tingletime
New Member
Hey all,
I'm an Ableton producer, and have held firm in my belief over the years that it's frankly a terrible DAW for recording live performance audio. I'm also extremely sus of it's summing algorithm, and believe Ableton masters sound 'worse' than other DAWs. It's the best sequencer there is, but that's about it.
I've recorded and mixed down in PT for a long time, but LUNA is changing all that. It's an incredibly intuitive, free, and most importantly AMAZING SOUNDING and sample accurate DAW for recording and mixing.
My optimal workflow, like I'm sure would be for many other Ableton users, is slaving Ableton to LUNA for live recording while the Ableton session is still work in progress, without having to bounce things out.
The @UniversalAudio Youtube channel put out a video on how to do this with the native LUNA midi clock output. I tried this, and found even with delay correction this method is still honestly quite trash. No fault to UAD, midi clock is ancient at this point. But the initial playback jitter and crazy bpm drift in Ableton make this super inaccurate.
Enter Timecode. Usually you need to generate timecode and distribute it to sync devices. Pro Tools is very timecode friendly due to scoring for video capabilities, but I didn't expect this from LUNA.
Some PROPER gents at TXL coded a plug in that automatically generates timecode from your DAW and translates to MIDI. Works flawlessly. https://txl20.com/product/txl-timecode-plug-in/
Steps to slave Ableton to LUNA accurately:
1) Download TXL20 Timecode plugin. It's like $20
2) Open LUNA and load plugin onto *mono* instrument track
3) Select MTC, and route to IAC Driver Bus 1 (Macs default midi router. *Make sure the device is online in Audio Midi Settings/Midi Studio)
4) Open Ableton. Route your Master to Console's Virtual Channel 1/2. This Ableton output number will vary based on your hardware setup. Just look for it in Consoles I/O
5) In Ableton under Midi settings make sure IAC Driver is set to "sync". Use the dropdown arrow and set sync type to MIDI Timecode
6) In Ableton select "Ext" in top left corner of DAW to set clock to External. Test playback from LUNA and see if Ableton playhead is moving
7) Sync things up. Use the midi clock sync delay inside *Ableton* to dial. Best way is to start running the click track in both daws and drag the Ableton slider till aligned.
That should be it. Zero bpm drift. Minimal sync jitter on playback start. Far superior to Midi Clock.
*Disclaimer: I use this setup to most accurately record inside LUNA while hearing Ableton. I do not route the Ableton Virtual channel into LUNA, as this introduces additional latency which defeats the purpose. When you simply monitor Ableton inside Console instead of Luna, latency is zero.
Hope this helps all you Ableton folks out there - it's drastically simplifying my workflow and making it effortless to live record alongside Ableton without all the timing struggles.
And MAJOR PROPS to @UniversalAudio for such a fantastic piece of Software with LUNA. Sounds AMAZING.
-Austin
I'm an Ableton producer, and have held firm in my belief over the years that it's frankly a terrible DAW for recording live performance audio. I'm also extremely sus of it's summing algorithm, and believe Ableton masters sound 'worse' than other DAWs. It's the best sequencer there is, but that's about it.
I've recorded and mixed down in PT for a long time, but LUNA is changing all that. It's an incredibly intuitive, free, and most importantly AMAZING SOUNDING and sample accurate DAW for recording and mixing.
My optimal workflow, like I'm sure would be for many other Ableton users, is slaving Ableton to LUNA for live recording while the Ableton session is still work in progress, without having to bounce things out.
The @UniversalAudio Youtube channel put out a video on how to do this with the native LUNA midi clock output. I tried this, and found even with delay correction this method is still honestly quite trash. No fault to UAD, midi clock is ancient at this point. But the initial playback jitter and crazy bpm drift in Ableton make this super inaccurate.
Enter Timecode. Usually you need to generate timecode and distribute it to sync devices. Pro Tools is very timecode friendly due to scoring for video capabilities, but I didn't expect this from LUNA.
Some PROPER gents at TXL coded a plug in that automatically generates timecode from your DAW and translates to MIDI. Works flawlessly. https://txl20.com/product/txl-timecode-plug-in/
Steps to slave Ableton to LUNA accurately:
1) Download TXL20 Timecode plugin. It's like $20
2) Open LUNA and load plugin onto *mono* instrument track
3) Select MTC, and route to IAC Driver Bus 1 (Macs default midi router. *Make sure the device is online in Audio Midi Settings/Midi Studio)
4) Open Ableton. Route your Master to Console's Virtual Channel 1/2. This Ableton output number will vary based on your hardware setup. Just look for it in Consoles I/O
5) In Ableton under Midi settings make sure IAC Driver is set to "sync". Use the dropdown arrow and set sync type to MIDI Timecode
6) In Ableton select "Ext" in top left corner of DAW to set clock to External. Test playback from LUNA and see if Ableton playhead is moving
7) Sync things up. Use the midi clock sync delay inside *Ableton* to dial. Best way is to start running the click track in both daws and drag the Ableton slider till aligned.
That should be it. Zero bpm drift. Minimal sync jitter on playback start. Far superior to Midi Clock.
*Disclaimer: I use this setup to most accurately record inside LUNA while hearing Ableton. I do not route the Ableton Virtual channel into LUNA, as this introduces additional latency which defeats the purpose. When you simply monitor Ableton inside Console instead of Luna, latency is zero.
Hope this helps all you Ableton folks out there - it's drastically simplifying my workflow and making it effortless to live record alongside Ableton without all the timing struggles.
And MAJOR PROPS to @UniversalAudio for such a fantastic piece of Software with LUNA. Sounds AMAZING.
-Austin
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