Ableton Forum

Ok you can arrange whole tracks in live like other sequencers but what about mixing the tracks in live with EQ etc.

Do you just drag n drop eq on to the tracks you want and take it from there?

Also what about setting up FX sends / returns

Anyone mixing down tracks in live?

any tips please

Yes, you can all that in Live.

can you get more than two send/returns?

Yes.

cool.

how do you go about grouping tracks to a buss?

Hi, elektrasoul

Audio routing in LIVE differs from routing in other DAWs like ProTools and Logic, but has other advantages (also in audio routing) a "normal" DAW does not have...

There are no "bus" tracks you could define, but you can route multiple audio tracks to one audio track to generate something like a bus. Unfortunately LIVE has no "solo safe" function for tracks... makes it a bit uncomfortable...

You could also send the tracks to a return track (which can play "solo in place"), but I personally don't like doing the levelling on the send encoders...

If you're looking for a pure mixdown tool, you could also go with other solutions that probably fit better in a "used manner" (ProTools is my favourite for mixing audio), but you never get the fascinating possibilties in making music as you can get when working with LIVE. And in the end, mixing can also be done in LIVE, also if quite many features for a high end mixing solution are missing.

Hope this helps,

alien factory

yeah, cheers mate.

i use cubase at the moment and im only starting to touch on live (taken its time eh?). so do you think i should rewire and use cubase for the routing/mixing?

also, when you rewire to sx, how many new channels are created?


cheers big ears.

hi, elektrasoul

rewiring LIVE to SX as a slave does not make sense to me, because LIVEs big advantage is the sequencing and non-linear arrangment in session view in combination with the audio manipulation tools within the clip editor and additional fx.

I would rather suggest to use LIVE standalone with the VST instruments and Fx Plug-Ins from SX for making music, collecting musical ideas and making live arrangements

When you're finished and you're nor satisfied with the mixing possibilties in LIVE you can take the tracks to Cubase and mix them there...

Of course you can give it a try with LIVE as Rewire slave, but if you want a benefit from LIVE you should use the internal sequencer in session view and route the outputs into your Cubase SX. I think you get as many outputs from LIVE as you have tracks in there...

Let me know if and how it works...

cu

alien factory

for the time being i think ill only work on 1 group of tracks at a time, rewire them to sx and bounce back in. once i do this a few times, ill pretty much have a song i can then process further/master in sx alone...

my idea is to use live as a VSTi.

trust me reread what he just said, you want live as master for it's creative possibilities and sequencing and cubase as slave. Cubase sounds great but live outperforms it in just about everything else many times over.

I mainly want to work in the arrange window!

so when i comes to mixing down with EQ do you just drag n drop eq on to the track or does ableton have any preset eq like most audio sequencers?

in regards fx or processors i know you can insert fx etc by dragging and droping on the tracks but what about setting up fx sends n returns.

how do you insert an effect on a send? and have do you set up additional fx sends/ returns

make sure your return tracks are visible, drag your effects on there. Now every track has send knobs at the bottom above the volume slider. When you turn those up it will send that much signal to the return track that corresponds to it...

as for eq yes you just drag it on to the track and tweak away, for mixing down use eq 8 and even tho it's a little bit of a pain in the ass you have a LOT of control over the bands.

It seems that a lot of people are mixing outside of Live, in Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar, etc. Live definitely has it's strengths, but apparently mixing isn't one of them. Maybe that mastering plug-in Ozone from iZotope would help you?