ableton live midi routing for controlling external synths in multi mode, how?

I've been having trouble with this for at least a year. I have a Korg Micro-X and I want to sequence/loop/play it using Ableton Live. Basically my ideal workflow would be to record some MIDI loops, then jam around, twiddle some knobs (volume, pan, cutoff, etc.), record all that stuff in the arrangement, then edit the MIDI to remove mistakes and long repetitive parts, and finally record audio track by track.

But I can't seem to figure out how to set Live up so I can record the control change to the arrangement. I can send control change to the synth when I'm just recording loops, but then it doesn't record to arrangement. And when I switch on arrangement recording with session record, I can record control change automation, but it's overdubbed into the loop and it's almost impossible to record something like a filter cutoff going from high to low so that the beginning of the loop doesn't have a 10 millisecond part of high values and the rest being low.

It's really frustrating because I like to jam using the Korg's multi mode with 16 instruments, and I think many rompler synths have this kind of mode, so why is it so weird to set up Ableton to use it. Maybe the key point for me is that I use the Micro-X without local control enabled, and it always sends on channel 1, I just change the routing by arming tracks in Live (i.e. when I arm track 2, the output is sent to Korg channel 2)

I also posted this to the ableton questions thing: https://www.ableton.com/answers/sending-midi-control-through-an-armed-track-in-arrangement-record-mode

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

  On 5/30/2017 at 3:55 AM, thawkins said:

I can't seem to figure out how to set Live up so I can record the control change to the arrangement.... when I switch on arrangement recording with session record, I can record control change automation

As for the sudden jumps, have you had a look at the settings you have in Takeover mode (see 26.1.3 here - https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/midi-and-key-remote-control/#takeover-mode )

  On 5/30/2017 at 2:42 PM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 5/30/2017 at 3:55 AM, thawkins said:

I can't seem to figure out how to set Live up so I can record the control change to the arrangement.... when I switch on arrangement recording with session record, I can record control change automation

My brain hurts !

 

As for the sudden jumps, have you had a look at the settings you have in Takeover mode (see 26.1.3 here - https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/midi-and-key-remote-control/#takeover-mode )

 

Sorry for the fucked up wording! :)

As for the takeover modes, I know about those, but I don't think changing those will help. The reason is that the "takeover mode" resets each time the loop ends. So even if keep jiggling the cutoff knob on the external synth and see how the values show up in the clip envelope, when the loop restarts, the takeover is lost and to overdub the cutoff without glitching I have to somehow time the knob movement so I do the takeover exactly at the beginning of the loop. Usually no matter how hard I try, the result is a envelope with first 10-20ms having value of 100, and the rest of the clip (where the overdub works well) at 50-60.

By the way there are no Ableton UI knobs involved - I'm moving a physical control on the Korg.

Thanks for your advice nevertheless, I think if maybe the value scaling mode works, I'd be really happy.

I tested with value scaling takeover. Still not the behaviour I'd like, I attached a picture to show the beginning of the envelope. I'd like it if there was no "takeover gap" in the beginning of the clip.