To be able to send MIDI data to Ableton, there is a need to run a virtual MIDI cable. For this project, I am using the freeware “loopMIDI”. This acts as a MIDI device that I can configure in Pure Data’s settings as MIDI output device and in Ableton as MIDI input device.
In Pure Data, I need to prepare data to be in the right format (0 to 127) to be sent via MIDI and then simply use a block that sends it to the MIDI device, specifying value, device, and channel numbers. I am mainly using the “ctlout” block, which sends control messages via MIDI. I did experiment with the “noteout” block as well, but I did not have a need for sending notes so far, since I rather adjust keys and notes dynamically in Ableton.
There is a mapping mode in Ableton, which lets one map almost every changeable parameter to a MIDI pendant. As soon as I turn on the mapping mode, I can just select any parameter that I want to map, then switch to Pure Data, click the parameter that I want to map to the Ableton variable, and it will immediately show up in my mapping table with the option to change the mapping range. While this approach is very flexible, it unfortunately is not very well structured since I cannot read or edit the mapping table in another context (which would be very useful to avoid mistakes while clicking).
