How to record A4 in stereo?

Hi,

I can’t work out how to record A4 in stereo. I’ve got A4 on track 13 routed to audio track 14. I’ve panned the audio to the left in Overbridge. You can see by the meters that the sound is panned in track 13 but not in track 14. I’ve used panning just to make a point. But if the sound on 1 track in A4 was stereo it would be recorded as mono on track 14. The audio clip visible on track 14 is mono, but the sound I recorded was stereo. I’d be grateful if someone could point out what I’m doing wrong.

Many thanks.

You’re on the right track.
https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=115302

Live will record mono internally (ie, resampling) as 2 mono tracks split as “stereo” with the same data on left and right tracks (essentially the same but double the data).

Ah, maybe I misunderstood sorry - I read this originally as trying to record to a mono audio track in Ableton, which doesn’t help you at all.

Are you trying to play the A4 live while doing this or are you just playing back midi notes triggered by Live? You could try rather than routing the A4 to 14 Audio, using the resampling option instead.

Another option would be to use Session View, triggering midi clips on the A4 track and recording the audio to a clip on 14 Audio.

My only other thought would be some setting missed somewhere.

Many thanks for your suggestions digitalgeist. I was originally trying to record A4 live, but followed your suggestion and added MIDI notes on the A4 MIDI track … same problem. I don’t think resampling will help, because I suspect my problem is with A4 rather than routing in Live. I added a soft synth on a MIDI track, routed it to an audio track, and was able to record it in stereo no problem. But for some reason the audio track that the A4 is routed to is mono, and records as mono. This suggests to me it’s something internal to A4/Overbridge. If I figure out what it is I’ll re-post. Thanks again for your reply buddy, much appreciated.

I’m not getting clearly what do you want to do.

Just some bits:

Voices or Tracks on the AF are mono, panning a track on the AF will be noticeable only on the Main LR.

Using a secondary track in Ableton to pull audio from AF’s individual tracks, will bring a single voice that is always mono.

If you want to pan that voice inside Ableton, then use the track’s pan.
If you wan to pan that voice before some effects i.e. reverb/delay, use Ableton’s Utility plugin, so you can pan pre FX, and still get the effects equally distributed on the stereo field.

Hey gbravetti,

Thanks for your reply. This is what I want to do. I play the note c on the little keyboard on A4. It plays the sound on track 1 of the A4 (which is selected). The sound is stereo. In Overbridge it is registering on the Track 1 meter, plus the Main L and R tracks. What I want to do is record this in Live, as I hear it on my headphones and monitors.

I’ve tried doing this several ways, but none work. I’ll explain what I did, and upload the audio results.

First try … I open a new default Live set. I put A4 on one of the MIDI tracks. Double click the first session slot and put one note in the MIDI Note Editor. Launch the clip and the note plays, and it’s stereo. All seems normal up to this point.

I go to File>Export Audio/Video. I select the Master track for rendering (also WAV, 44100, 24-bit, no dither). I hit “Export”. I load the exported WAV file into a slot on an audio track in the Session View. The result is a stereo file, but is completely garbled. Check out to the file below.

Second and third tries … I do exactly the same thing, but instead of choosing “Master” for rendering, I choose “1-Analog Four” and “Selected Track Only”. Both result in rubbish again. They are basically the same as the file below.

I suspect I’m doing something absolutely stupid, but don’t know what it is. BTW, I have no trouble rendering drum loops and soft synths in stereo.

I’ve only had A4 for a few weeks, and just began using Live when I bought it … I’m a long-time FL Studio user. I guess I have to dive into the Live and A4 manuals! Many thanks for your reply gbravetti.

https://www.elektronauts.com:/uploads/default/original/3X/7/e/7ead9bfcfbb9ed8901cc707bd870a79a8c0a23ec.wav

looking at the image you posted…

what does it say here, in the red circle? cant tell because it runs off - does it say “Trk 1 L / Trk 1 R”?? if so I would be expecting the input metering to reflect that, like you say… Im just wondering if it says “Trk 1 L / Trk 1 L” because obviously thats missing the R channel

I also thought the individual Track outputs were mono, and only the Master output is stereo - but I think someone from elektron posted that the individual Track outputs stereo as well… on the AK its one 1/4 jack, but its like a headphone jack that puts balanced stereo thru one cable

Ok, the way you described sounds ok…
Anyway let’s try a different approach.

  • Create a new live set by going to the Menu/File -> New Live Set - but hold the SHIFT key while clicking on New Live Set this will create a clean set regardless the default Set template. This Set will have only 2 tracks, “1 Audio” and “2 MIDI”.

  • On the MIDI track put the A4 plugin, create a clip on it, then draw a note. Launch that clip and listen if all is ok.

  • Right click on MIDI track’s and select Freeze Track option.

  • Drag and Drop the frozen MIDI clip to any free slot on the audio track.

The MIDI clip will be converted to a wav.

Unfreeze to continue using the Analog Four Plug-In.

Let me know how it goes.

[quote=“invisible_acropolis, post:7, topic:32379”]
what does it say here, in the red circle? cant tell because it runs off - does it say “Trk 1 L / Trk 1 R”?? if so I would be expecting the input metering to reflect that, like you say… Im just wondering if it says “Trk 1 L / Trk 1 L” because obviously thats missing the R channel[/quote]

Hey buddy … it says “Trk 1 L/Trk 1 R”, that’s what’s so puzzling.

That’s interesting. The fact that the audio track in the picture is selecting “Trk 1 L/Trk 1 R” suggests that track 1 in A4 is stereo. But why no stereo output?

Thanks for your suggestion my friend. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The frozen MIDI clip sounds exactly the same as the audio example I posted.

Since I’ve only had A4 a short time, and have saved nothing important, I might do a factory reset over the weekend. It’s possible I’ve changed some parameter in A4 while experimenting, and that’s causing the problem. I’ll let you know the outcome.

Are you listening completely through Ableton Live?
It has no sense that after a freeze the sounds changes.

BTW, as I said before, Ableton may see Track 1 as a stereo pair but you can check by yourself, pan your instrument on your AF and you’ll see that the pan only affects the sound that comes on Main Out. On track 1 it will be always on the middle and mono.

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One more idea here from me, then Im stumped… based on what you said, the inputs are set correctly. One thing to keep in mind, is that the “track only” output does not have any FX applied, it gets output before the FX processor - so therefore if there is no stereo panning in the track settings (instead of the FX) - it wont be stereo because its not panned left or right, and has no actual stereo movement.

I say this because this will be the default unless you go into the AMP settings, and pan it from there. Or if you are using an LFO to modulate the “pan” parameter… thats the only kind of stereo movement you will get from the individual track output.

If I’m not wrong, panning on the Amp settings doesn’t change anything on the individual outputs, only on the Main Out.

Hmm - so you are saying: if you are not wrong, then you are correct? That seems like a fair point.

But, the thing is - you are wrong. The individual 1/4 outputs on the AK transmit a stereo signal thru one single balanced cable, like a headphone jack - as I stated above. Go ahead and test one yourself if you need some evidence.

As far as how it works thru Overbridge and the USB stuff - I have no idea, because I dont use it. Id imagine it might be different since the A4 doesnt have individual 1/4 outputs for each track. It still seems a bit funky but whatever.

We are talking about overbridge on the Analog Four. Not about the individual analog outputs on the AK.

AK individual outputs are stereo as you said, overbridge’s individual outputs aren’t.

If you want to prove me wrong at least tray to pan individual overbridge tracks yourself from the amp section on the AF/AK, which I did already (even knowing the result) before to answering here.

Looking forward for your field test’s results.

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Yep :thup:
To hopefully prevent this one drawing out even longer

The bandwidth of OB capable devices is limited due to the noise introduced when running the USB bus at higher USB2 speeds

The speed of the bus was reduced to the next lowest standard so channel count is at a premium, plus, the AD converter is at the mono side of the track anyway

So, in OB you only ever got MONO individual outs, because of the AD location, but the confusion over typical USB2 bandwidth possibilities clouds people’s expectations somewhat

Whatever is happening in Live is academic, you only get a mono individual out, in fact every channel 1 of the 6@24 or 8@16 are mono, so that means you only get Main L and Main R on separate OB streams

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This is the main reason I don’t use overbridge - I often modulate the panning parameters within the a4. Really seems like a design oversight to me.
I’m planning on doing the individual outs mod once my warranty expires in order to gain access to individual stereo outs.

heippa! any ideas how to fix this issue in live?

seems that am recording two mono channels as shown above, but would like to record the individual tracks in one mono channel, without needing to use elektron as a sound card

Not very clear.
A4 MKI or MKII