then tap a button on the controller to map that MIDI to the marker. So for song one, I’m mapping it to the first button on the middle row of the noise machine. And you’ll know it’s mapped because a little number pops up next to the marker. Then I’ll just repeat that process, one button for each song. And finally, I’ll map the play, stop, metronome, and pads to the top row. And once you’re done, just click MIDI again and you’re ready to go. Okay, now there’s something really important I got to tell you about this MIDI controller. The MIDI mapping is super sensitive to the knob and the slider on the controller. There’s the knob right here and the slider. Wherever they are when you begin mapping, that’s where they have to stay. So I always set my slider all the way down here to the left and the little knob all the way to the left as well.

Speaker 1 That way, I know exactly where the knob and slider are supposed to be. And that way, if something gets bumped during worship, I can just quickly move it back to where I know, and then everything works fine. Now, let’s talk about the most flexible aspect of this controller, and that is where do you want to put this tiny controller on your stage? Do you want to give it to the worship leader, a drummer, a singer? I’ve done lots of things so far. I’ve taped it to my mic stand. I’ve used it on a music stand. And recently, I’ve started just putting a piece of double tape on the back and just sticking it straight to my guitar. A little piece of gaffe tape won’t hurt nobody. That way, when I’m leading worship, I get to the next song. I just press the next button, press play. I get right back to worshipping. There’s no fuss, no loud pedals or anything to touch. It’s just super simple and easy to get back into worshipping. Okay, now let’s talk about the battery life of this controller. I’ve used this controller on a full Sunday from 6: 30 AM till about 12: 30, 1: 00 PM, and it lasts all day.

Speaker 1 The biggest thing is that you just want to charge it completely during the week. So the noise machine comes with a little USB cable that you just plug into the wall, and it charges. It takes maybe an hour or two to charge. But once it’s charged, It stays charged for a long time. It’ll definitely get you through at least 6, 7, 8 hours of play on a Sunday. If you’re like me and you want to spend more time leading worship and less time just babysitting your laptop with Ableton, then something like the noise machine, straight vibing, might be just what you’re looking for to make your process of leading worship with Ableton way smoother. If you’re interested in this controller, I’ll link everything that you need to know about it below. If you got any any other Ableton set-ups or tricks that you use as a worship leader to keep your setlist flowing on Sundays, please drop a comment below. I seriously love to see how worship leaders use tech to aid their worship gatherings with the church. And if you want to learn more about actually how to set up Ableton for a Sunday worship service, then check out our new tracks course in the academy.

Speaker 1 It’s really amazing. We don’t have time to talk about it today, but it’s really great. And with that, get out there. Fire up Ableton, get your straight going, and lead passionately with your church. God bless.