cool thing in live 7

jah · Post by **jah** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:28 am

i dunno if this has been discussed before - i just hooked up my microkorg to my computer and tried out the external instrument device and realized that it's even better than i first thought!

live 7 freezes external instruments and (i presume, haven't tried it yet) audio effects just like the regular devices! now that's what i call integration!

screenshots:
http://hornquist.se/extinst1.png
http://hornquist.se/extinst2.png

cheers

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:34 am

Thank you.
I rely on external MIDI hardware so that's like an Xmas present for me....
Can you do it on many tracks at teh same time, provided that you use a multi input
Audio card?

- Best
- Paolo

rozling · Post by **rozling** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:47 am

I've just started playing with this device and I can't tell you how much of a godsend it is.

For anyone out there like me who records piano audio directly into Live and has been infuriated by the way Live automatically warps the recorded audio: This is for you. And I'm not even talking about the freezing bit, though that sounds amazing... I'll try that now!

It's difficult to explain just how useful this is... you basically don't need to bother recording the audio from your MIDI device at all. You can now record a performance, hear it back exactly as you played it (hallelujah!), and then go in and correct the timing/pitch etc and you DON'T EVEN HAVE TO THINK ABOUT RE-RECORDING! Mmmnnhh soilage...

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 11:57 am

rozling wrote: It's difficult to explain just how useful this is... you basically don't need to bother recording the audio from your MIDI device at all. You can now record a performance, hear it back exactly as you played it (hallelujah!), and then go in and correct the timing/pitch etc and you DON'T EVEN HAVE TO THINK ABOUT RE-RECORDING! Mmmnnhh soilage...

Can you give more information?

1. is your midi performance recorded along with audio or only audio?
2. the resulting clip is a MIDI or an Audio clip?
3. How does this maps to a multi-timbral MIDI module?
4. Reading behind the lines it seems that when you render the song this is done in real time for 'special' MIDI tracks containing this effect correct?

- Best
- Pasha

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:09 pm

Its like freezing a vst. But during the freezing part, Live sends MIDI to your hardware which sends audio back to Live. (which you can copy to another audio track)

The latency compensation is done on the effect itself if i'm not mistaken.

It is real-time freezing. Anything faster would require quantum physics. Thats for Live XV or something

jah · Post by **jah** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:16 pm

Pasha wrote: 1. is your midi performance recorded along with audio or only audio?

think of the external device as a normal ableton device, like operator or sampler. for an external instrument you set up a midi out (midi from computer -> external device) and an audio in (from device to computer).

you record a midi performance but the midi is routed to the external device and the audio is automatically routed to the track the ext device resides in.

compare this to live 6, where you had to set up two separate tracks - one midi track for midi output and another audio track for audio recording. but then you get more. you just freeze an external track exactly like a sampler or operator - then the midi is sent out and audio is recorded in realtime.

Pasha wrote: 2. the resulting clip is a MIDI or an Audio clip?

an external instrument resides in a midi track so it's midi, just like a if you used a sampler! if you freeze it it becomes blue (audio behind the scenes), just like a freezed sampler. and if you flatten it, it becomes an audio track!

this is incredibly useful.

Pasha wrote: 3. How does this maps to a multi-timbral MIDI module?

you'd have to create one midi track for each midi channel, cause this is how live works. but i guess when you freeze one of them tracks only that track is sent out and recorded.

Pasha wrote: 4. Reading behind the lines it seems that when you render the song this is done in real time for 'special' MIDI tracks containing this effect correct?

it's not special midi tracks - it's the same midi tracks as before. that's the beauty of it!

cheers

jah · Post by **jah** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:17 pm

Pasha wrote:Can you do it on many tracks at teh same time, provided that you use a multi input
Audio card?

havent tried this but i guess so. it's all about live routing midi out and audio in.

Poster · Post by **Poster** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:27 pm

another great thing about the freezing of your external instruments is that you can still tweak the instrument, in real time, during the freeze..

hujib · Post by **hujib** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:04 pm

In Cubase SX 3+ there is External Instrument support similar to the announced Live 7 support. Not having played with the beta myself I'm curious, Can you pre-define your "External Instruments" in preferences so that you just have to pull them up as a single block or do you have to and an ext instrument block and then config the ins and outs each time?

In Cubase, once each of your external instruments is configured (audio I/O + MIDI) you can just choose it when you need it and it's already to go. Having to configure each on the fly seems like a big bump in the creative workflow.

Work around might be to create a template project with single channels pre-configured for each of your hardware units and then import them into your working project?

Thoughts?

redpunk · Post by **redpunk** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:13 pm

I don't understand it's usefullness, if I can just press RECORD button?

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:25 pm

hujib wrote:In Cubase SX 3+ there is External Instrument support similar to the announced Live 7 support. Not having played with the beta myself I'm curious, Can you pre-define your "External Instruments" in preferences so that you just have to pull them up as a single block or do you have to and an ext instrument block and then config the ins and outs each time?

In Cubase, once each of your external instruments is configured (audio I/O + MIDI) you can just choose it when you need it and it's already to go. Having to configure each on the fly seems like a big bump in the creative workflow.

Work around might be to create a template project with single channels pre-configured for each of your hardware units and then import them into your working project?

Thoughts?

Its a device. It has presets.
You can save presets and even Live clips and it will remember the MIDI channel settings and Audio card settings. It even works with rewire/soundflower (if devices are aggregated).

hoffman2k · Post by **hoffman2k** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:28 pm

redpunk wrote:I don't understand it's usefullness, if I can just press RECORD button?

In case of the session view, it will automatically record multiple takes. It will render loops and automatically loop the second take so you don't get a cutoff.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:42 pm

I want to thank all the extremely useful posters for replies!
I was going mad lately when recording MIDI Pianos... Warping...
It seems now I can make an even better use of my gear.
I CAN'T WAIT!

- Best
- Pasha

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:44 pm

hoffman2k wrote:
redpunk wrote:I don't understand it's usefullness, if I can just press RECORD button?
In case of the session view, it will automatically record multiple takes. It will render loops and automatically loop the second take so you don't get a cutoff.

AAAAAARGH! Sooooooo Coooool!

- Best
- Pasha

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:46 pm

its so freekin' bitchin'!!

you can use external effects, and put them anywhere in your effect chain!!!

but we wont even go into folding out racks