NTPD
Simple, Beautiful Notes for
Ableton Live
GETTING STARTED GUIDE
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
NTPD is a beautiful way to store notes directly in your Ableton
Live sessions. It’s simple and easy to use but has some really
useful features, like the ability to open a resizable floating note,
change the colour of different notes to easily tell them apart and
even the ability to automate the timing of the floating note to
appear at particular points in the timeline.
Use NTPD to store ideas, session info, notes about synth
patches, reminders or whatever else you can imagine, and it's all
right there in your Live Set.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
INSTALLATION
Installing NTPD is fairly straightforward and shouldn’t take you
more than a few minutes.
Inside the folder you’ve downloaded you’ll find a file named
[Link] (or NTPD2 [Link] for the Lite version). There
should also be a NTPD2 [Link] (full version only) so you can
put NTPD anywhere in your signal chain.
[Link]
Simply drag either of these .amxd files onto a compatible track
and NTPD will load. You can add multiple instances of NTPD to
the same Track or different Tracks to load multiple copies.
*Note: NTPD requires MaxForLive so if you can’t load
the .amxd file you probably don’t have MaxForLive installed.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
LOADING NTPD FROM THE
BROWSER
As an extra step I would also
recommend saving NTPD to your
User Library to make it easier to
access.
Once you’ve loaded the
[Link] file onto a Track you
can drag and drop the device into
your User Library to save it as a Live
Adding NTPD to the User Library
Preset, which you can then load
directly from The Browser. You’ll need
to do this for both the Audio and MIDI versions.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
USING NTPD
NTPD is fairly straightforward to use; there are only a handful of
controls, however there are some hidden features that are worth
noting as well. Going from the top to bottom the controls are as
follows:
• Open Floatpad: Opens the floating notepad (see below)
• Open Colour Picker (Full Version Only): Clicking on the
dropper icon itself will open the system colour picker for you to
select a background colour for that particular instance of NTPD.
Clicking the • to the top right of the dropper icon toggles the
NTPD between receiving its colour from the colour picker or
inheriting its colour from the colour of its Track in Live.
• Resize Inline Note: Adjusts the width of NTPD in The Device
View so you can see more text. Note that you need to click and
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
drag on the value itself, not the icon. You can also click on the
value to select it and then type in a value, followed by the
Return key.
• Font Size: Adjusts the font size of both the inline note and the
floating notepad. Note that you need to click and drag on the
value itself, not the icon. You can also click on the value to
select it and then type in a value, followed by the Return key.
• Text Area: Click anywhere in the blank space to the right of the
controls and start typing to add your note. There are a few
considerations when typing in the text area (more info below).
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
THE FLOATPAD
Pressing the Open Floatpad button will open a separate, floating
notepad. This notepad has exactly the same contents as the
inline notepad and typing in the inline notepad will update the text
in the Floatpad and vice versa. The Floatpad will remain visible
even when you switch to a different Track so you can see multiple
notes from separate Tracks at the same time.
To resize the Floatpad simply hover over any edge until the
cursor changes to a resize arrow and then click and drag to
resize the Floatpad. The size and position of the Floatpad will be
saved with your Live Set.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
THE TEXT AREA
The Text Area in the inline note and Floatpad behave in exactly
the same way. You can drag across text to select it and use the
Select All, Cut, Copy and Paste keyboard shortcuts as usual, as
long as the cursor is within the Text Area.
TEXT AREA LIMITATIONS
“ (double inverted commas) and \ (backslashes) are used by
MaxForLive for certain functions so its best to avoid using these
characters in the Text Area. Use ‘ (single inverted commas) and /
(forward slashes) instead.
HIDDEN FEATURES & NOTES
Automating the Floatpad (Full Version Only)
One very useful ‘hidden’ feature is the ability to automate the
opening and closing of the Floatpad. This can be useful to have
certain notes show at specific points in the timeline, or when a
particular Clip is triggered.
When looking at the automatable parameters for the NTPD device
you will notice that there is a control called ‘Toggle The Floatpad’.
Use this to automate the Floatpad open and closed.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
Please refer to the Automation and Editing Envelopes chapter
of the Live Reference Manual for more information on automation.
Those Annoying “ “ Symbols
A small issue I’m aware of with NTPD is the annoying
accumulation of “ (double inverted commas) and \ (backslashes)
at the beginning and end of notes. This is due to the way the
textedit MaxForLive object that forms the core of the NTPD device
works.
The simplest solution is to just delete those inverted commas and
backslashes if they become a nuisance. I’ll be trying to find a fix
for this in a future update.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
If you have any questions or issues please get in touch at
[Link]/contact
NTPD is made by Ableton Certified Trainer Tom Glendinning, also
known as ELPHNT. For more devices, tutorials and free music
production resources visit [Link]
Please read the up-to-date licensing info for NTPD at [Link]/
licensing
Ableton Live and all its logos are the property of Ableton AG.
NTPD by ELPHNT © 2019
