Pardon my ignorance, I’m a noob. I’m really new to music production and owning a DT for that matter. What are the benefits of running a DT into ableton? I mean the DT is kind of a stand alone unit if chosen to use it that way so just wondering. I have ableton intro and was gonna try and connect it. Also if I connect the DT to ableton what should the pre/post fader on the DT be set to? Pre or post? What’s the difference?
Following this, as I have no idea what the benefits of pre-fader are – I’ve always just used post-fader, which is fine for me.
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the main benefit of running the DT through ableton, especially now with overbridge, is being able to add fx to each channel individually. it’s easy to jam something out and either just edit the arrangement or chop the audio up and resample it.
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To add onto the FX idea, if you other VSTs/soft synths/etc running on the same Ableton project you can individually sidechain individual channels between the DT tracks and the other tracks which might be important for some people.
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Also I asked if I connect the DT to ableton what should the pre/post fader on the DT be set to? Pre or post? What’s the difference? Can anyone explain what this option does?
yup being able to have complex sidechains is massive. ESPECIalLY when u realize you can have this in a live playing environment
Pre-fader: Audio is sent to Ableton before the DT Level control. Ableton will record the DT audio at full volume, regardless of where the Level is set
Post-fader: Audio is sent to Ableton after the DT Level control. Ableton will record the DT audio according to where you have the DT Level set
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Great, so using pre-fader doesn’t bypass the filter or amp settings (for example), just the track’s main volume?
Yes, that’s my understanding. The Level is like an individual master fader for everything happening within that track. Pre-fader ignores it, Post-fader prints where it’s set
edit: to clarify, I’m talking Track/Mixer Level, as there’s also Sample/Source Level
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With Ableton, you can record the Output as Audio and combine both individual tracks and whole pattern into arrangements.
I use all my Elektrons as provider for loops that I arrange later in Ableton to full songs. It’s a great way to get around the limitations, such as a missing song mode.
The other way around is that the DT/DN provide a great hardware Sequencer with which you can come up with ideas that would be hard to create in a piano roll.