Ableton Forum

Hi there

Let me explain my question...

I have 3 different VST synths in 1 single MIDI track.
- Minimoog
- Massive
- FM8

Let's say I have 5 Clips on the MIDI track:
- Minimoog #1
- Minimoog #2
- Massive
- FM8 #1
- FM8 #2

Is it possible to bind each of the 3 vst synths to different MIDI clips on the MIDI track?
If the clip "Minimoog #1" starts I want it to play automatically the VST synth "Minimoog".
If the clip "Massive" starts I want it to play automatically the VST synth "Massive"... and so on.

Is this possible in Live? I don't want to have a MIDI track for each vst synth I'd like to play.

Thanks in advance,
Nico

Can't answer for 8, but definitely not in 7 -- you can have one instrument per track.

If you want two or more instruments to play the same MIDI clip, you don't have to copy the clips between tracks. You can route the output of the track that has the clip to the input of the track that should play the same clip (on a different instrument or patch, presumably). Set the track input of the receiving track to "In" (instead of Auto) and disable its record-armed button if enabled.

This is cool cuz not only can you get different instruments to play the same clip, the instrument window will allow you drop MIDI fx on each track, so one track can be, for instance, MIDI-note shifted from another, or arpeggiated, etc, but you only have one track to maintain and edit.

Can't you load more than 1 VST instrument in 1 MIDI track but having only one VST instrument active?

nicogrubert wrote:Can't you load more than 1 VST instrument in 1 MIDI track but having only one VST instrument active?

nope. A MIDI track IS an instrument, basically.

You can however have program changes per MIDI clip. That might help?

Really.. why is this a problem? Frankly, it would make sense to use different tracks, as aren't you unlikely to need the exact same compression, eq, fx, etc... on ALL these different synths or patches???

well, strictly speaking you can get multiple VSTs in a single midi track by putting them in a single instrument rack and you could create a key map across different octaves for each instrument in the instrument rack, yeah?


What is it you are trying to accomplish with stacking multiple instruments in a single track... in other words why DON'T you want to put them in separate tracks? (for example, if you want to hit them with the same stack of audio effects, you could use an fx send/return instead... if we knew why you wanted to do this, we might have a better idea for you)

Thanks for your replies, guys.
Alright, let me explain, what my use case is:

I want to switch between
[1] playing existing MIDI Clips which automatically activate the proper VST instrument in the MIDI track
and
[2] playing on the keyboard in order to play some nice pads or chords of the minimoog or FM8 or anything else

For [2] I have to press the monitor button for the MIDI track in order to hear the vst instrument immideately.

To switch from [1] to [2] I'd like to use 2 buttons of my midi controler (Novation Remove SL 25).

The main reasons why I don't want to put all the VST instruments on separate tracks is:
I want to limit my live set to 8 tracks (7 audio tracks, 1 midi tracks) because of midi controller limitations which is designed to control 8 tracks at the same time.

Another reason: I just don't have enough space on my laptop screen to have more than 10 tracks if I still want to be able to read the clip's names.


However, I only use ableton live on stage where I need quick and direct access.

Again, thanks.

Nico

hi,

I don't know if it helps but actually you can have up to 128 instruments per midi track, by grouping them in instrument rack, 1 per chain.

Then, in your clip, you assign the chain selector enveloppe value depending on the instrument you want it to be played in teh corresponding clip.

If you want to play live a specific instrument, you just have to select the right chain for instance by controlling the chain selector.
Nota Bene: a chain can represent a single instrument/VST but also a group of instrument.

On my side, because I use the same controller to control all the instruments of the track, and I don't want to modify parameters of a synth that is not played, each synth is mapped on different Midi channel, so to control a specific synth I just have to change the global channel used by my controller.

Hope this helps
Rgds

at last the voice of reason

flanger13 wrote: On my side, because I use the same controller to control all the instruments of the track, and I don't want to modify parameters of a synth that is not played, each synth is mapped on different Midi channel, so to control a specific synth I just have to change the global channel used by my controller.

That's a much much better solution.
But where do you define the MIDI receive channel for the VST instrument? Don't you define it on the MIDI track? If so you have to put the vst instruments on separate MIDI channel.

if I'm not mistaken, you'd set the track to recieve omni (or whatever ablteon uses for "all channels")

And most softsynths can be set up (in their own interface) to respond to things on all or specific channels as well.

If don't already use it, get automap 2 for your SL (there is a series of youtube tutorials from novation that show you how to use it).Creating your own custom controller pages is a breeze.

Just have to add this. Racks really misses the mark with regards to making a stack of VST and hardware instruments that you can switch between in a live setting. If the chain selector was able to assign a controller button to say cc30 which played Sampler, and another for cc60 that controlled Pro 53 etc. then they would be on to something, but as it stands you assign ranges with the device chain, and assign a knob to select different devices, which just isn't half as easy to bang out changes live as a button.

Kore gets it, you can assign buttons in kore to program changes that turn on and off virtual instruments. Would be nice to be able to do this in Live. Would love to be proven wrong or shown a good workaround.

Machinesworking wrote:Just have to add this. Racks really misses the mark with regards to making a stack of VST and hardware instruments that you can switch between in a live setting. If the chain selector was able to assign a controller button to say cc30 which played Sampler, and another for cc60 that controlled Pro 53 etc. then they would be on to something, but as it stands you assign ranges with the device chain, and assign a knob to select different devices, which just isn't half as easy to bang out changes live as a button.

Kore gets it, you can assign buttons in kore to program changes that turn on and off virtual instruments. Would be nice to be able to do this in Live. Would love to be proven wrong or shown a good workaround.

Can't you just make dummy clips for different positions of the chain selector and just map those dummy clips to buttons?

I also heard that you can map a range of midi notes to the chain selector (hold down first and last key) although I haven't tried that.