External effects question

[divonic]

I am in the process of setting up my studio after a move and a new sound card purchase. I am still using Live 7. I have a bunch of external effects some of which are multi-effects processors and have MIDI I/O for sending program change info to change the effect.

I can change the effect from live but at the moment I can't have a single track with the sound and the effect program change info on it. Is there a way to do this without using two tracks one for the audio (whether audio, internal MIDI or External MIDI instrument) that has the actual external effect on it and another a MIDI track used to control the External effect?

Thanks for any help

[UltimateOutsider]

EDIT: Scratch that. I thought the External Instrument would certainly do what you need (since the idea is to combine MIDI out and Audio in on a single track), but now I'm not sure about routing the dry signal to the effect device. Also, it's not clear whether the External Effects device supports MIDI out. (Not at my DAW and the Live manual doesn't mention it.)

[divonic]

It might be able to work with track grouping but as that is a feature in Live 8 and I have yet to upgrade. If that is what would happen with track grouping then I might need to upgrade ASAP.

[ttilberg]

No, track grouping wouldn't do it. All track grouping is, is an easy way to organize and create channel busses. So you might group 3 bass channels together, now you have one fader, and they can fold into each other. Grouping is very similar to what was previously just setting an Audio Channel, and routing audio from various other channels into this channel, with a few extra controls.

I believe you will have to have 2 channels to do this -- is there any particular reason this solution doesn't work for you? Does it have to do with selecting the correct midi outs when you arm that instrument? Obviously that's what you are looking to avoid, but I do not believe you are able to get any closer~