Video output from Ableton

[Braintree 1519]

So with all of the streaming going on, I've been looking to up my video skills. I found a decent Max for Live video plugin that should work fairly well.

Is there any way of getting video output from Ableton Live? Specifically, out of Live and into OBS?

[TubularCorporation 701]

OBS will do screen capture but I haven't used it for that.

[mcbpete 297]

Yeah from OBS you should be able to pick a source window - and hopefully the m4l video device has an option to break out as a separate window which you'd then select.

[Braintree 1519]

It will do a window cap on the plugin itself (where the effect chain goes) but it won't capture the window where the video is coming from.

Maybe I should try a few more M4L plugins and see if any of those can capture it...

[hijexx 723]

Syphon for Mac is handy for that: http://www.syphon.v002.info/

I think there's something similar for Windows that is inspired by Syphon

[Braintree 1519]

That's dope! I don't see Live in the list of enabled apps though.

If I were to have a separate space on my mac and then moved the video window in Ableton to that space, would OBS be able to pick it up? I'm trying to do this on one laptop.

[hijexx 723]

lol yeah out of all those dozens of icons I don't see ableton. This project seems to have it working:

 

https://www.zwobotmax.com/manual/

 

[thawkins 472]

Any reasonable video capture stuff should have an option where you can select a region on your screen that will be captured. It should be possible to get your thing working in this way unless you are starved for space? In that case, maybe you can make a virtual desktop and stuff one of Ableton's second screen windows over there and make it record off the virtual desktop?

Are you on Mac or Windows?

[Braintree 1519]

2 hours ago, thawkins said:

Any reasonable video capture stuff should have an option where you can select a region on your screen that will be captured. It should be possible to get your thing working in this way unless you are starved for space? In that case, maybe you can make a virtual desktop and stuff one of Ableton's second screen windows over there and make it record off the virtual desktop?

Are you on Mac or Windows?

I use a Mac, and the OS has spaces that are multiple desktops. I was thinking I could put the window into one of those and have OBS cap that space/desktop.

[mause 187]

Ableton recommends using Matroska Splitter and FFDShow which I have tried and yes, it does work nicely. it will playback video in a wrapper which OBS should be able to capture..though ive personally never tried to do that so..grain of salt or something...

the only issue is that realtime video playback gets incredibly cpu intensive so im not sure whether these would be ideal for what you're doing..worth a go tho!

[TubularCorporation 701]

11 hours ago, Braintree said:

It will do a window cap on the plugin itself (where the effect chain goes) but it won't capture the window where the video is coming from.

Maybe I should try a few more M4L plugins and see if any of those can capture it...

Oh interesting, I always thought it would do full screen capture, too.  I mostly use it for streaming obscure, crappy movies so I've never needed to mess with sources other than local files, VLC playlists and analog capture.

[Braintree 1519]

Okay, so the window for the Max device isn't able to be moved to another space on its own, and OBS doesn't recognize multiple desktops anyway.

4 hours ago, mause said:

Ableton recommends using Matroska Splitter and FFDShow which I have tried and yes, it does work nicely. it will playback video in a wrapper which OBS should be able to capture..though ive personally never tried to do that so..grain of salt or something...

the only issue is that realtime video playback gets incredibly cpu intensive so im not sure whether these would be ideal for what you're doing..worth a go tho!

I cannot ascertain what those are or how to use them. The former's website says what's been changed but doesn't exactly explain what it is. The latter says it's a codec, I'm sure is supposed to be used in tandem with the first?

My processor is 2.4 GHz 8-core Intel Core i9. 64GB 2667 MHz DD4 RAM. Should be able to handle whatever.

I just found that you can upload local files into OBS though. I might be able to just record something beforehand and play that while streaming

[thawkins 472]

I tested a bit with OBS and I could achieve something that sounds like what you want using Display Source with Window and manual cropping.

I just used the spectrum thing on EQ8 as an example, I assume you can focus your display source on the M4L device?

Forget the following, the recording does not work.

I also tested this: you can make the second window from Live, drop it to another virtual desktop (space) along with OBS, then add Display Source and tick the checkbox "show windows with empty names" and you can now select the secondary Live window from the source list. This should help you keep the streaming focused on your secondary Live window while you do other stuff in the primary window. "Should", because I have not really worked with this multi window workflow and it is probably janky for your use case. ?

Edited May 2, 2020 by thawkins

[TubularCorporation 701]

The "Display Capture" source should give you the full screen, if that's useful.

I've never done it but I know people who use it to restream from services like Amazon Prime.

Edited May 2, 2020 by TubularCorporation

[mause 187]

9 hours ago, Braintree said:

Okay, so the window for the Max device isn't able to be moved to another space on its own, and OBS doesn't recognize multiple desktops anyway.

I cannot ascertain what those are or how to use them. The former's website says what's been changed but doesn't exactly explain what it is. The latter says it's a codec, I'm sure is supposed to be used in tandem with the first?

My processor is 2.4 GHz 8-core Intel Core i9. 64GB 2667 MHz DD4 RAM. Should be able to handle whatever.

I just found that you can upload local files into OBS though. I might be able to just record something beforehand and play that while streaming

in all honesty I have no idea why it works, its just does ?‍♂️

 

[Braintree 1519]