ControlRoom VR connects simultaneously with Ableton Live in 3 ways:

1. Native Control Surface (VR Console for Ableton’s built-in mixer)

2. General MIDI Device (Map VR MIDI tools to anything in Ableton)

3. Direct Connection to ControlRoom AU/VST3 Plugins (VR Spatial Mixer and Plugin Tablet)

Please note, ControlRoom Hub must be running to maintain the connection with Ableton Live. It can be minimized, but not closed.

In VR, press the menu button on your left controller to bring up the menu, then select the Tools page, and turn on the Console.

By using the various sections of the console, you can control Ableton’s built in mixer. Functions outlined below:

You can read more about the sonic goals of the plugins, and the thought and considerations that went into their development here.

Once you have launched your DAW and opened a session file, you’ll need to add an instance of ControlRoom Channel to any and every track that you’d like to control with the Spatial Mixer or Plugin Tablet. We recommend adding it as the last insert in your plugin chain, so that parameter changes in ControlRoom Channel will not affect any processing coming afterwards.

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Insert only one instance of ControlRoom Master onto your Master track in Ableton. The master volume will be controllable via the Master Fader on the VR Console.

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• In VR, press the menu button on your left controller to bring up the menu, then select the Tools page, and turn on the Spatial Mixer.

• Press the menu button at the lower right of the Spatial Mixer, then toggle on any tracks you’d like to control with the Spatial Mixer. Close this menu when you are finished, and return back to it any time you’d like to display different tracks.

• Move each track sphere up/down for volume, left/right for panning, and front/back for Proximity.

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• In VR, press the menu button on your left controller to bring up the menu, then select the Tools page, and turn on the Plugin Tablet.

• Press the menu button at the top right of the tablet to select the track you’d like to control with the Plugin Tablet. Close this menu when you are finished, and return back to it any time you’d like to display different tracks.

• Use the buttons along the top of the tablet to switch between Compressor and EQ control over the selected track.

EQ Control

• Each of the 10 bands of the EQ will appear front to back as colored lines.

• The white line at the rear is the overall EQ curve, summed from the combination of the 10 adjustable bands.

• Individual bands can be toggled on/off using the X or A button when hovering over each point, or while grabbing it with the trigger.

• Each EQ band’s point can be moved up/down for Gain and left/right for Frequency.

• Push the joysticks up/down while grabbing a point to adjust that band’s Q value.

Compressor Control

• All parameters of the Channel compressor are shown here.

• Toggle pyramid on/off by selecting the pyramid icon at the top right of the tablet.

• The pyramid allows you to control Ratio, Threshold, Attack Time, and Release Time

  • Height of the tip of the pyramid for Ratio

  • Height of the middle line for Threshold

  • Horizontal position of the bottom left and right sides for Attack Time and Release time, respectively.

It’s helpful here to use Command-Tab (Mac) or Alt-Tab (Windows) to quickly switch back and forth between the Hub and Ableton windows.

For this example, let’s first add a simple drum loop to an audio track in Ableton. For simplicity, choose “80s Beat-90bpm.wav”, a sample included with Ableton Live.

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Next, add a Grain Delay and a Reverb to this same track.

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For this example, label them as follows:

• Name: “Drum FX”

• X Axis: “Grain Pitch”

• Y Axis: “Grain Freq”

• Z Axis: “Reverb Dry/Wet”

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• Back in Ableton, switch to Midi Map mode by clicking the MIDI button at the top right of the Ableton window, or by using the keyboard shortcuts Command-M (Mac) or Control-M (Windows)

• Click the Pitch parameter in the Grain Delay window. This selects it with a rectangle.

• Switch back to the Hub, and click the first Send CC button to map the X axis to Grain Delay Pitch

• Switch back to Ableton, and click the Frequency parameter in the Grain Delay Window to select it

• Switch back to the Hub, and click the second Send CC button to map the Y axis to Grain Delay Frequency

• Follow suit to map the reverb.. In Ableton, click the Reverb Dry/Wet parameter to select it, and in the Hub click the third Send CC button to map the Z axis to Reverb Dry/Wet

• In Ableton, you should now see three items in the Midi Mappings panel on the left.

  • If you do not, please review the previous steps to be sure you haven’t missed anything.

• Exit Midi Map mode by clicking the MIDI button at the top right of the Ableton window, or by using the keyboard shortcuts Command-M (Mac) or Control-M (Windows)

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Once you have mapped the three parameters, this mapped tool will be available to you in ControlRoom VR.

• In VR, press the menu button on your left controller to bring up the menu, then select the Tools page, and turn on the FX cube you just mapped, which should be named Drum FX

• Start playback either on the Console, or using your left wrist transport

• Move the ball in the FX cube around to control all three of those parameters simultaneously

We recommend that you save your ControlRoom Hub session early and often any time you are mapping midi tools to Ableton.

Still have questions about setting up the Hub or have suggestions about how we could improve this page? Try our customer service portal.