Zone

Description

Zone — a MIDI-mappable keyboard zone / split filter, with octave + semitone transpose and full MIDI passthrough.

Zone is a tiny MIDI Effect that passes only the notes inside a key range, transposes what survives, and lets everything else through untouched — a split tailored to each track.

Zone filter — two independent, toggleable bounds:

- Lo — pass notes ≥ the low note

- Hi — pass notes < the high note (the pivot note belongs to the upper side)

Turn one bound off for an open-ended range, both off to pass everything. The Learn buttons capture a bound from the next note you play.

Post-transpose (applied after the filter):

- Octave — ±4 octaves (coarse)

- Tone — −6…+5 semitones (fine), tiling exactly with the octave (Roland/Korg convention)

Tone via CC — drive the Tone shift from an incoming MIDI CC:

- Parameterizable CC number (default 102, the MIDI "Undefined" range), acting on any channel that reaches the track (channel is Ableton's job, at the track input)

- A master enable toggle — off = that CC just passes through, untouched

- Four mapping modes: Center 0/64 × Range Step (1 CC value = 1 semitone) / All (interpolate 0–127)

- The assigned control CC is consumed; every other CC still passes through

Why it's useful:

- Transpose after the split — the split point never moves with it. The zone is filtered on the notes you play; the octave/semitone shift hits only the survivors, downstream. Transpose the sound as much as you like — the split boundary stays exactly where you set it. This is the whole point.

- Mappable min/max bounds — which Ableton can't do natively. Low and High are real Live parameters, so the split point is MIDI-mappable and automatable (Ableton's built-in key zones are not). Map several Zones' bounds to one CC and move a split across instruments, live.

- Full passthrough — control change (expression, sustain, breath…), pitch bend, aftertouch, program and poly pressure pass unchanged (except the one CC you assign to Tone). Breath/expression-driven instruments keep working.

- No stuck notes — a held note always gets its note-off, even if you move or disable a bound, transpose, mute or bypass while it rings.

Stack as many instances as you like to build arbitrary multi-zone keyboard splits.

Tip: drive Zone hands-on from a Stream Deck with the brilliant Trevliga Spel Stream Deck MIDI plugin (https://trevligaspel.se/streamdeck/midi/index.php) — a killer companion that fires CC / Program Change straight from physical keys.

Free / MIT — use, modify, share.