Ableton Forum

"Group" tracks in Live don't offer clip recording, the closest alternative seems to be to send the outputs of the individual tracks to a dedicated additional Audio track that functions essentially as the group track.

Is there a performance (CPU) benefit to using "Group" tracks (vs the above-described method)? My impression is Group tracks are there solely for ease of use and the added benefit of being able to "fold" down the grouped set of tracks.

AFAIK, it doesn't change the CPU, it is mostly an extra chain and fader after the grouped track's faders.

"Ease of use" (not only easier to setup, but they make it easier to edit the grouped tracks) and "better organization" (not only fold, but easier to color, easier to move, etc.) are very good things, it is not like only CPU usage matters.

Grouping groups is way easier to keep track of than keeping track of what "bus track" routes in yet another "bus track".

They also work for triggering/stopping the Clips from the grouped tracks in Session (if you also mean "live performance", not only "computer performance").

Groups can be dragged directly from saved Sets in Live's Browser, with all the routing intact, while routed tracks will remain separate.

Pottering did sum this up perfectly!

Max Oepen wrote: ↑

Mon May 10, 2021 11:34 pm

"Group" tracks in Live don't offer clip recording, the closest alternative seems to be to send the outputs of the individual tracks to a dedicated additional Audio track that functions essentially as the group track.

Is there a performance (CPU) benefit to using "Group" tracks (vs the above-described method)? My impression is Group tracks are there solely for ease of use and the added benefit of being able to "fold" down the grouped set of tracks.

My main use is using them for bus effect routing. Ableton has another way of doing it with actual routing but I typically go the group method as it has the added benefit of being able to organize tracks easier.