Recording with Ableton Live only 4 tracks

Elektron Gear Digitakt
#1

Hi everyone,

I want to use my Digitakt as a sound interface to be able to play on Digitakt created drum bases. I use Ableton Live, but I think the problem is the same when using other Daws.

Ableton shows me a total of 12 channels coming from the Didigtakt: the last 2 contain only the bass (connected to the Digitakt via a two-channels DI), the first 2 contain the whole signal and the remaining 8 the tracks produced by the Digitakt.

As I don’t need to keep separate these 8 tracks (it would just make my workflow more complicated), I wonder if there is a way to send to Ableton Live only 4 tracks: two with the bass signal and two with the stereo channels containing all the 8 Digitakt tracks.

#2

Not totally sure I follow but let me try. Are you asking if there is a way to separate the Digitakt inputs (what you are referring to as drum bases?) inside of Ableton and record those separately from the stereo mix? If that’s your question, yes, that’s possible.

If that’s not your question, maybe see if you can rephrase. All of the Digitakt tracks and the external inputs can be tapped digitally inside of Ableton, as well as being able to record the main stereo mix separately. It’s just a matter of routing inside of Ableton.

#3

No. Simplifying, my question is:

can I record all the tracks generated with Digitakt in only one track in Ableton? Or in two stereo tracks?

#4

Yes. You don’t even need Overbridge for this now that the Digitakt is class compliant. Set your Digitakt to USB audio and midi in the system settings and in Ableton you’ll see it coming in as Input 1/2

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#5

But in this way I can’t use Overbridge… Isn’t a way to “condensate” more than one track in one?

#6

immagine
immagine1454×520 29 KB

I’ll try to explain better with an image. I want to record in Live the two Input tracks at the right of image, separated from the tracks from 1 to 8, but also I want to record only one track (or two tracks, for stereo) from track 1 to 8.

I can’t use “Main” tracks (the two at left) because here there are all the output, also the “input” tracks.

#7

Correct me if I’m wrong someone, but I don’t believe there’s a way to seperate the Ext Input from the Main outs.

So, you could route to seperate tracks in Overbridge, the Input tracks, plus the other two tracks you want, for instance 5&6, but those tracks wouldn’t contain the Send FX, you’d need to use some Ableton effects for that, for instance reverb or delay.

#8

moan about it in an email to feature-request@elektron.se … it’s such a pain. Maybe v1.4 (coming 2026) will have it :slight_smile:

#9

Yes you can, by using the External Mixer (page Master 3/3) and put level to 0. Then if you remove also the audio tracks from the main (Settings > Audio Routing > Route to main), your main output will only contain the FX.

What I am struggling with is how to split both L+R inputs as individual tracks. I did it on the Digitakt (same Master page, option Dual), but in Overbridge standalone or in Ableton I can still only see one stereo track that combines the L+R inputs. I see from Franco_64’s screenshot that it should be possible. Any idea how?

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#10

You can use the Ableton Utility plugin to only listen to the right or left channel, so create two audio tracks listening to the inputs channel and put a left utility on the first and right utility on the second.

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#11

Awesome, thanks!

#12

Had the same issue with my Digitone, it’s a bit clunky but it totally works!

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