If you've got drum hardware machines, synths and sequencers in your studio, Ableton Live can be a great hub. But it can be complicated to get all MIDI and audio in sync, right? Noah Pred shows how.  
Note: Before following along, please ensure all your devices are plugged in, configured correctly, and sending and receiving MIDI and audio signal as expected.

Synchronizing External Sequencers

Sending clock out on Port 1.
Dead simple MIDI synchronization beat from a Drum Rack.
External clock master enabled.

External Instrument

External Instrument’s home in the browser.
External Instrument configured for my Moog Mother 32, receiving MIDI on Channel 15 and delivering audio on Input 2 with a latency of 16.30 milliseconds.
In/Out routing settings on the destination audio track.
Recorded with 0ms Hardware Latency.
Recorded with too much Hardware Latency on the External Instrument.
Recorded with 16.30ms Hardware Latency – spot on!
PRO-TIP: Assuming you’ll continue to use your current MIDI and Audio routings for awhile, it’s a good idea to save your External Instrument preset using the name of the device it’s connected to for easy future reference in your Library—just click the disk symbol in the upper right of the External Instrument device view and type the desired name into the browser when it appears.

Track Delay

Track Delay is visible beneath each track’s volume slider in the Session view, so long as the D toggle, located above the Crossfader X and below the Mixer M toggles in the Mixer reveal area at bottom right, is enabled.
In the Arrange view, Track Delay is visible to the right of the track mixer parameters, so long as the D view button is toggled on.
Aligning a latency-delayed audio clip with the Arrangement timeline with 1/8192 note accuracy; from here, the Clip could be re-consolidated for consistent looping.

Audio Clip Compensation

Setting the 1.1.1 right where it should be.

Synchronize Your Life

Learn Ableton Live in the AskAudio Academy here.

Noah Pred is a Canadian record producer, sound designer, technologist, DJ, and Ableton Certified Trainer living in Berlin, Germany. Releasing dozens of records and touring extensively since the '90s, he currently teaches a wide variety of techniques for stage and studio at the BIMM Institute. For more information, please visit: http://... Read More

Discussion

Jrme
Thank you! I was struggling with this. Works beautifully now.

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