Posted
Hello,
i wanted to ask if someone knows a solution for my problem.
I want to send midi via midi-drone to ableton and from there to external hardware synthesizers.
But if i put a drone in ableton, i can only send it to a vst-plugin.
Is there any solution for that? or did someone already programmed a maxForLive-Plugin? I tried to programm one but i didn`t have success. :/
If someone is able to help me i send him 50$ Paypal because he would make me soo happy.
Best!!
Max
So., 15.01.2023 - 12:16 Permalink
Can't remember if you can put the ableton external instrument on the same track as the midi drone although version 2 might be different. If you can't you should be able to route the midi out of the track with the midi drone into a seperate track with the ableton external instrument. Create a second track in ableton and set it's midi in to be the track with the midi drone on it.
The ableton external instrument, can be found in the instruments list in ableton, you drag it to a midi track as normal and in its config you specify which midi device/channel to send out to (the one the external synth is connected to) and the audio device that returns the audio from the external synth.
Im sure I read somewhere that the version 2 midi drone acts as a midi effect so it might be possible to do this all on one ableton track, but I've not upgraded yet so can't test. The version 1 midi drone definately needed two ableton midi tracks with routing within ableton between the two.
Hope that helps and good luck.
So., 15.01.2023 - 13:53 Permalink
Synfire 1 Drone has a "MIDI Only" mode but was still an audio plug-in. Synfire 2 still can do this.
Synfire 2 MIDI-Drone (Pro) is a genuine MIDI FX plug-in (not an audio plugin) which most DAWs now support.
Some DAW allow a MIDI FX plug-in to be placed before the chain of instruments and audio effects plug-ins, which is the preferred way to feed MIDI into the DAW.
Ableton Live doesn't. As soon as a MIDI FX plug-in is added to a Live track, the track's "MIDI To" menu (which could be used to send MIDI to an external hardware) disappears. Also, Live seems to limit MIDI FX to their own proprietary plug-ins.
I thought building a MAX MIDI FX plug-in might be an option, as it allows other plug-ins to be loaded (the Synfire MIDI FX drone). No idea why this doesn't work.
So., 15.01.2023 - 19:54 Permalink
on the second track set the midi from to be the midi output of the drone on the first track (you should be able to see all the midi channels and pick the one you are using assuming the midi drone includes all 16). Put the ableton external instrument plugin on the second track.
Use the ableton external instrument plug in rather than routing the track's midi out to the hardware synth. You configure the midi device channel and audio device the synth is connected to inside the ableton external instrument plug in.
Not tested by me using the version 2 drone as i havent saved enough pennies for the synfire upgrade yet