Need help with sync settings...

[jkuehlin]

I'm using Ableton Suite 8.3 with Maschine, Launchpad, Motif XS, Korg M3, Fantom G8, Novation Remote, and a bunch of other stuff...

I don't understand the 'sync' and 'remote' columns in the preferences. What is the difference? How do you know if you need the button set to 'on' or 'off'?

How do you know when it is necessary to select a device in the 'control surfaces' dropdown box, and what to assign to the 'input' and 'output'.

I'm completely confused about everything on this entire page except for the 'track' options. Those seem to enable/disable the MIDI note transmissions from the hardware devices.

Can someone please explain what the sync/remote buttons do and under what circumstances they should be on or off?

Thanks

[chapelier fou]

'track' is for tracks to receive/send midi (mostly, notes info).
'remote' is for controlling live's parameters, for instance any knob, volume faders whatever (when you're using a midi controller)
'sync' is for synchronization between computer and hardware, or several softwares (tempo, start/stop, etc.)

IN is what comes to live.
OUT is what live sends.

'control surfaces' is made for hardware dedicated to live, they have their own way of communicating with the software.

Hope this helps.

[timday]

"remote" enables you to map MIDI CCs and similar to your controllers - mapping a rotary from a controller to a filter in ableton for example. If you hit "MIDI" on the top right you can MIDI map any control that shows up in purple by clicking on the control in Ableton then tweaking the fader or rotary etc you want to use. You can also map keys to clips in the session view using remote to use them as loop triggers. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do, actually - most of Live's more entertaining performance functions use remote.

"sync" is MIDI sync which is for timing so you can lock Ableton's bpm, for example, to another device. Might come in handy for maschine or the LFO on a hardware synth, for example. Otherwise leave it off.

oops - ninja'd

[chapelier fou]