Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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timnellz
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:40 pm

Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by timnellz » Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:50 pm

Hi, everybody. I'm relatively new to Ableton and have been taught all I know by Youtube videos and my own exploration, so I'm pretty inexperienced with the ins and outs. Please excuse my ignorance if this is a silly topic:

I recently have been wanting to set up a rig where I can use my live guitar with outside hardware effects like guitar pedals. I have a Scarlett 4i4 and am using the external audio effects feature. I have my instrument plugged into instrument input 1, out line output 3, through my effects pedals, and into line input 3. It works. Sort of. I can hear my guitar with the effects and it sounds great but the effects are also being applied to my midi tracks, even the metronome. Is there a solution for this? It's become very frustrating. I even bought an interface with more than 2 outputs (had a Presonus before this) and nothing has changed.

Thanks for your patience with my long winded explanation, hope this isn't a silly question or an impossible endeavor.

Greenapples2019
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:43 pm

Re: Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by Greenapples2019 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 8:52 am

Hiya, your set-up should work so there's probably something awry with the routing - could you post snapshots of your Live screen, showing ins/outs and also the guitar track specifically, showing the External Audio Effects set-up?

timnellz
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:40 pm

Re: Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by timnellz » Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:20 pm

Thank you for your reply.
https://imgur.com/a/awVQqUX

Here's a link to the screenshot of my Ableton Live session and Focusrite routing. I've tried setting the master output to 1/2 and no effects come through. In Focusrite direct monitoring is muted and all output is going to the DAW.

Also new issue: When I record the effects come through, but then when I mute the track the dry guitar still plays.

Greenapples2019
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:43 pm

Re: Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by Greenapples2019 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:59 pm

Hi again, I'm no expert with Ext Audio Effects but I think the issue may be with the Master routing, as you have the guitar going out to 3/4, then the 100% wet signal comes back in to 3 and then out again to the Master on 3/4 (along with the midi). So because you have the Ext Effect and Master going out to 3/4, everything you send to the Master is going through the Effects Unit too. Try changing the Master to 1/2 in Ableton and the Focusrite. Keep the guitar as going out to 3/4 (or even 3 as it's a mono signal) and then back into 3, and use the dry/wet to blend the effect.

I hope that helps, if not I'll try to recreate it here and post a snapshot.

Greenapples2019
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:43 pm

Re: Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by Greenapples2019 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:01 pm

Just recreated your setup (using a sample rather than actual guitar) and got it to work so that FX were only applied to the guitar track. Focusrite was set to "Direct Routing" preset: DAW 1/2 to output 1/2; DAW 3/4 to output 3/4. Ext Audio Effect went out to 3/4 and back into 3/4. Both tracks went out to Master which was set to 1/2. Use the dry/wet control on the Ext Audio Effect to blend the guitar and FX.

https://imgur.com/a/rrMuwrl

Good luck!

timnellz
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:40 pm

Re: Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by timnellz » Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:03 pm

Works beautifully! Thank you so much. The only issue now is that it doesn't work through my headphones. Looking at the Focusrite software, looks like headphones are associated with outputs 3/4. If you don't have an answer to that I'm still satisfied, you've helped a ton.

Greenapples2019
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:43 pm

Re: Live instruments and guitar pedals with Ableton

Post by Greenapples2019 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:42 pm

You're welcome, I'm glad it works for you! If you want to hear the main output through the headphones instead of monitors, you can set gtr to come into channel 1 as before, out of 1 into FX, back into 3 (or 3/4 for stereo) and then out to Master 3/4 and listen on headphones. That also frees up an output 2 which you could potentially use for metronome.

I've got the 6i4 which has two headphone outputs which you can assign independently - sounds like you have to be a bit more creative with the 4i4!

Happy recording.

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