Ableton's External Instruments MIDI comm not good

[pointsource]

Hi there!

I have a moog slim phatty and a virus rack XL.

When i play my instruments using my midi controller, the timbres and overall sound are perfect.

When i program the midi notes in the piano roll, and the automation in the arrangement view, i have the following problems:

With the moog, as soon as note finishes playing i have clicks and cracks, and the automation doesn't work properly.

With the the virus rack, most of the times it shows an odd behaviour when ableton starts sending midi to it, the timbre sounds all messed up, sometimes out of tune, sometimes the volume envelope starts going crazy, the attack and release time goes up and down.

I'm pretty sure it's software related.

It's really frustrating cause i can't record my instruments properly.

[luddy]

Hi,

I've sequenced a lot of hw synths myself, can be pretty frustrating.

Most probably the MIDI being sent to these synths is not quite what you are expecting. If you are on a Mac, you can get a free app called MIDI Monitor that will let you watch the MIDI output to the synths outside of Live, to see what exactly is being sent. You can watch the inputs to it too. You need something like that to diagnose this problem, gotta see what exactly the CCs and note events being sent to the thing are.

One thing that occurs to me offhand is that you should be sure those synths are in Local Off mode if you are sending MIDI from them and echoing it back to them from Live. Otherwise they will get all events twice, slightly out of time from one another, and that will cause lots of bad stuff to happen like multiple note triggers and other badness.

hth,

-Luddy

[doghouse]

Since you are using modules, I don't think Local Off is an issue.

Make sure you are using the right MIDI CCs, though. Both Moog and Access use non-standard CC assignments.

How much automation and how are you creating it? MIDI is a serial connection so not all messages arrive at exactly the same time. The more messages sent, the more congestion there is. If you are trying to make rapid adjustments with wide swings you may have trouble. Live does not have a "thin out data" function like most MIDI sequencers.

Another way to record your automation is by overdubbing knob adjustments on the instruments themselves rather than drawing the automation in Live.

[pointsource]

Hi there guys! Thx for the replies !

Well, the settings on my synths are alright, i followed the instructions on both manuals, also i followed some instructions of how to set up those synths in ableton that i saw in the forums.

I'm on win 7 64bits, ableton live 8 latest beta version.

Is there any way to correct this problem inside ableton? Or a software for pc?

The options on the moog, for midi, are:

local control: on/off
send vol cc7: on/pff
send 14bit: on/off

the other setting are basic setting, im only intrigued with those.


On my virus:

panel: internal / int+midi / midi
clockRX: auto / disable
midi volume: enable / disable

midi control:

lopage: contr / sysex
hipage: polypress / sysex


The problems in the virus usually occurs when the loop is retriggered inside the loop bracet, or when i have really fast notes playing. Also, if i set one audio channel to record the sounds from the synth, as soon as i hit "play", the sounds comes all messed up...


Im not really doing any crazy automation, just basic filter sweeps.

[ARDJ]

are the midi clips unique or are they download from a site? I've found issues when i sent pre-made midi clips (especially clips that were made in another DAW) to my synths. Try making a new midi clip in ableton and see if that helps.

[pointsource]

Hi there mate!

I always program the notes myself, but even if i were using a midi clip from somewhere else, i don't think that's the problem.