I'm having trouble wrapping my head around using external synths with midi from Ableton. I have an audio interface with a midi in and a midi out, but I'd like to send out midi to two synths (Volcas), can I just use both as outs? If not, does anyone know anything about using usb->midi cables, especially with configuring through Ableton? I have no idea what I'm doing and don't even have the cables I'd need yet anyway
As mentioned if the Volcas had MIDI through you could set the Beats to MIDI channel 1 and the Bass to MIDI channel 2 and chain them together.
What you'll need to solve the problem elegantly is something with 2 MIDI outs or more.
I use the Motu Express 128 for this, you could get something much smaller of course:
Now the good thing about having multiple MIDI outs is you don't need to worry about changing MIDI channel on the device, only selecting the right MIDI port on your DAW.
Ableton would see the Motu as 8 separate MIDI outputs, so you plug MIDI OUT 1 on the Motu to MIDI IN on the Beats, and then connect MIDI OUT 2 on the Motu to MIDI IN on the Bass and in Ableton on the MIDI track you just select the right output. Once again, all the external devices are set to MIDI channel 1, you're just choosing which MIDI port you're sending the data out of.
PS: You still got the Euro? I've basically sold all mine off.
Haha, nope - all my modular stuff is gone and the only bit I miss is the sound. It sounded really unique, even when I listen to some of the old stuff I made I'm impressed with the sounds it could make but the workflow just sucked. I even used Silent Ways ES-3 to get 8 channels of CV from the lightpipe output on my sound card but it didn't mean much when my kid had turned a few knobs while I wasn't looking and broke the patch I had painstakingly dialled in.
I used my Eurorack funds to buy a Virus TI Polar lol. Aptly named coz it's the Polar opposite of my Eurorack but damn my workflow is back, the multitimbral plays really nicely with Studio One as well.
Here's the latest tune I made, just some generic banging house - I was inspired by a tune I heard on the Ultra stream that had this really slowly pitched pattern. I set the pitch bend to +12 on the Virus and then automated the pitch bend with a rising exponential curve over 96 bars. I also tried to do a white noise riser to match but the slowest the LFO would go on a ramp shape was about 70 bars so you can hear I bring the riser in a bit after the resort starts. I move through the wavetable OSC to a grimier part as it pitches and I start introducing some triangular FM toward the end too to get it sounding really peaky.
I love the tension that comes from the melody pitching up slowly and slightly, it starts working just before your ears really figure out what's happening:
https://soundcloud.com/kaarma/the-swarm
edit: Dat soundcloud 128kbit downgrade. My highs, my lows...
All the bass, leads and risers are from the Virus and I used my standard plugs for the track. Nicky Romeros 'Kick' plugin for the kick, 'Kickstart' for side-chaining, Valhalla Room for reverb, Sonimus SatSon for faux channel strips and SonEq Pro for slicing and dicing, Klanghelm SDRR for a bit of sizzle on the hats and lead, Waves Maxxbass on the bass, Ozone on the master, Bx cleansweep all over the place to keep the bottoms and tops under control, Kontakt West Africa for those african tom-toms, Waves CLA drums on the percussion bus and I bounced and chopped some incidental percussion using Break Tweaker too.
The track has no hook, it's all riser. Once that big rise ended I experimented with dropping into vocals and melody and the big bass/pluck thing thats all over the place at the moment but none of it really worked so I just rolled it out into an early 2000's sounding hard house drum outro and called it a day lol.
