Ableton Forum

Hi everybody - I've been messing around with the idea of using Ableton for vocal effects. Everything I'm talking about in this post is for live performance only. I recently bought the Looptimus pedal so I can trigger clips in Live and it's been working great, but I also want to use Looptimus to control vocal effects in Ableton.

My live performance rig is currently a Yamaha MG10XU mixer, vocal mic, and a QSC K12.2 speaker. The MG10XU plugs into my MacBook Air, and when I trigger clips with Looptimus, they play out of channels 9 and 10 in the MG10XU. This mixer is limited to the USB return only coming out of these channels. I also play electric guitar and have a guitar amp, but that gear is separate from Ableton.

Here's the problem I've run into: I put some vocal effects in Live, Ableton's own delays and reverbs, and I can turn them on and off with the Looptimus pedal, which is what I want to do. The problem is that the way the MG10XU mixer works is that I need to plug my mic into one of the channels, then that channel gets sent to Live, the effects get added in Ableton, and the effected vocal comes out channels 9 and 10 and are sent to the main mix, which is what comes out of the PA speaker. But the problem is that both my clean vocal channel and the effected vocals come out of the main mix. What I want to hear is the effected vocals only in the main mix, with no clean vocal channel. What I have now can only output a mixture of clean and effected vocals.

So this is a gear issue. I need a computer-capable live mixer that will allow me to plug in my vocal mic to a channel, get levels, EQ, and built-in effects if I want them, and then be able to route that channel to Ableton but not the main mix output. I need Ableton to put effects on that vocal channel, and then send the effected channel back to the mixer so that you only hear the effected vocal through the PA. I also want to have the triggered clips routed to come out of separate outputs, so if I play in a venue I can give the sound person separate outputs for the vocal channel and the triggered clips, so they can mix it properly for the house.

Has anyone been down this road before, or if not, do you have any ideas how to solve this? I should add, I do not want a large mixer if I can help it. I took a look yesterday and Korg had an interesting mixer, but it was 16 channels and a bit larger than I would want. The Tascam Model 12 is a contender, but I'm not sure if it will completely solve this.

Thanks in advance!

Let me see if I understand what you want, thinking about it backwards.

Outputs
You want to deliver to the house sound tech two signal chains.

1. The loops from Ableton
2. Your vocals.

Assuming you want stereo effects this means you need an audio interface for Ableton that has four separate outputs like a Focusrite 4i4.

Sources:
There are two sources

1. Clips in Session view
2. Your vocal. Here you want to be able to switch between several different effect chains some cleaner than others.

The simplest solution is to plug your mic into the audio interface and let Ableton provide all the effects and use Looptimux to control them.

If you like the effects in your MG10XU you can continue to use only you don't use the USB connection to Ableton. Just plug the output of the mixer into the audio input of your audio interface (like a focusrite 4i4).

The key thing is that you need an audio interface for Ableton that has 4 outputs and I'm not sure that the Tascam Model 12 gives you that in a easy to use format having done a very quick glance at the manual on line.

Hope this helps

ds

Thanks dsu. Initially I was hesitant about using an audio interface, but I gave it a try today with my Focusrite 18i8 and it worked pretty well. I have the 1st generation of that unit, and it only has 2 1/4" TRS monitor output, so no dedicated outs for the clips, but it will do for now.

The most general approach used to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish is to use Ableton tracks for backing tracks and going live with instruments and vocals through the mixer. This allows you to gain stage the backing tracks consistently to match your live instruments and vocals. However, as mentioned previously if you want to have more control over where your output goes you need more output channels on your audio interface so you can separate the various Ableton outputs to go to different channels.

There is one piece of audio gear that's pretty much dominant in the industry for doing such things which is the iConnectivity PlayAUDIO12, which is what I use. It's designed specifically for such uses and provides 12 distinct output channels for going to the mixing board with the outputs coming from a DAW that's connected via USB. The added benefit is it can be rigged with a second PlayAUDIO12 unit to have automatic detect and failover should there be any problems with the feed.