New User still a little unclear on some things

vettjd01 · Post by **vettjd01** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 6:31 am

Hello all. I am new to the forums and to Ableton (and computer music for that matter).

my setup is as follows.

XP
AMD Athalon x2 4450 cpu
1gb ddr2 ram
350gb hd
no soundcard
Ableton 7
Axiom49

After sifting through the tips and tricks forum for about 3 months i decided to post up in here as i am still unclear on things.

1. What do i need to be able to hear in headphones whats going on on both sides (A,B) a guy at guitar center told me a DJi-o would work. he seem like he didnt know what he was talking about, seemed unconfident, so i didnt buy it cause it was $115 and i was thinking there had to be something a little cheaper.

2. Whats with the soundcards? they tell me i "need" this too? Anyone care to shed some light?

3. anyone have any good links that explain "sends" and whats with the pre and post FX stuff? lol. i told u im still very unclear on how it all works!

4. Axiom midi controllers... do people save presets on computers and put em out for DL? seems like alot of work and this midi controller is somewhat hard to get the hang of programming.

a guitar, amp, and pedalboard was much easier it seems!

i will finish up a track for critiquing in the next few days and post.

jonnytekno · Post by **jonnytekno** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:24 am

Unfortunately a lot of this is beyond the scope of a reply to a forum post. My advice is to work through the manual from cover-to-cover, and repeat this every couple of months until you get familiar with it. It might be time-consuming but unless you do this you will only ever use about 10% of what you have paid for. Also, there are loads of good tutorials on eBay to get you started.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:41 am

jonnytekno wrote:Unfortunately a lot of this is beyond the scope of a reply to a forum post. My advice is to work through the manual from cover-to-cover, and repeat this every couple of months until you get familiar with it. It might be time-consuming but unless you do this you will only ever use about 10% of what you have paid for. Also, there are loads of good tutorials on eBay to get you started.

some people like manuals, some people don't. I've only consulted the manual from time to time, never read it cover to cover. I prefer by doing, some people will the entire manual before using something, I never did understand that, but some people are like that.

vettjd01-
1 - you need a sound card. are you on a laptop or desktop? as someone who plays guitar you want a good sound card, you're looking at spending at least $300 (ballpark guess) on a sound card. google around on "audio latency." basically it takes time for sound to get into and out of the computer, better sound cards do this faster. IMO a nice sound card is essential. it's a big topic, maybe you can read up a bit and come back with other questions.

2 - sound cards take in and put out sound. just like a graphics card drives your display, a sound card drives your speakers and you can record into it.

3 - sends. as a guitar player you should have seen these in some sense, right? amps and stomp boxes with sends on them? it's the same thing. you have a signal, you SEND some of it somewhere else where something happens to it (you apply an effect like a reverb or delay) then it RETURNS to the main signal path.

4 - no clue.

as a new user I recommend you leave the help box open in the lower left corner of Live ALL THE TIME. hover the mouse over the Live GUI to learn the program. this is a big reason that I've never read the manual cover to cover.

taaloopa · Post by **taaloopa** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:10 am

You can find info on the Axiom controllers here - http://forums.m-audio.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Programming them can take a while to get used to if you're not familiar with controllers. You can use the Enigma software, though many people find this tricky to get used to too.

You can actually do a lot with Live & the Axiom without programming the controller.

Press control M (PC) or apple M ( mac) to enter midi map mode. You then click anything highlighted blue on the Live screen - (send, return, fader, FX parameter etc) and touch a controller on the Axiom. Exit Midi map mode & this controller will operate that thing in Live.

You may find that you can do enough like this without having to program the axiom.

Hope that helps.