Using Hardware Synths with Ableton Live 

Awesome, so glad you found it. Thank you for watching and commenting.

Glad it was helpful! There are different ways to connect all this gear, but once you connect the MIDI outputs from Live to your hardware sound modules, and the audio outs from your hardware in to your audio interface, the creative potential is endless. Have fun!

Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Glad it was helpful. If you record at a high resolution, 24 bit, 48 kHz, and higher there shouldn't be any sound quality loss. Of course, this is also dependent on the quality of your analog cables and AC power. Also, latency doesn't really affect audio quality, it just affects playback timing, which if everything is latent by the same amount (such as all the incoming tracks are 20 samples delayed) it doesn't matter, it's all relative. Trust your ears.

That is so cool! Great to hear, thanks for watching and commenting. Have fun!

Thank you, thanks for watching!

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching 🙏

You're welcome. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching and commenting. In theory the DeepMind should be perfect for the line input on your audio interface. If its output is low it might be the patch that you're playing, check its amp output. It looks like the stereo outs on the DeepMind are balanced so you could use two balanced 1/4-inch cables and this might help as well.

You're welcome, thanks for watching :-) So, if we're talking about audio recording, yes, but only with Push 2. With Push 2 you can set audio recording for a Fixed Length and record audio clip loops this way. Again, this is a feature that's exclusive to Push 2. With MIDI, you can create a MIDI clip and set it's length and then overdub MIDI notes into the clip. Hope this helps.

@@ErikHawk That's great!! I actually got a Push 2 a few weeks ago, so looks like I had the answer all along... Thanks for the help!! 😎😎

@@richardjames111 Oh yeah, enjoy your Push 2. Look for the Fixed Length button. Read up on that function. Have fun!

Sounds like your sample buffer size is set too low. What you're describing can occur when you have the buffer set to 32 or 64 samples in Live's audio Preferences. Try turning it up to 128 or 256 samples and this should help.

Yes of course, just leave the input channel in Live on In and monitor your MIDI hardware's audio output in real time while you work. This used to be referred to as a virtual track, the MIDI was coming from the DAW and the hardware would be plugged into a mixer for monitoring/mixing its audio. This works great for a multitimbral sound module, but with an old device like the TX7 you could only play one patch at a time, so multitracking it was the only way to have it play more than one patch per production.

Thanks so much for your response, that helps a lot!. My issue still seems to be that when I change the preset on the rev2 for a new track, the previous track I recorded changes it’s preset automatically as well and I can’t seem to have two sounds at once (using only midi)- did you have any thoughts on this? Thank you again!

@@chrisgeorge4513 As I understand it, because Sequential hasn't sent me one yet, ha, but the Prophet Rev2 is only bi-timbral, not multitimbral. This from the SOS article, "...bi-timbral, allowing you to create a separate sound, each with its own effect, arpeggio and sequence, in Layers A and B of each Program. These can then be layered or positioned either side of a user-defined split point." So yeah, as I read this it can only play one patch at a time. Rev2 users, may be able to clarify this better than I can.

@@ErikHawk Legend, thank you so much for this!

Not a stupid question at all. Keep in mind that in this video the USB was only for MIDI communication, not audio. So no loss or change in audio quality. If you have a MIDI sound module that can stream its audio over USB (not the norm, see my Waldorf Kyra review) this can change the sound of the module because it’s a full digital connection to your DAW. The sound module’s own analog audio outs will sound different than your computer’s audio interface’s audio converters. But again, this isn’t a loss in audio quality, just a difference in color because of the different analog outs.

You're welcome. Thanks for watching and commenting.

I did not use any of the external sequencers on my hardware sound modules. All of my MIDI notes were being sequenced from Live. Consequently, nothing fell out of time because I wasn't trying to MIDI Clock an external sequencer. Besides, the MIDI sequencer in Live is way more powerful then a step sequencer on an external hardware sound module. Of course, latency is always an issue, but it will be uniform across all of your tracks if Live is sending out all of the MIDI notes. Then, if necessary, after you record the audio you can easily nudge the clips a few ms forward in time. So keep in mind that latency and MIDI Clock Sync are two different issues. Hope this helps.

An old Juno would require the old MIDI cables. So, then to connect to your computer you'd need a MIDI to USB cable. Then, you'll see the MIDI USB port in your MIDI connections in the DAW. If you just need a simple MIDI to USB cable, check out the M-Audio Uno 1x1 USB MIDI Interface ($49). Or you can get a box with more old school MIDI IO if you have more old synths you want to connect. Hope this helps.

Yes, as I understand it. This is because the Model D doesn't respond to MIDI sync, only CV input as an external clock source.

Yes, but it would be easier to just get a dedicated MIDI i/o box. I'm still using the old MOTU MTP AV USB. These boxes can be networked for 16 MIDI ports, with each port outputting 16 MIDI channels. MOTU makes a lot of great MIDI i/o boxes.

I would probably just send the RD9 MIDI Clock. That is, sync it to Ableton Live. This way, it will follow Live's master tempo but you can program your beats right in the RD9's pattern sequencer. Then, when you've got your patterns programmed and chained together to create a song, you can record the RD9's individual outputs to multiple individual audio tracks in Live. Since the beats are synced to tempo, your multitrack recording will be on the tempo grid in Live for easy editing if you want later on.

the nice thing with the RD-9 is that it is much better to program (live or during design) than with any keyboard and you can simply just use the RD-9 as a drum controller in your DAW.... just load up any drum rack and assign the RD-9´s midi out to drum rack´s midi in. you might want to "change" a couple of drum sounds in the rack to fit your style and somewhat matching the drum machines knobs but it opens up possibilities... especially with beat/note repeat mute and solo and poly. do not forget that you can also load in whatever sampled sound you get from the outside world to pimp your drum rack. UMC 202 might not be enough as you will need one channel for the MONO RD-9 and if your synth is stereo, you will need an additional 2 channels for that, not to mention microphone which would be another channel and GAS for more synths^^. you will not necessarily need a midi box as the RD-9 and "most" synths have midi via usb these days.. so a hub that works should be ok. for live a mixer with usb audio interface might not be a bad idea maybe one with some ok built in effects and compressors to complement your synth and drum machine... should also free up some cpu power depending on the laptop your using.. for usb audio interfaces on the "cheap" that are expandable in case your GAS gets out of control Behringer UMC1820... you can hook up another 8 channel Behringer ADA8200 Ultragain via adat... but that should be overkill^^

Yes, but only if the audio interface has enough inputs. For example, the Focusrite 18i20 with eight inputs. This set up is sometimes referred to as a mixer-less system because all of your audio is mixed through your audio interface. The alternative is to employ a small mixer such as the Mackie 1402VLZ4. There are pros and cons to both setups. With the audio interface you might need to turn on your computer to jam (though some audio interfaces will work in stand-alone mode without the computer). With a small mixer you can jam DAW-less, no computer required. Have fun!

Yes of course, so long as there's a MIDI thru connection and each instrument is set to its own MIDI channel. Personally, I tend not to use MIDI Thru because of the latency that builds up in the daisy chain. Plus managing the individual MIDI channels per device and sequencer track can be a pain.

@@ErikHawk I was certainly not implying it was better than your setup, but it looked like a lot of trouble to disconnect one set of gear in order to connect the second one. And I'm actually very new to all this so it was just an idea.

@@Letstalkgaming Don't worry, I didn't interpret your comment as a criticism. Your suggestion to daisy chain the MIDI devices is a totally viable approach. I just thought I'd explain why I didn't do it this way. Also, some MIDI devices don't have a MIDI Thru port.

If you can hear the Model D's test tone you've got audio. That's good. Next for the MIDI. It sounds like the MIDI track in Live isn't sending out MIDI to the Model D. Create a MIDI clip on the MIDI track and send some MIDI notes to the Model D. If the Model D isn't seeing these notes, check to make sure that the MIDI track's MIDI output is assigned to the Model D. (If your computer recognizes the Model D's USB connection it should be available among the MIDI track's output choices.) This last step might be the missing connection. Good luck, keep us posted.

@@ErikHawk Thank you for your engagement and trying to help. I found out in the manual, that the midi channel switches "1, 2 , 3, 4 " don't actually mean midi channel 1 2 3 4. It would be better if the manufacturer would simply not give them a number if they don't apply to the midi channels. It's pointless and irritating.

@@mauriciobrandenburg2910 Ah ha, yes, that makes sense. Yeah, maybe letters instead of numbers ;-) Hopefully you got it working.

Yes, via USB. Your USB MIDI controller sends MIDI notes into Live. Then, Live sends MIDI notes out to either a USB to MIDI box (such as a MOTU Micro Lite 5x5) or a USB equipped sound module (like the Behringer Model D).

If you're using MIDI there's going to be delay. This is caused by the amount of time that it takes for the MIDI output from the computer to reach your hardware sound module, then the sound module's audio input to be converted back to a digital signal through your audio interface's A/D converters. You can fine tune this latency in the Sample Buffer settings and Ableton Live has the ability to adjust a track's delay in +/- samples on a track by track basis in your project. So there are lots of easy ways around this issue. However, remember that music isn't about perfect timing, it's about the "feel", and "feel" is partly determined by how much a note's timing varies relative to the other performances in your recording. So, go with what "feels" right to you versus just what you're seeing.

@@ErikHawk oh, ok! Good advise :) Thx

Nope, you need an audio interface for the audio input. There are analog to digital converters (DAC) in an audio interface. This is how you input the analog audio from your analog sound module. Yes, modern hardware sound modules, such as the Korg Monologue have a USB connection, but this is only for MIDI note data, not audio output. Hope this helps.

Roger! Good idea. Your could do this, for sure. Though when you flatten the track you lose the MIDI clip completely. So for this reason I wouldn't do it. But yeah, external instrument, freeze, then flatten would produce the audio clips.

You only need the MIDI to USB cable/interface if you're using an old MIDI device. New devices can be connected with USB. Or, if the old device has a keyboard, just play it :-)

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Thank you very much ... Sir ....

I hear ya, I felt the same way initially. But it's for vertical arranging, not the traditional linear arranging. In fact, Ableton Live was originally only the Session View! It was many versions after its initial release that the Arrangement View was added for producers that preferred the more traditional linear arranging. Also, Session View is the bomb for live performance. There's nothing quite like it, and yeah it's different.

the way i look at it, session view is best for live performance and mixdowns arrangement view is more production based, arranging patterns and clips to make a cohesive full length track

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Welcome! Thanks for watching.