i couldn't find anything here about the rotocontrol by Melbourne Instruments. i have thought about grabbing a second midi controller for quite some time now. hopefully santa will have pity on me and bring me something, who knows.
i'm talking about this here: https://www.melbourneinstruments.com/rotocontrol

i do not want nor need something to control the whole daw. i dont care about launching clips or performing live. what i do care about is: tweaking sounds on devices and third party plugins AND recording automation. a lot of midi controllers include so many functions i dont care for that im not really interested in them. example, the twister midi with 4x4 knobs, but no labels, nothing.. or any of the "universal daw controllers" that are mainly for mixing and have a huge number of functions. this little guy instead seems extremely simple to use and exactly what i care for, it remembers the mapping, it has labels with names taken straight from ableton live, and so on. has anyone got it? opinions?

onto the ableton question
now besides the ridiculous price, which i guess on one hand is fair because of the moving pieces, i have a problem. maybe some ableton guru can enlighten me. as of now, the way i've been recording automation was through the use of a midi keyboard that had a few knobs. the only thing is that i was ALWAYS restricted to one track at a time. reaching for the mouse while tracks playing was awkward. so i'd play once, record first track; play a second time; record second track.

from what i've seen and understand, with this one (but also with MANY other controllers), you'd be able to select track 1"-> adjust first device's cutoff -> select track 2 -> adjust second device's cutoff. and this is all fine and well. but is it possible to control BOTH of these together? can you ever control two different parameters on two different tracks at the same time? you would have to create a rack with some macros that are assigned somewhere else? but then i still have to switch between the rack and the device, haven't i?

 

The review and the video should answer your questions:

Melbourne Instruments Roto-Control - SOS Review --> www.soundonsound.com/reviews/melbourne-instruments-roto-control

Roto-Control Motorized MIDI Controller Video Manual Melbourne Instruments

This is exactly the right device for an Ableton user and your way of working.