Ableton Forum

I'm new to Live.

In Cubase, when using Battery, I often divide up the drum kit so that the kick(s) go out Audio 1/2, the snare(s) out Audio 3/4, the hats out 5/6, etc. I use multiple MIDI channels to send notes to Battery as well -- one for each type of drums. So I have one instance of Battery in my VST Instruments panel, but several audio channels in my mixer, and several MIDI channels in the project view.

Is there a way to accomplish this in Live? It seems like each MIDI lane has one and only one VSTI, and I don't see any obvious way to run more channels to the mixer (since the mixer seems to be 1:1 with the MIDI lane also.)

OK, I think I understand your situation. There are two things:

1. Multiple MIDI lanes (tracks) which can each have clips playing simultaneously, but all feeding into one single instance of a VSTi.

2. Separate recording/processing/mixing of the different audio outputs provided by this VSTi instance (provided it's a multi-out VSTi).


The solution depends on your version of Live. The External Instrument device was introduced in Live 7, and it's very useful for this kind of thing.


In Live 7+:

1. Create a track for the VSTi.
2. Create a MIDI track for each separate group you want. Drag in the External Instrument device for each of these tracks. For "MIDI To", choose the track which holds the VSTi. For "Audio From", choose the correct output channel(s) from the VSTi.


It should be that easy. In earlier versions of Live it's possible but more complicated. Since you're new to Live I'm assuming you're using a fairly recent version.


good luck

Oh, I see. That works. Thanks!