Ableton Live 10 Intro Audio without an Audio Interface

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
Chark0503
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2019 3:35 am

Ableton Live 10 Intro Audio without an Audio Interface

Post by Chark0503 » Fri Aug 16, 2019 3:41 am

So I am pretty new to recording programs like ableton so I barely know anything. Excuse my lack of knowledge.

Ableton has been working great so far, but what I'm wanting to do is listen to my work without an audio interface. I use a laptop and it's mostly on the go so I usually like to mix away from my home studio area which is cluttered.

I previously used garageband and I enjoyed being able to mix and create midi tracks wherever I was. However, I'm not totally sure if ableton allows something like this

Like I said, I'm new to this so I apologize if I missed something obvious. I just want to hear my song without an audio interface so I can mix and make midi tracks when I'm not recording and away from my work desk.

Thanks!

jestermgee
Posts: 4500
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am

Re: Ableton Live 10 Intro Audio without an Audio Interface

Post by jestermgee » Fri Aug 16, 2019 6:09 am

WHat you are asking is you want to use Live without a Dedicated interface (eg, a USB attached one) and use your internal audio interface?

Yes that is possible but of course will not have the performance of a dedicated one. Drivers or system management of the inbuilt interface may see it cause dropouts more than your external one and may have a greater latency (delay when pressing a key to make sound) but for on the go it should let you do something, bottom line is it is possible to use.

jonljacobi
Posts: 887
Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:36 am

Re: Ableton Live 10 Intro Audio without an Audio Interface

Post by jonljacobi » Fri Aug 16, 2019 4:58 pm

Technically speaking, no you can’t. However, if what you mean is can you use the internal audio interface, then yes, you can do that.

TLW
Posts: 809
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2018 2:37 am

Re: Ableton Live 10 Intro Audio without an Audio Interface

Post by TLW » Sat Aug 17, 2019 1:32 am

Since you mention using Garageband I assume you’re using a Mac. Lots of people gig with Macs using the built-in audio and a lot of finished productions have been made the same way so you should be OK. You’ll only have stereo input and output, but at least the output should be of decent quality so long as you aren’t listening through laptop speakers. the input side is mic preamps which are decent as laptop sound goes but a bit on the noisy side, easy to overload and not really suitable for guitars or hardware synths.

Go into Live’s preferences and pick the audio tab. You should be able to select the Mac’s built-in audio there. I’m away from home and haven’t a Mac with me and I should know this but can’t remember whether you’ll need to pick CoreAudio as the driver or not, but it’s pretty obvious if you do have to. If you can adjust the audio driver latency in the same preferences window you should get OK results at 256 samples, 24 bit, 44.1KHz. Which is a bit of latency but probably reasonable for playing software synths.

If the Mac’s audio isn’t showing up in Live open the Audio/MIDI Setup application, view the audio setup and check the input and output are enabled. With no other audio device connected they should be on by default.
Live 10 Suite, 2020 27" iMac, 3.6 GHz i9, MacOS Catalina, RME UFX, assorted synths, guitars and stuff.

Post Reply