A4 // Ableton Live 9 // Ext. Instrument // some questions

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
1

Hey,

I just tried to hook up my A4 with Ableton Live 9. This is my first time ever hooking up hardware gear with a DAW via MIDI . This is what I did:

[ul]
[li]linked A4’s Midi In to sound card’s Midi Out via Standard Midi cable[/li]
[li]switched “Track” and “Sync” of my soundcard’s Midi Output to “on” within Ableton Preferences[/li]
[li]set “Input From” to “Midi” within A4[/li]
[li]enabled “Clock Receive”, “Transport Receive” and “Prog Ch Receive” within A4’s Midi Config Menu.[/li]
[li]linked A4’s Main Outputs to Input Channels 7/8 of my sound card[/li]
[/ul]

In Ableton I created a Midi Track, put an External Instrument on it, set “Midi To” to sound card’s Midi Out / Channel 1 and “Audio From” to channels 7/8.

If I create a clip now, the sound of Track 1 of A4 is playing. So far so clear.

Then I created 3 more Midi/External Instrument Tracks in Ableton for Channel 2/3/4. “Audio from” is set to channels 7/8 too.

First thing I realized is, that only Track 1/Channel 1 plays the sound of A4, if I click on the piano roll in Clip Editor. The keys turn red and I can preview, if the sound is in key. But I can’t preview for Tracks 2/3/4, I have to draw notes to hear a sound. Why is that?

If I have clips for all 4 Tracks, audio stacks and gets logically louder, because each track is linked to channels 7/8.
Do I have to route in a different way? Or even create a separate Audio Track to route to?

Another question for my general understanding: The yellow track activation button in Ableton doesn’t mute Midi itself, only audio, right? So if I want to “mute”, I have to stop the Midi clip?

Sorry about these noobish questions, I’ve tried to figure out as much as possible so far, but I am at the very beginning concerning Midi Hardware and DAWs.
Looking forward to your help!

Greets,

Ranzenberger

2

I always have fun with this as well.
Everything you did is fine up to the duplicated Ext Inst tracks. Set up 4 MIDI tracks instead,each set to the corresponding A4 tracks, then use a single audio track to receive from them. It takes some messing around, but this worked for me.
I’m far from an expert, so maybe someone with more insight will be better able to help.
Have fun!!

3

Hi Ranzenberger,
For issue one, it’s likely you have the little headphone icon (top left of piano roll) only turned on for midi track 1. Just turn it on for 2-4.

For issue 2, that’s because right now you only have 1 audio output. So, you’re multiplying every time you add a track. ALL sounds go out the mainoutputs. HOWEVER, when Overbridge is released, you can send the individual audio tracks via USB.

So, there’s no solution for issue #2 except for recording each track separately in 4 takes.

4

I think you could try just for the first A4 track in the external instrument the audio channel. on the other 3 tracks you just set the audio channels to none.

There is also an ableton video describing how to use external drum maschines in push. there they just set the kick to audio, the rest to none and the drummaschine worked well in push. So i think this should work the same.

5

Works fine! That’s how I wanted it to be: being able to mute MIDI tracks individually. Thanks a lot!

6

Perfect! That was it! Thanks!

7

I will try that later, thanks for the advice. Have to search for the video, too. Thanks for your help!

8

My current Ableton/Analog 4 setup:

Mixer_Mixer.png2872×1018 106 KB

I’ve never used the External Instrument plugin but sending MIDI to the A4 is pretty straight-forward using Midi track output settings

Here you see midi going to A4 tracks 1-4 , which by default are set to incoming midi channels 1-4.

You also see the A4’s output (named Analog Four IN), which I have coming in on my soundcard’s tracks 3 and 4.

Note that you could also add in the A4’s FX and CV tracks as well. I haven’t tried it but I think in this way you could use the A4 as a midi-to-CV box from Ableton?

To make life easer I grouped these in Ableton so I can collapse the group and see just the return audio and fire off patterns across all four tracks with one button.

Can’t wait until the end of this year when Elektron releases Overbridge (link), which sounds like it will take all the hassle out of embedding the A4 into Ableton since it will appear as a single soft-synth!

9

Thanks for the picture of your setup, did it the same way and works perfect for my needs now.
Yeah, Overbridge, very very promising… :slight_smile:

10

The A4 certainly needs 5 channels (4x MIDI and 1x audio), but if you used the external instrument plugin you could use 1 channel rather than 2 for your Microbrute.

11
  • Set up 5 MIDI tracks.
  • Add an external instrument device to them all.
  • Set the MIDI output device on them all.
  • Set the first external instrument device to receive the audio from your A4, but change the MIDI output channel to no output. (Shown below)
    *Set the MIDI output channel on the other 4 devices to 1-4, but set the audio from to no input.

That gives you an audio channel and 4 MIDI channels, all which keep in time with the rest of your project since you are using the external instrument device. You can also easily adjust it to perfect the timing with the latency offset. Just using normal MIDI routing might lead to timing issues.

http://images.devs-on.net/Image/4D8uDbKTwWHUNa55-Region.png

You are correct about having to stop the MIDI clip to prevent it sending MIDI.