Ableton and your modular synthesizer can be a great combination. With CV Tools, included in Ableton Live Suite 10, you can bring the digital and analog worlds together by using the included devices. For syncing Live to your modular, you can use CV Tools’ Clock and Trigger devices – they work with any audio interface. All of CV Tools’ other devices require a DC-coupled interface to work correctly.
A return track is a track that contains audio effects, and the output of every track in your project can be sent through it, using send controls. You can apply a common effect across many tracks and if you’re using a very CPU-heavy reverb effect, you don’t need to load 24 of them into your project – just one will do. I've been struggling with understanding latency in Ableton Live 10 when recording MIDI tracks to audio tracks. I need to understand this for internal Live instruments, VST plug-ins, and external MIDI devices, such as drum machines and synthesizers. Had this problem moving MIDI tempo maps from cakewalk into Ableton Live 9. My solution was to save the Project as 'MIDI type 1' which is a universal format that will include tempo maps to be imported.
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But not to worry, if you don’t own a DC-coupled interface or don’t have Live 10 Suite, there are other ways to connect your modular system with Ableton Live. Before we take a closer look at the options, we recommend you check out this article on using external hardware with Ableton Live.
MIDI to CV
A modular synthesizer works with Gate and CV signals. These are analog signals that send voltages to the different modules of your system. A CV signal is a continuous signal, used for controlling pitch or modulations like LFO’s and Envelopes, for example. A Gate signal is a trigger signal, used to control one-off events, like playing back one sound or starting or stopping a sequencer.
Further, Ableton lives to accomplish a scope of new sense that will be useful to make the program simpler. It incorporates the notes pursuing that can trigger and MIDI note Play regardless of whether Playback begins in the center. Additionally, it offers feature of crosswise over different displays with different types of environments. Ableton live 1 download.
One of the easiest ways to convert digital MIDI signals to analog Gate and CV signals is via a MIDI-to-CV interface. There are a lot of options available, both as standalone hardware or as Eurorack modules. Every MIDI-to-CV Interface works by converting a digital MIDI signal (that can transfer up to sixteen channels of information through one single cable) to analog CV or Gate signals.
Since Gate and CV can only carry one signal per cable, you need a lot of channels if you want to be able to control multiple elements of your modular system. The Hexinverter Mutant Brain for example, has 16 outputs: 4 for CV and 12 for Gate. You can control 12 trigger events and can connect 4 continuous CV signals to different parts of your modular. Configuring the Mutant Brain has to be done through a web page and SysEx commands.
Most MIDI-to-CV devices feature a single MIDI plug, but there are some devices that sport a USB port as well. The Doepfer A-190-3 and Intellijel µMIDI both have a MIDI and a USB plug so you can connect your computer directly to your Eurorack system. Depending on the quality of your MIDI-to-CV interface, there can be some latency in your system. More on latency and timing issues later.
YouTuber BoBeats takes you through the functionality of Hexinverter’s Mutant Brain:
Semi-Modular Hardware
In addition to dedicated MIDI to CV converters, there are a number of semi-modular hardware synths and controllers that have converters built in. The Moog Grandmother and Mother 32, Korg MS-20 mini, Make Noise 0-Coast, Behringer Crave, Pittsburgh Modular Microvolt, Arturia MiniBrute and Roland System 1M are just a few examples of this ever-growing niche of relatively affordable synths that allow both hands-on sound patching and control via MIDI.
Audio Pulses
If you only want to make sure your modular is synchronized with Ableton, try sending an audio pulse to the system. Here it’s important that the audio pulse is a very short sound with plenty of volume. This way, your modular understands this as a pulse. A good sound example comes from modular manufacturer Make Noise. You can download it by following the link below but, and this is Very Important: make sure your speakers are off! At high volume, this sound can damage your ears and/or your speakers.
Turn off your speakers or headphones, then download this free audio pulse.
Put the audio pulse in a Drum Rack and send out sixteen pulses per bar. Route this track to an output of your audio interface and send this signal to your modular system. This so-called Clock signal can go into any input of your modular that’s labeled ‘Clock’. You can copy the signal using a Multiple in your modular to send it to other modules.
If you want even more synchronization, create a second Drum Rack on a different channel and make sure the pulse plays every first beat of the bar. This audio signal can go to any of your modules with a Reset input. This way, when Ableton Live is on the first bar of a beat, it will send a reset signal to your modular.
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to deal with latency issues, since you are only sending an analog signal to your system. The disadvantage is that you have to sacrifice two outputs of your interface and you can’t send CV signals.
In this One Thing video with producer and sound designer Richard Veenstra (xndr) you can learn more about using audio pulses in Ableton Live:
Expert Sleepers
A further option is to use any of the products from Expert Sleepers. This UK company makes modules that are meant to transform signals from Ableton Live to your Eurorack system. It does so by using a Lightpipe cable, also known as ADAT. As soon as you connect an Expert Sleepers module to your audio interface using a Lightpipe cable, you can use these ADAT channels in Ableton Live.
Expert Sleepers has a software package called Silent Way, which includes tools to send CV and Gate signals from Ableton Live to your Expert Sleepers module. Select one of the ADAT outputs in Live and an LED on your Expert Sleepers module will blink, glow or light up, depending on the signal you feed it from the software.
Some Expert Sleepers, such as the ES-8 or ES-9, are full blown audio interfaces that can be hooked up to your computer directly using a USB cable. You can expand these interfaces with modules like the ES-5 for even more outputs. The video below explains how to set up the ES-8 within Ableton Live:
Ableton Link
Link is a feature in Ableton Live that keeps devices in time over a wired or wireless network (such as Wi-Fi). No additional hardware or software is needed – Link makes sure all connected instruments are synced at all times. Of course, your modular system probably does not have Wi-Fi and isn’t connected via Ethernet to your local network. However, there is an option to integrate Link in your modular setup.
Enter The Missing Link from Circuit Happy. Just connect the box to your Wi-Fi network and attach Clock and Reset cables to their respective outputs. As soon as the box receives a Link signal, it will send this to your modular. If there is no Wi-Fi network available, The Missing Link can act as an Access Point, meaning that you can connect your computer to The Missing Link’s network.
The Missing Link is also a class compliant USB MIDI Interface, which means that you can not only send a Clock and Reset signal to your modular, you can also synchronize other MIDI hardware via The Missing Link. Wireless connections can introduce latency, but Circuit Happy provides you with a solution. If you are experiencing timing issues, adjust the delay compensation directly on the box itself, just as you would do in Live. An alternative to the Missing Link is Seismic Industries Spink0, a DIY-module with Ableton Link integration.
Circuit Happy has a short video explaining how The Missing Link works:
Latency and Timing Issues
Due to the nature of modular synthesizers, you might experience latency issues when using your modular system with Live. Some modules are completely analog and therefore introduce no latency into your signal flow. But an ever-growing number of modules are digital or have digital components which lead to latency in your signal.
Adding a computer to your setup may add even more latency. That’s why it’s important to know how to tackle timing issues if you experience them. For more information about latency and how to deal with delay compensation or driver error compensation, please read this article on How Latency Works.
If you're familiar with programming MIDI in Ableton Live, you'll know that the MIDI clip interface is one of the slickest of any DAW available. However, even beyond Live's elegant grid snap and slip abilities, checking out the in-built MIDI effects plugins can be a real eye-opener! Dropping Arpeggiators, Chord makers and Random units in front of a synth plugin can be a great way to create MIDI clips that would take an age to program by hand (or wouldn't even be vaguely possible with a mere MIDI keyboard) - but before we get too carried away, there's just one little problem. How do you get the MIDI output from the MIDI effects into a separate MIDI clip, so that you can store that serendipitous Random output, edit the bum note that came from the Arpeggiator or record the notes you're playing with the computer keyboard because you're on the train'
The answer: MIDI routing! In this Ableton Live 9 tutorial, I'm going to show you how to work with Live's MIDI routing so that you have unfettered access to a whole new world of musical MIDI wizardry - you can also download free MIDI files used in the following discussion, at the end of the article. Let's get started!
Arpeggiator MIDI Routing: Show Me The Way
In the image above, you can see that with a plugin (in this case, Massive) loaded on my MIDI track, I can only route the audio from Massive out of the track. It's going to the Master bus at the moment, which you can see in the routing panel below the yellow Auto monitoring box. In front of Massive on the device view for this track however, I've placed an Arpeggiator which I've been playing with whilst listening to how it sounds when triggering a Massive preset:
The MIDI clip I'm using is just a couple of chords over two bars, which sounds like this:
And through the Arpeggiator, it sounds like this:
Pretty cool, huh' But I don't like the very last couple of notes. I want to edit them so that the notes lead back into the Bm chord that begins the loop, and continue rising melodially rather than descending at the last moment. I can't do this using Arpeggiator alone, as I'd have to change the chord back to Bm just before the end of the loop, which would start the Arpeggiator back at the root note, rather than continuing upwards.
So, I need to route the multitude of MIDI notes coming out from Arpeggiator out of the track before they hit Massive and get turned into audio, which I can't edit easily. How can I get round this' Well, in the image above, you can see that in a naked MIDI track with no instrument on it, the same panel that would let me choose where audio from Massive goes now shows 'No Output'. Clicking on it would let me route the MIDI to another MIDI track, or crucially, another MIDI track with an instrument on it.
If I send the output of this pure MIDI track to the Massive track, I can now simply drag my MIDI clip and the Arpeggiator out from the Massive track and onto the new MIDI track, where the MIDI will get sent to the track with Massive on it..but wait..there's no sound! That's because you need to Record Arm the Massive track, like so:
Now, you can hit record and Ableton Live will miraculously print those arpeggio notes into a new clip! Here's my Arpeggiator output:
This makes the output of the Arpeggiator directly accessible for editing. Here's the MIDI with my edits at the end of the loop:
So, this is how the loop sounds with my MIDI tinkering included:
Ableton Live At Random
Using exactly the same method, we can extend this technique to other devices within Live - let's check it out with Ableton's Random Midi effect. Tweaking the controls on the effect, I get a range of voicings of my two chord loop. By printing a couple of these into new MIDI clips, I can string them together to add some variation in order to create a 4-bar loop rather than the 2 bars I had originally, whilst remaining in key. Awesome! You can also use this effect on just about any MIDI track that features repetitive material looping over and over, for a bit of spice. Here's how it sounds:
A, D, G = C: Recording Output From Computer Keyboard MIDI
So, you should be starting to see how you can use this technique with a host of tools within Ableton Live to spark new musical ideas. As a final example, and just because I love using it, I'm going to show you how to record the output of Live's insanely handy computer keyboard MIDI facility.
We need the same two tracks as before (a track with a MIDI instrument on it, and a separate MIDI-only track). Again, we can stick MIDI effects on the MIDI-only track that we might want to record whilst hearing them run through our MIDI instrument'the routing is only a little bit more involved - you can see it in the image above.
Firstly, make sure that the computer keyboard button is on - it's the button at the top right of the screen, between the Draw Mode Switch (the pencil) and the Key mapping button. Now, route the output of the MIDI-only track to the Massive/instrument track, and make sure the MIDI-only track's input is set to 'All Ins' or 'Computer Keyboard'. On the instrument track, choose the name of your MIDI-only track in the top drop-down menu - mine is called '2-MIDI'. Finally, Arm the record button on both tracks (you will probably need to hold down Control on Windows or Command on Mac in order to switch on the second one without switching off the first). Hit record and..voilà!
Now when you next work on a tune whilst on the move, you can tap away at your keyboard and everyone will think you're the funkiest and/or the most inept accountant around!
Be sure to check out some of the gorgeous MIDI clips included in our Ableton Live and Massive preset packs such as Dawn House, Exposure and of course, our gargantuan House Generator.
Download 800MB of free sounds to get you started, or listen to our latest releases!
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