Live 7 and Reason: what good is the ext. instrument device?

davec1 · Post by **davec1** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 9:47 pm

ableton said that the external instrument device would solve the problems that existed in previous versions of live when using reason as a rewire slave.

but I don't see how. I don't see what that external instrument device is supposed to be good for.

there's no additional routing options that aren't already there in the live track i/o options.

the latency compensation thing? isn't that the same as using track delay? it's static, so it's no better than working out the latency and compensating via track delay, right?

I must be missing something, cause I really don't get the point of that thing...

can somebody enlighten me?

sporkles · Post by **sporkles** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 10:22 pm

Well, if it eliminates the unintentional, universal
delay between the two applications - surely that's
preferable to having to manually set the track
delay for every rewire track? Also, it makes a
helluva lot cleaner rack when you can have MIDI
out and audio in on the same track, rather than
having one MIDI track and one audio track for
every Reason device?

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:18 am

I agree. Using the External Instrument in order to keep MIDI and audio on the one track is brilliant. Also it is possible to *freeze* Reason and use the flatten command to render in place, rather than having to record in real time. So much better.

For anyone using Live + Reason, I would say the External Instrument is - on its own - sufficient cause to upgrade. Having demo'ed, it's actually the main reason I am planning to upgrade to Live 7 myself.

xxxmorphicxxx · Post by **xxxmorphicxxx** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:31 am

And using this External Device eliminates the rewire timing issues that were present in previous versions?

mike holiday · Post by **mike holiday** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:47 am

wow and i thought it was just for external devices

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:44 am

Here's another bonus which hasn't been mentioned yet:

You can save a reason device as a preset in Live

of course, that means that you would need an appropriately loaded reason file to match,

so I set up a reason file with some of the devices I use a lot, and made a shortcut to that in the quicklaunch.

So then I can just click on that shortcut, and all the reason devices are sitting there, ready to be accessed via the Live browser as External Instrument presets

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:36 am

And (presumably) we can also now use Reason devices routed within Racks in Live...?

bensuthers · Post by **bensuthers** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:31 am

yes you can.

fuzzyhead · Post by **fuzzyhead** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:24 am

Would be so nice if Propellerhead could add audio output for each separate channel in Mixer 14:2 (like Redrum has), in order to directly wire each of them to hardware interface and take advantage of the Aux Sends..And being mapped for rewiring right away as well..

man ovaboardz · Post by **man ovaboardz** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:00 am

fuzzyhead wrote:Would be so nice if Propellerhead could add audio output for each separate channel in Mixer 14:2 (like Redrum has), in order to directly wire each of them to hardware interface and take advantage of the Aux Sends..And being mapped for rewiring right away as well..

ur right...for now though, just set up a template with the spiders/spitter so you can run devices to the 14:2 mixer and the hardware interface at the same time...when ever you want to hear live only, mute the devices in reason, although your output will still be heard in live...

davec1 · Post by **davec1** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:16 pm

Well, if it eliminates the unintentional, universal
delay between the two applications

that would be great. but does it really (like, automatically? the manual doesn't say)? I don't know, haven't tested it yet. has someone tested this?

I see your "midi and audio on the same track" point.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 1:51 pm

fuzzyhead wrote:Would be so nice if Propellerhead could add audio output for each separate channel in Mixer 14:2 (like Redrum has), in order to directly wire each of them to hardware interface and take advantage of the Aux Sends..And being mapped for rewiring right away as well..

I see what you're thinking, but the purpose of a mixer is to sum the audio and route via the sends/return busses. So I don't see how that could then be splitted back into each channel

fuzzyhead · Post by **fuzzyhead** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:57 pm

headquest wrote:I see what you're thinking, but the purpose of a mixer is to sum the audio and route via the sends/return busses. So I don't see how that could then be splitted back into each channel

Exactly, the purpose would not be to sum the audio to the master of Reason (except when used as standalone) but to the host' one and still use the Reason' Aux Send for each channel seperatly,these outputs could be either Midi/Audio ones,that's all virtual at the end,pretty sure that this is technically possible ! Like an On/Bypass switch..

Would be in the frame of Propellerhead' policy of no VST support as well, Reason could be integrated in any host ,"as a big VST", in a much better way IMHO !

bartvd · Post by **bartvd** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:15 pm

@longjohns..
saving the preset was already there i think.. live 6 did save your settings aswell.
am i missing your point?

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:14 pm

it would save the rewire settings in your .als file

but I mean saving it as an external instrument patch, so that you can load reason devices from the live browser