Hi all, I’m looking for videos where people run through how they have Ableton set up to control a hardware studio.
I can only find short videos of ‘how to sync external synth’, etc etc…
I’m in the process of making racks for everything and controlling all from Push but would be very useful to see a video of how people tend to set up Ableton to control a room full of drum machines and synths via comprehensive midi setup, all the routing etc.
I think this really depends on what you want to achieve… e.g.
Sequence all from Ableton and/or use external midi sequencers?
Use any midi input from your hardware to play other hardware and/or VST instruments?
External hardware FX connected to Ableton send/returns?
Multitrack all your audio or just a stereo mix?
Etc…
One basic approach is to use the External Instrument device to handle midi and audio.
Another approach is to use a separate midi track and audio track for each device/channel of each device.
Here’s a very quick video showing the first approach:
I really think that when you start getting deeper into this hybrid setup stuff, the specifics of your aims, your gear and how you like to work really define the approach - so a bit more info about these factors would help us help you!
Thanks. Yeah it will be very complex and I’ll use a variety of techniques depending on the hardware, its features, and how I want to control each piece. But it would be nice to see how someone else has done it. Like a comprehensive detailed run through.
Even simple stuff like how many tracks in Ableton for one piece of hardware gets a bit mad with all the audio & midi routing, recording etc. Someone must have a good method they’ve recorded (I hope).
I suspect you’ve got a decent understanding of the concepts involved - a lot of what you’re seeking will be personal preference - i.e. do I want to address all voices in a drum machine separately with midi events from Ableton, or do I just want to trigger patterns that are composed on that drum machine?
Most of the videos on YouTube are from a very basic level, but this guy gets deeper on the subject:
And here’s a more detailed offering from the guy who did the first video I posted:
Also I’d be very happy to have a video call chat with you about this subject - I LOVE this stuff - the routing, planning for workflow aims etc - for some background, I use Ableton and Cubase, Akai Force, MioXL, SQ5 mixer/interface and 4 x 48 bay patchbays in my studio so I’ve grappled with this precise topic a lot. If you wanna meet up on a video call to compare notes/ideas I’d be excited to do that!
Thanks I’ll have a look at these too. I know what I need to do but moreso curious if I’m missing other concepts which might work better than what I’m doing. My Alpha Base II has about 26 tracks in Ableton - it has two midi implementations and I’m using both for different ways of sequencing, so of course this is quite unique but yeah just wanting more info on what works for others running complex hardware setups.
Might useful to give a simpler description of what you’re trying to do, your current setup, and what it does well and poorly for you so people can relate directly to what they’ve found works and doesn’t for them.
Yeah - one thing I’ve learned is that it’s really important to try to keep it as simple as possible - especially when lots of gear is involved. Don’t try to take advantage of everything it can all do - just leverage what you want. It IS possible to get all gear connected via midi and audio so everything can go everywhere, but if you’re not going to use all those paths/flows then you can get stuck banging your head against a brick wall to achieve an aim you don’t actually want.
This is clearly a headache and one I’d be trying to avoid.
I have had a similar conundrum (badum tiss!) with my OG LXR.
If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a 6 voice drum machine with voices I like to play / sequence chromatically from my Force and record midi and audio multitrack to Ableton so I’ve setup 6 midi channels (7 actually since the open hat has its own channel but shares the audio channel) and 4 audio channels (LXR has only 4 audio outs). Each channel receives note and CC data, that’s sequenced and recorded in both Force and Ableton whilst also multi tracking the 4 audio channels into Ableton.
If I didn’t want to sequence chromatically I could just address it with one midi channel and use different notes to trigger different voices. But the 3 bass drum and tom voices (“drum” voices) sound SO nice when playing basslines/melodies I want to be able to play them chromatically. And the other voices also open up more with the wider range of pitch when I assign them their own midi channel.
Hence my point about how you want to work defining your routing and setup choices.
When I find myself in front of a computer and I need a synth, what I do is open its vst version. I find that there is no reason to waste time with cables, midi connections etc… and use the real thing.
When instead I lose myself in the cosmic creativity of my dawless jams, then the real synths have their meaning: everything that is virtual instead has no more sense.
I believe that Daw vs dawless are two worlds that must remain separate, precisely because they are opposite and in complete contradiction
I use Push 3 with Adat to send all audio to Ableton. When using a Mac Silicon you can keep the buffer size low in Live so there is hardly any noticable latency.
