Due to popular demand, here’s another video tutorial about a command from the Options.txt as part of the series “Ableton Live Insider Tips”. This one is brand new and only works in Live 9 and up. If you ever wanted to have a way to arm tracks on fly, this one is for you:
English Version:
Deutsche Version:
Download the Options.txt file with the commands from all the video tutorials (Right-click and choose Save Link as) Don’t forget to only keep either -NoAutoArming or -EnableArmOnSelection as they conflict with each other.
Do you have questions or suggestions? Leave me a comment.
Missed the other tutorials in the series? Start with the first, Options.txt Part 1. It explains all the basics.
27 responses
Is this options.txt gonna replace what we used to do with clyphX ?
Only the arming could be replaced and only in Live 9, but not the other stuff.
Hello Madeleine,
Thank you for all of these great option.txt tutorials!
I’ve been sifting through a list on the Ableton Forums – https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=177825&start=60 – and came across -ExtendedDeviceOptions. Do you know what new behavior this introduces in Ableton 9?
Hi Sean,
Sorry, no idea so far. I might try it later, but it’s often not easy to figure out what exactly they do. Have you tried it?
Hi M.,
Yes. My first assumption was that -ExtendedDeviceOptions may expose new parameters in Ableton’s stock Instruments/Effects bundle. I’ve yet to find any new parameter. My second thought is that -EDO may introduce new parameters with the Push, as there is a button labeled ‘Device’. I’m going to test the theory out this weekend. I’ll let you know if that turns up positive results.
I reckon your second assumption may well be true. A lot of things were changed to accommodate Live to Push’s functionalities. Thanks for keeping me in the loop.
Hello Madeleine, I used this new option.txt tips today: very good and thanx for that (and for your excellent blog) !
Also for me, this tips works only for the midi/instruments tracks and not the audio tracks. Can you confirm me that ? Maye another option tips does exist for audio.. ? To dig ! Best from Paris /// MTC
It works for audio tracks as well as long as the settings in the I/O section are right. If I recall correctly (not in front of a computer with Live 9 on it), it won’t work on audio tracks if the monitoring is set to off or an input channel is chosen by default that doesn’t comply with your settings.
Hey, great tips! I’ve also discovered when EnableArmOnSelection is enabled, you can use the keyboard cursors to go from one track to another.
Yes, but that should always work when one track is selected.
Hi Madeleine, thanks for posting this stuff…new to me! One quick question – are these meant to work in live’s 32bit version only? They seem not to show on 64bit. Am I correct? thanks
As far as I know it should work in 64bit as well, but I’m still on 32bit because of my fave plug-ins. Have you made sure it’s a plain text file?
Thank you very much, Madeleine, very useful as always!
Hallo Madeleine,
danke für diese tipps – die sind echt super.
Weißt du vielleicht wie folgendes geht:
wenn man mit midi (nicht mit maus) ARMED dann SELECTED es auch den ARMED Track automatisch.
Diese Möglichkeit sollte eigentlich standard sein – aber ich fand bis jetzt keine Möglichkeit…
danke & grüße
figaro
Bin mir nicht sicher, was Deine Frage ist…
Hi Madeleine,
Thanks for all your help.
I am on 9.6.1 but for some reason it doesn’t work for me?
Everytime I select a different track…with different VST’s available per track, none of the tracks are selected untill I manually press the ARM button 🙁
The last track that is ‘armed’ keeps playing sound until I select a different track and ARM it 🙁
Any thoughts on how this can be fixed? A friend of min is working on Windows and for him chaning tracks and automatically that VST Is selected and he can start playing. I need to click ARM (a very small icon) every time.
Hope you can help me, because this is very frustrating 🙂
Regards
Dennis
My apologies for the late reply. I somehow overlooked your comment.
I just checked and it works perfectly fine for me on Live 9.6.1 after I’ve armed the first MIDI track. It doesn’t work for audio tracks, but this is intentional. Please check if you’ve added the Options.txt to the right folder (Live 9.6.1) and have deleted -NoAutoArming as both commands conflict with each other.
For the love of god, I can’t seem to make this text file to work, it’s in the proper destination on Windows 10 :
C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 9.5\Preferences.
I’ve tryed naming it : Options
Options.txt,
I’ve also tried saving the text file under different extentions. No luck… 🙁
Can anyone help or have another idea ?!
Thanks, I’d really wish I could just autoaim track when selected. Many other Daw’s have that implanted !
The file needs to be called Options.txt with a capital O. And if you want to use -EnableArmOnSelection, delete -NoAutoArming as they conflict with each other. Make sure you’re adding it to the currently used Live version. Live needs to be (re)started after that. Hope this helps.
Where do you put the file in I’m on os x?
Here’s the file path: /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/
To access the Library, which is hidden on OS X, check this quick tutorial.
Great Tip , thanks , BUT I can’t get it to work in session mode on push 2 ?
Danka!
Does the command only work with MIDI tracks? I can’t get the auto arm to work with audio tracks, only MIDI tracks for some reason.
For audio tracks, you have to manually arm one first for it to work. After that it works just like with MIDI tracks.
Hi,
I’m on windows and i am using Ableton 10.1.14 but I can’t seem to make this command function.
Does this still work with the newest version ?
It doesn’t any longer work as far as I remember.