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MidiDrone + AbletonLive problem

Posted

Hello All,

My config: V 1.7.7. #3 / Win 8.1 64bit  Using Synfire & Live with midi drones

I loaded a Live project with 11 midi drones with one drone per midi-channel / track in Live since there seems to be no way to see individual midi channels of a drone within Live. I don't know if thats a Drone limitation or a Live limitation. Anyhow, because of this I need one MIDI drone per midi-channel / track / instrument in Live. All 11 drones are currently connected to Synfire instruments however currently only three instruments have figures.

 

Here is the problem -soon as I initiate play, I see the CPU meter on Live slowly climb till it spills over 100% and starts to cause all kinds of audio / timing glitch. In fact my CPU is hardly working at all and its a very fast machine. This happens when Ableton Live has the midi drones regardless of whether Synfire is playing or even booted up.

 

Is there a fix for this?

 

Thank you, jeremy

 


Fri, 2014-09-05 - 09:05 Permalink

there seems to be no way to see individual midi channels of a drone within Live

Like MIDI interfaces or loopback connections, a Drone handles a port with 16 channels. Isn't there a way to route individual channels inside Live? I remember seeing a menu for picking channels.

CPU meter on Live slowly climb till it spills over 100%

 

You seem to have an infinite MIDI feedback, either inside Live or between Live and Synfire (back and forth). Some input monitoring or MIDI Through setting does bounce MIDI messages around in a circle. When investigating this, also consider external hardware (keyboards) that may bounce messages too.

Fri, 2014-09-05 - 16:18 Permalink

Hi Andre,

Isn't there a way to route individual channels inside Live? I remember seeing a menu for picking channels.

 

I have used LoopMidi instead of Drones for this project. Midi ports act a little different in Live than do MIDI drones. Yes it is possible to select port AND channel with a virtual MIDI cable, however, due to Live's inflexible routing paradigm, there seems to be no way to select MIDI channels when using a MIDI drone. Please see my attached screen-shot as reference for how I am using Midi drones in Live. I haven't figured out a nother way to do this yet and yes I chose to use MIDI drones because I am using some of Live's own instruments which are not VST.

You seem to have an infinite MIDI feedback, either inside Live or between Live and Synfire

I'm not sure if this is what is happening. I have tried toggling all of the inputs off for the MIDI drones and associated channels and I still get the problem. I wonder if any other users can confirm whether they are having issues with MIDI drones in Live?

Mon, 2014-09-08 - 00:52 Permalink

Hi Andre, I wanted to let you know that I have found the cause of the problem described in this post. The MIDI driver for my SoundDevices USB Pre2 is at fault. For some reason it doesn't like the Drones and seems to be fussy in other situations as well. After switching to an RME interface / driver all is fine.

 

It may be worth noting however that Live does seem to have this routing limitation previously described, therefore it becomes necessary to use one drome for every channel / track / instrument.

 

Cheers, jeremy