Tracks should be AUDIO and MIDI at the same time ...

[julienb]

This makes a while I wanted to suggest or at least, without no pretention,to discuss.

I guess this is just the best place for that.

As a lot of artists, I'm using Live every time.
I'm often use Live with some liveset templates for studio, for stage, but also with more granularity, for this type of composition in studio or that type, for hardcore gabber performance delirium or even ambient & relaxing one on stage.

Those templates often provides a fixed number of tracks, with track groups for rhythms, other for melodies. Sometimes, no group too.
BUT I need to have, for instance, every time the same kind of tracks at this or that place.

The main purpose is : playing on stage. playing Live, live.
Indeed, even if I saw some kind of configuration with 100 tracks and the famous stairs to down schema with all songs in an awful and cpu/ram consuming diagonal, We often use Live with a voluntarily limited number of tracks to map to our controllers, our machines and probably to fit better our poor oversaturated mind on stage

Then, the point.
I DON'T want to have to choose the nature/type of the track when I begin to compose a liveset !
I SHOULD be able to create a MIDI clip in a track, and that clip running would pop out its MIDI events to the first instrument in the track's chain.
I SHOULD be able to create an AUDIO clip in the same track, because I need WARP only for this one and I don't want to create (yet) another track only for that. This AUDIO clip running would directly make the sound processed by the first Audio FX of the track's chain.

Nowadays, I'm creating often one audio + one midi per type of instrument in order not to be annoyed later... it consumes 2x more tracks and sucks.

I hope we could have a debate around it.
I'm sure it would be another point making THAT difference with some coming new DAW...

[pepezabala]

agree. I work with an eight-channel-template for my livesets since years and I am often annoyed that this implies to do all midi instruments on separate channels and bounce stuff from there into the channels that are linked to my controller.

There are many workarounds, but It would be so much easier if I could use both midi and audio in the same channel, as Julien said above.

[julienb]

I'm still not clear why you need to stick an audio version of a midi track in. Can you explain that in a bit more detail, give an example?

Also, I was thinking, why not just use audio on stage anyway?

I want to control my "low sounds" sounds.
This concept has nothing to do with audio or MIDI.
Some low sounds in my live set will be the result of a loooong process and sequenced and resample to produce an audio file. Some other low sounds will be basically triggered by MIDI notes sent to a Max for Live device, for instance, that I want to control on stage. And this control isn't only related to mixer or fx, but to pure real-time synthesis parameter.

In the first case, no problem I have an audio file.
In the second case, no problem, I have a MIDI file. And obviously, I don't want to flat this one to audio before the performance.

It requires 2 tracks: one AUDIO and one MIDI.

That means I have to create 2 tracks for one "type" of sounds.
Which means I have to set my remote surface differently if I have 2 or 1 etc etc etc.


It is a creation artefact.
And of course there are curvy workarounds (like setting up that remote surface's fader to the faders of the two tracks together, etc etc etc)

But it is annoying.

[estevan carlos benson]

It needs to be stated, if Bitwig has good ideas, Ableton needs to steal them. Period.

I agree with the original post.

[Elevated01]

Agreed, there's no reason to have separate track types between midi and audio. They could AND SHOULD switch back and forth freely.

As a temp workaround, try this: It seems if you prepare your template using only Audio tracks, they will switch to midi tracks if you end up dropping a midi instrument in there. However, this won't work from Midi to audio tracks. For some reason...

[sigabort]

I'm guessing this is due to midi being added in v5 and the easiest and safest way was to have a new track type - leaves a lot of the audio processing unchanged. I'm also guessing that to undo this would be major changes in the core engine and require a lot of reworking. Personally, I think it would b great if it was there, but would be pretty far down my list of wants

[julienb]

I'm guessing this is due to midi being added in v5 and the easiest and safest way was to have a new track type - leaves a lot of the audio processing unchanged. I'm also guessing that to undo this would be major changes in the core engine and require a lot of reworking. Personally, I think it would b great if it was there, but would be pretty far down my list of wants

I'm a programmer too.
BUT, users don't care about how it is difficult or not to change that.
If it would be very hard to do but very desired and useful, it should be done.

[infernal.machine]

I'd have to agree with sigabort, this is pretty low on my priority list. If anything, having them separated helps me keep my head straight.

[julienb]

this is not major, I agree totally.

[timday]

I agree I've never really seen the point of having both on the same track but my workflow isn't the same as everyone's, so in the meantime as a workaround, why not put the audio and MIDI tracks in a group then put the FX chain on the group fader? You can collapse the group for onstage use and as far as I can see that'll pretty much give you what you want.