External Instrument plugin

bensuthers · Post by **bensuthers** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:24 am

Can I ask if there is any reason External Instrument will only let you route to plugins that can accept more than one midi channel?

FOr instance, Drumazon has only one MIDI Channel, but 12 outputs. There's no reason why a bunch of 'External Instruments' couldn't all send to the 1 midi channel and pick up a different output, but because it is a plugin with only one 'channel' it won't appear in the browser!!

anyhoo!

thx.

snowtires · Post by **snowtires** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:45 am

it also won't give the option of using the first output of a multi-out plugin. for example, if you use an external instrument plugin and point it to another track that has an instance of stylus on it, you can't choose '1/2-stylus rmx' in the 'audio from' box, only 3/4 and up.

jeffb01 · Post by **jeffb01** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:38 pm

and it won't let you choose external inputs with a multi-timbral plug-in. My virus is sounding like crap thru the usb since live 7, so I'm choosing to send the audio out the analog outputs and back thru my sound card, but now I have to use two tracks...

about the stylus rmx not allowing you to choose the first outputs, for me that's not a problem, because outputs 1 and 2 are used for the track that has the actual plug in on (so I'm not using external instrument)...

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 3:42 pm

My understanding of the external instruments plugin is that it is primarily for hardware outside the computer, other than your virus example it sounds like you are using plugin instruments so what's the purpose of using the external instruments plugin on top of that?

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:00 pm

beats me wrote:My understanding of the external instruments plugin is that it is primarily for hardware outside the computer, other than your virus example it sounds like you are using plugin instruments so what's the purpose of using the external instruments plugin on top of that?

For multi-timbral/multi-out plug-ins, the external instrument device is fantastic. Basically it lets you use one track to both send the midi and receive the audio, rather than two. One of the best things about Live 7 I'd say.

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:07 pm

R.J.Dubya wrote:
beats me wrote:My understanding of the external instruments plugin is that it is primarily for hardware outside the computer, other than your virus example it sounds like you are using plugin instruments so what's the purpose of using the external instruments plugin on top of that?
For multi-timbral/multi-out plug-ins, the external instrument device is fantastic. Basically it lets you use one track to both send the midi and receive the audio, rather than two. One of the best things about Live 7 I'd say.

That does sound interesting. Having not used it yet, does it work similar to the slicer in that it automatically creates a submixer for each individual routed sound/output?

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:11 pm

beats me wrote:
R.J.Dubya wrote:
beats me wrote:My understanding of the external instruments plugin is that it is primarily for hardware outside the computer, other than your virus example it sounds like you are using plugin instruments so what's the purpose of using the external instruments plugin on top of that?
For multi-timbral/multi-out plug-ins, the external instrument device is fantastic. Basically it lets you use one track to both send the midi and receive the audio, rather than two. One of the best things about Live 7 I'd say.
That does sound interesting. Having not used it yet, does it work similar to the slicer in that it automatically creates a submixer for each individual routed sound/output?

Not really. If you're just using one external instrument device on a track, it just behaves like a normal instrument. The midi data controls the sound on the audio play through the same track. But you can also use it with drum racks (like slices), in with case you can have whatever routing and submixes you want. These are useful for multi-out drum modules like battery, ADM, stylus or whatever.

bensuthers · Post by **bensuthers** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:30 pm

and more to the point - if you build it all in an instrument rack you can unfold the rack in session view....

mmmm.....

but alas my dreams of unfolding my drumazon rack into individual outputs and folding it back up have to wait now....

R.J.Dubya · Post by **R.J.Dubya** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:55 pm

bensuthers wrote:and more to the point - if you build it all in an instrument rack you can unfold the rack in session view....

mmmm.....

but alas my dreams of unfolding my drumazon rack into individual outputs and folding it back up have to wait now....

why must it wait? it doesn't work?

Timur · Post by **Timur** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:22 pm

At this point I have to propagate the link to my "Combining Battery with Drum Racks" thread where you can see an example of how to put these kind of things together. Have a look at the screenshot to get an idea about the results and follow the link to the NI forum to get a description about how to set it up.

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... ht=battery

PS: If you are using VST Instruments/Drum Plugins in Live 7.01 make sure to set Plugin Buffers to 64, else Latency Compensation may not work properly due to a bug in the this version.

siliconarc · Post by **siliconarc** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:46 pm

snowtires wrote:it also won't give the option of using the first output of a multi-out plugin. for example, if you use an external instrument plugin and point it to another track that has an instance of stylus on it, you can't choose '1/2-stylus rmx' in the 'audio from' box, only 3/4 and up.

this is easily sorted by adding the actual multi-out vsti you want to use to the first pad in the drum rack, then dropping external inst. plugs on all the other pads, and point the ext. insts to 'drum rack' > vsti. works great here with microtonic.