Using separate outputs in Battery 2

marky · Post by **marky** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:45 am

I bought Battery 2 a month ago and I'm loving it for my beats, but there's one thing that's pissing me off which I can't figure out.

Is there any way I can use the individual outputs from a single Battery instance to be routed to other channels in Live (4.1.2)? This is how I used Kontakt/Battery in Logic .. one instance controller by many channels.

Even though I'm running a G5 2x 2.3GHz, using more than one instance of Battery makes my tracks take a while to load, and is more difficult to organize.

Is it possible to do this in Live? If not, let's hope it's in Live 5!

marky · Post by **marky** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 2:11 am

Okay, I've actually figured out how to do it; by creating another audio track and assigning the input of the track as the Battery output.

But this seems slightly clumsy compared to other DAWs, since I need to leave monitoring ON for that track.. plus it only seems to want to use stereo outputs, even though I've got Battery configured to have some of the outputs as mono. So even though my Track 5 from Battery is in mono, it's coming out as 5 & 6 in the audio track in live (so it's only going through one channel).

Is this the only way I can use Battery in Live? Am I missing something?

marky · Post by **marky** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 8:29 pm

Bumpedy-bump! No Battery users out there?

dum_dum · Post by **dum_dum** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:41 am

been trying to figure this out as well.. bumppp

marky · Post by **marky** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:23 am

Create a new audio track and select the Audio In of the track to be the instance of Battery you want. From there you can select the output you want, so you can pull the inividual outs to their own tracks.

It's still nowhere near as nice is it is to do it in Logic, where you can group all your channels together into their own screenset and edit them at the hit of a key

Battery is also a serious, serious CPU-hog. I try not to use any more than a single instance of it per track, otherwise my performance meter really starts to creep up...

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:32 am

marky wrote:Create a new audio track and select the Audio In of the track to be the instance of Battery you want. From there you can select the output you want, so you can pull the inividual outs to their own tracks.

It's still nowhere near as nice is it is to do it in Logic, where you can group all your channels together into their own screenset and edit them at the hit of a key

Battery is also a serious, serious CPU-hog. I try not to use any more than a single instance of it per track, otherwise my performance meter really starts to creep up...

How do you feel about using impulse?

ad

marky · Post by **marky** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:49 am

Impulse is fine, but I prefer being able to handle larger kits in a single instance rather than the 8 10 impulse gives. I know you can chain multiple impulses together on the same track, but things get kind of convoluted with that approach.

I'd love to see impulse with just a bit more capability - larger sets, better editing and layering capability. I'd drop Battery in a second to be honest.

dum_dum · Post by **dum_dum** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:07 am

yeah this is the only thing so far i hate about live.

ben_blue · Post by **ben_blue** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:15 am

im a big battery user.
MArky is right - its not as nice as logic in some ways, as far as multiple plug in outputs. it CAN get very clumsy. and then throw in extra midi tracks, too...

BUT really you just learn to use it and get around.

what helps me is A) use midi commands to select channels. when u get many many tracks, its great to just hit a key or knob that jumps the view to that Battery or whatever track. Beats scrolling left and right or up and down. Super fast and easy..B) at least in L5 you can shrink tracks (in session view, where i work more now, and configure ins/outs.)

PS i can run 2 instances on my SLOOOOOOW laptop, so its not TOO bad on me CPU

.

and im pretty good with B2 so if u ever got any other Q's, feel free...
b

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:43 am

The only other things I'd like to add to what's already been discussed (most of which I agree with) are:

1. You can reduce Battery's CPU hoggish-ness by reducing the number of outputs configured. So if you're only using 2-3 stereo tracks, go into the options and turn them all off. When Battery (especially v.2) loads, it defaults to 8 stereo and 8 mono, and an astounding 10% CPU on my friend's P4 3.2, while doing nothing and no kits loaded. In the options, he reduced the outputs to 2 stereo and 2 mono outputs, and that brought it down to about 2%.

2. Due to Native Instuments' copy protection, Battery 2 seems to take a lot longer to load and unload. Not sure what changed from Battery 1, which I think in a lot of ways is still a better drum sampler.

Just my two cents. Hope this helps.

donnydonny · Post by **donnydonny** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:49 am

Multitimbral instruments are probably the only things I don't like about Live. It's really annoying how cluster free Battery is in Cubase but then being the total opposite in Live. I've pretty much just given up on Battery/Kontakt in Live and just use Simpler for all my sampling.

summersc2002 · Post by **summersc2002** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:00 am

good info,

ive been a B2 user for about 4 months now only with live. Ive got a few ?s for nebulae or anyone else that can answer them. So if I have 2 audio tracks for my B2 outputs , that means I only need 2 stereo outputs, can I get rid of the mono outputs all together. My second ? is why would I want to use mono, Im still new to all this, I only have been working with stereo.

thanks

chris

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:07 pm

summersc2002 wrote:good info,

ive been a B2 user for about 4 months now only with live. Ive got a few ?s for nebulae or anyone else that can answer them. So if I have 2 audio tracks for my B2 outputs , that means I only need 2 stereo outputs, can I get rid of the mono outputs all together. My second ? is why would I want to use mono, Im still new to all this, I only have been working with stereo.

thanks

chris

Chris, you can use as many outputs as you want, and you can delete as many as you don't use. You don't need the mono outputs if you aren't sending any audio to them in Battery. Why would you use mono outputs? Perhaps you have a mono sample that you want to pan hard right or left, or perhaps you want a very mono sound coming out of your drums for whatever reason. I usually don't see much reason to have more than 2 or 3 stereo outputs of Battery 2. You can run all your samples, mono and stereo through those, applying different effects or sends. I believe mono outputs take less CPU, so if you only have mono samples you can just use mono outputs. But definitely turn off what you don't need and that will reduce your CPU. The same is the case with Live - if you have an audio card with multiple inputs and outputs, turning off any channels in Live's prefs will reduce your CPU overhead.