Best way to set up with Ableton live 7

Peace,
please forgive me if this has been posted and if so please point me to it.

I have searched the forum and searched youtube with NO luck
I have an MBOX2 USB along with Ableton live 7, Axiom 49 and an MPC 1000. At this time I have the mpc slaved to Ableton and I rewire Reason 4 along with a host of VST.
My question??? Is slaving the Ableton to the mpc 1000 a better way? I want to be able to record all the drum tracks in ableton where I can take advantage of compression etc... however I love the timing of the mpc. I read where producers are chopping samples in ableton and assining them to the MPC pads.
Is there a DVD tutorial that touches on this set up or something close to it.
Can I record my all of my mpc drum tracks into Ableton all at once?

Ok...OK I had more than one question. LOL Any help is really appreciated. Thanks GOD BLESS

have your mpc as the master if you want that akai swing. track into ableton with your mpc's assignable outs.
then you can add effects when you do your mix at the end

Thanks for replying Ben,

Is'nt there an issue with the timming when you slave ableton live to the MPC. I read where the timming would drift. I have an IBMT60 laptop that I run everything off. I am seriously thinking of buying a mac.

i'd like to use my mpc1000 to trigger ableton's impulse samples. im currently using an m-audio midisport uno as my midi interface. i have my mpc pads assigned to the impulse samples, but there is a lag in the sound with respect to striking the pad. is there a way to eliminate this lag and produce the sound in real time? any help is greatly appreciated.

I have not gotten that far. I really want to read in more detail something that is targetted toward the use of the MPC and ableton. Maybe some one will put that together and we can purchase it.

If you are hearing a lag in real-time between striking a pad and hearing the sound generated from Live then you are experiencing latency issues.

Make sure you have ASIO drivers installed for your soundcard and make sure everything is running optimally on your computer. Use the ASIO drivers that came with your soundcard or try ASIO4All which is the freeware ASIO driver that you can dl off the internet.

If you are running a Windows-based PC then you might want to try switching Windows' midi port configuration between MME and DirectMusic, it seems like there is no 1 right answer for everyone you will have to try between the two to see which sounds more accurate.

As for the set-up between Live and an MPC. This is something that I was experimenting with and doing alot of research on to try to get working. I wanted to sync Live to my MPC so that I can sequence MIDI from the MPC to trigger VST's in Live. My plan was to set up Live as a vst rack and sequence everything from the MPC and then track out the MIDI tracks from the MPC into Live. Sort of like if you were making a beat on the MPC and then multi-tracking it into a DAW.

I always get MIDI sync issues and it appears as though Live has MIDI sync issues when you slave it. There's posts on it at the Ableton Live forum and it seems as though the majority of Live users agree that Live has sync issues that still have not yet been sorted out.

I will say this in ableton's defense. I have been using it as a master and my mpc as a slave. This has worked really good. I cannot hear any lag. The only issue is that I would like to use the MPC as master. I can live with the set up I have now however I would like to track everything at the same time. I guess that's lack of knowledge on my part.

thanks tohtruck. tried installing ASIO4All and maxed out the latency settings, but only got marginal improvement. my computer (which is a PC with vista) has plenty of RAM (4GB) and is not running hard. could it be that i'm using a usb connection? is that too slow?

we should make a petition and send it to ableton, demanding results for our mpc's

It would be helpful to elaborate on your set-up and how you have things hooked up. I'm no expert but I'll try and offer some input that will hopefully be helpful.

Do you have a dedicated soundcard/audio interface? Or are you using an audio connection directly from your motherboard?

If you do not have a dedicated audio interface then it is highly suggested that you invest in one with ASIO drivers. Doesn't even have to be something ridiculously expensive but at least something meant for professional audio use.

When you say that you have things connected via USB are you referring to the midi sport uno? That shouldn't be the issue at all since that is just a midi interface. The way you make it sound is that you have latency issues which has to do with audio and the response time it takes for the audio to actually sound, not the response time of a midi event to transfer from your MPC through your Uno to your computer.

In fact, MIDI is actually a very small data protocol and outdated by the standards of today's technology in other sectors (i.e. fibre optics) so the USB is actually more than sufficient for transferring midi data to your computer which is why there are USB midi interfaces with 8 i/o ports that work just fine. But again try different settings if you are using Direct Music then try using MME midi port settings.

Again if it is truly an issue with latency then it is something you will have to troubleshoot in how your audio is set-up. If you don't have a dedicated audio interface with ASIO drivers then that is easily the likely culprit.

Otherwise, try tweaking the buffer settings for your audio interface, lower samples will yield less latency the only drawback is if your computer isn't quite powerful enough to compute the lower buffer rates then you might experience distortion or instances of dropouts. So adjust so that the timing is relatively on point and so you can hear things well.

If its a USB audio interface then it might or might not be an issue. Likewise, USB 2.0 or Firewire will probably be faster and will definitely be better for multi-tracking and using several inputs and outputs simultaneously. But for the most part it will depend mostly on ASIO drivers and adjusting settings.

I do not use Vista, at the moment I am on XP Pro. I do not have experience using Vista for audio but from what I have heard it is not recommended, at least at this point. So I do not know from experience but from what I have heard, there are still issues and kinks in Vista that need to be worked out and Vista has alot of accessories, if you will, and things running that can take away from processor power. If you can, I'd say give XP a try since it is a bit more stable at this point.

Also try tweaking your PC with the Windows Tweaking guides that are all over the internet.

Thanks Tohtruck.
I can elaverate on my set up. I run Windows xp pro service pack2(TWEAKED FOR AUDIO RECORDING,) Digidesign Mbox2, Protools LE,Axiom 49, Ableton Live 7, Reason 4, Akai MPC 1000 and a host of VST synths/effects.

I slave the mpc thru the Mbox2 to ableton and I get great results. If I slave ableton to the MPC I get timming drifts. I read that if you create an extra bar the midi clock actually syncs and both run pretty much on time. I'm not an expert like a lot of people on this forum. I mean, I read a thread were a dude was breaking the midi timming down by milli seconds and so on (aswsome stuff.) I run the recomended ASIO driver that comes with the Ableton and Digidesign set up, I think they are the same? I did set up Protools first and then Ableton live second. I do a majority of my work thru Ableton live (my pc laptop can't handle the buffer setting when using protools and midi.)

I was just interested in seeing or reading how most people use Ableton and the MPC 1000. I wonder if there is an advantage to using the JJ os on the MPC with Ableton?

i'm a serious noob at all of this, so please excuse my ignorance.

i don't think that i have a soundcard/audio interface. basically i have my mpc1000 connected to my computer (using ableton live 7) via MIDI through my midisport uno and that's that. i looked into interfaces like the mbox, but they seem to have more inputs/outputs than i need. i really only need MIDI ins and outs. is there an interface that just has MIDI? is that any different than the midisport uno?

i'll try to tweak my PC and revert to XP if necessary. i tried to switch between direct music and MME and saw little differences between the two.

thanks again tohtruck. really appreciate your help.

i just got off the phone with a local audio store and he distinguished the difference between my midisport and the audio interface that i need. i'm going to swap my midisport for something like the Tascam US-122 soon, so hopefully i'll be up and running after that.

Reddchin wrote:Thanks Tohtruck.
I can elaverate on my set up. I run Windows xp pro service pack2(TWEAKED FOR AUDIO RECORDING,) Digidesign Mbox2, Protools LE,Axiom 49, Ableton Live 7, Reason 4, Akai MPC 1000 and a host of VST synths/effects.

I slave the mpc thru the Mbox2 to ableton and I get great results. If I slave ableton to the MPC I get timming drifts. I read that if you create an extra bar the midi clock actually syncs and both run pretty much on time. I'm not an expert like a lot of people on this forum. I mean, I read a thread were a dude was breaking the midi timming down by milli seconds and so on (aswsome stuff.) I run the recomended ASIO driver that comes with the Ableton and Digidesign set up, I think they are the same? I did set up Protools first and then Ableton live second. I do a majority of my work thru Ableton live (my pc laptop can't handle the buffer setting when using protools and midi.)

I was just interested in seeing or reading how most people use Ableton and the MPC 1000. I wonder if there is an advantage to using the JJ os on the MPC with Ableton?

Yeah, in this case everyone is kind of in the same boat as you. There are no problems when slaving external midi devices to Ableto Live as master. The issue is when slaving Live to external midi devices. It seems as though this is purely an Ableton Live issue that the Abes still need to sort out.

As for the extra bar to give the respective clocks time to sync. I have tried it myself and it does not work. Whenever I try sequencing with my MPC things just seem to get jarbbled up at the end of the initial bar regardless. Live just does not play nice when slaving to external midi. The extra bar is a trick that has worked with other software sequencers. Its basically there to allow the computer some time to process and catch up with the sync signal.

The ASIO driver is the software component that came with your interface that you must install in order for you to be able to use your interface. Soundcard drivers do not come with DAW software and soft sequencers. So the driver you are using is the ASIO driver that came with your MBox. Ableton Live does not have an ASIO driver.

You mentioned you set up Pro-Tools first and then Ableton Live second. What exactly are you referring to? Are you talking about a re-wire set-up? Keep in mind that if you are re-wiring Pro-Tools and Live then it will utilize more processing power from your CPU since you are running both of them at the same time.

The buffer setting has nothing to do with whether you are using MIDI or not. Again keep in mind that rule of thumb that you've probably read and had people telling you non stop when you started. "Audio and MIDI are not the same." If you are experiencing drop-outs and distortion with low buffer settings, utilizing midi whether striking a note in real-time or playing back a sequenced midi part will have little to do with audio latency with high buffer settings or dropouts with low buffer settings. So don't worry about whether you have a midi device connected or if you are using a midi device to trigger something. This is an audio and CPU processing power issue, better CPU and well-written ASIO drivers will generally allow you to utilize lower buffer settings with little or no dropouts. So it will also be good to make sure you have the latest ASIO drivers installed for your MBox.

Furthermore it can get even more complicated than this since I've heard that some audio software will utilize dual and multi-core machines in strange ways. That is some software will distribute the components or your project unevenly among the cores. Plus RAM can be an issue if you are running hundreds of plugs and instruments at the same time. So if you have a giant project also make sure you start freezing tracks to save CPU and RAM usage.

Hope I didn't go off on too much of a tangent, so just extract what you find useful from what I wrote and try out different things if you find you are having real issues. The Live sync thing is beyond any of our hands, its up to Ableton to fix. So for the most part don't stress over it.

obzhp wrote:i'm a serious noob at all of this, so please excuse my ignorance.

i don't think that i have a soundcard/audio interface. basically i have my mpc1000 connected to my computer (using ableton live 7) via MIDI through my midisport uno and that's that. i looked into interfaces like the mbox, but they seem to have more inputs/outputs than i need. i really only need MIDI ins and outs. is there an interface that just has MIDI? is that any different than the midisport uno?

i'll try to tweak my PC and revert to XP if necessary. i tried to switch between direct music and MME and saw little differences between the two.

thanks again tohtruck. really appreciate your help.

Glad to hear that it seems as though you have a plan to sort things out. Yeah I assumed from what you posted that, that was the component that was missing. The Midisport is a MIDI interface, it allows you to send and receive midi data between an external midi component and your computer.

The reason that I stressed the importance of a decent audio interface with good ASIO drivers is the fact that if you are not running any sort of dedicated soundcard or audio interface then you are probably running audio straight from your motherboard which means a heavier processing load for your CPU. It might or might not be an issue but for the most part you will always be better off with a dedicated audio interface. The ASIO drivers will reduce audio latency and I'm sure at some point you will probably want to be able to record audio or track instruments into your computer. Its just a good thing to have and one of the most important components for a computer DAW.

Forgot to add there will be no difference with the sync issues even with JJ OS installed.

A good reason to install it tho is because JJ OS KIX ASSSSS!!!!!