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Hi!

I also have the A4 and while I do not typically use overbridge with it, I have done this in the past and you aren’t crazy, it is not intuitive how to get it working.

  1. Make sure that on the A4 you have MIDI+OB enabled in Global / MIDI Config / Port Config / “Input From”, and also that you have have audio routing set up so that none of the tracks are routed to Main ( in Global / Audio Routing )

Also make sure that you have “Track” Input enabled in Ableton’s MIDI preferences for the “Analog Four ( Elektron MIDI )” MIDI device, this allows you to route MIDI directly to the A4 instead of going through OB, this is important for method 2:

26%20AM

There are two main methods I’ve used:

  1. configure four MIDI channels. In the first MIDI channel put the A4 Overbridge plugin, and for each of the other three, assign “MIDI To” to the “A4 Track 1” instrument for each track select channels 2 through 4:
    ANALOG4_OB-SEPTRACKS___ANALOG4_OB_-2

Then configure Audio tracks to route the individual channels from the A4 back to the mixer:

ANALOG4_OB-SEPTRACKS___ANALOG4_OB_-3
ANALOG4_OB-SEPTRACKS___ANALOG4_OB_-3.png567×646 29.3 KB

The benefits to this method are that you don’t have to fiddle with both Ableton and the A4, you can just record arm the correct MIDI track and play your keyboard and the right sound will come out. It’s particularly good if you have a push ( I do ) as it lets you select a MIDI track and start playing, from any configured MIDI input.

Another “benefit” is you can record MIDI in Ableton in which case you’re really just treating the A4 like a sound module. Up to you.

  1. If you want to use Auto Channel, the setup is a little simpler actually, but it requires you to switch channels on the A4. This method assumes you are just recording notes into the A4’s sequencer tracks or playing the sounds on the A4 live.

To do this, create a MIDI track and put the A4 plugin there, then disable input on that track. Next, create another MIDI track and for output select the “Analog Four ( Elektron MIDI )” MIDI device and select Channel 9, the Analog Four’s Auto Channel.

ANALOG4_OB-AUTOCHANNEL___ANALOG4_OB_
ANALOG4_OB-AUTOCHANNEL___ANALOG4_OB_.png605×694 34.2 KB

You would configure 4 Audio channels to route Audio back from the A4 just like in the first example.

In this setup you should be able to trigger notes on the currently selected A4 Track from that single MIDI channel and then play notes into the A4’s sequencer.

Aside: I think there are a few different ways to do this with various trade-offs but these are the ones I got working. I’d be curious if I’m missing something obvious here. Ableton and the A4 with OB are both quite complex so no one way to do something.

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