NDLR and Ableton

[PhilF]

Hi there and a big hello to you all

I'm a couple of days away from receiving my NDLR and, having read the manual but being a bit of a noob at these sorts of things, I've got a few questions regarding connectivity.

I'm an Ableton user and my set up is basically split between MIDI and USB connections. So, half of my synths go to my MIDI interface which is then connected by USB to my Mac. And the other half go to a USB hub which is then connected by USB to my Mac.

Where does NDLR fit in with this set up?

Thank you!

[Jesse Johannesen]

Hey Phil, Thanks for supporting our project! If you can send MIDI into the Mac via usb, then route that to synths in Ableton that may end up being a good setup. It's hard to say what will work best for you, but I can say that it will definitely take some experimentation. Some things to consider are that while the NDLR can pass midi on channels not set to directly control the NDLR, it isn't really designed to be a midi pass through device, especially with many channels of MIDI data, so it seems like if you can put it at the beginning of the chain that will work best.

Let me know how it goes when you get started. I'll be around to help if you run into difficulties.
Take care,
Jesse Johannesen

Hi there and a big hello to you all

I'm a couple of days away from receiving my NDLR and, having read the manual but being a bit of a noob at these sorts of things, I've got a few questions regarding connectivity.

I'm an Ableton user and my set up is basically split between MIDI and USB connections. So, half of my synths go to my MIDI interface which is then connected by USB to my Mac. And the other half go to a USB hub which is then connected by USB to my Mac.

Where does NDLR fit in with this set up?

Thank you!

[PhilF]

Thank you - think it all makes sense. Plugged it in last night and the NDLR showed up within Ableton. Only had time to make sure it worked so will have another go over the weekend. I've looked at other posts about setting it up in a DAW and that seems pretty straightforward too.

But, a question for Ableton users - how do you set up Preference for the NDLR within Ableton?

[PhilF]

Spent the last day trying to get this sorted but am running into a brick wall :-(

[PhilF]

Ok - update

Got NDLR working with one synth at a time connected to a USB hub which is then connected to Ableton. But, can't get it to play 4 synths - only whatever synth I highlight in Ableton (either connect via USB and 5 din MIDI)

My settings are in NDLR are;

4 USB4
3 USB3
1 USB1
2 USB2

4 x NDLR's appear on Ableton as routing option and I've tried pointing each physical synth toward each NDLR but this appears to have no effect yet.

[Darryl]

Any Ableton users able to help with this question?

I'm also concerned that using 4 seperate MIDI ports is over complicating things. How are others doing this? Without being an Ableton (or MAC) user, I would have suggested having all 4 NDLR parts on 1 MIDI port, configured to 4 different channels. As in:
4USB1
3USB1
1USB1
2USB1

Since the NDLR is connected and the parts play, its probably more of a question of how to use Ableton. What does it mean to Ableton when you select or "highlight" the synth? Does that solo the synth? What does it take to make them all play at once?

[MrBlaschke]

I don’t use/have Ableton but from what i saw on YouTube (generic, not NDLR specific videos) you have to „arm“ tracks in Ableton.
Is there a way to arm more than 1 channel? Just a quick thought after reading this thread out of interest..

[Jesse Johannesen]

I don’t use/have Ableton but from what i saw on YouTube (generic, not NDLR specific videos) you have to „arm“ tracks in Ableton.
Is there a way to arm more than 1 channel? Just a quick thought after reading this thread out of interest..

Yes there is, you can right click on a channel arm button and toggle "arm exclusive" which is the setting for 1 or many armed tracks at a time.
Jesse

[PhilF]

Ok, thanks everybody. Went to the Ableton forums and somebody called TLW replied and said;

"Not a device I own, but as I understand it the NDLR basically works in the same way as most hardware sequencers capable of sending different outputs on different MIDI channels.

So in Live’s MIDI preferences set up all of its inputs in the “inputs” section, with “track”=on.
In the “output” preferences you need it switched on and set to receive MIDI clock (to sync it to Live).

Set each of the NDLR’s outputs to a different MIDI channel (e.g. 1, 2, 3 and 4).

To capture the MIDI in Live and to route it to a hardware (or software) synth set up 4 MIDI tracks. The input to each should be the NDLR with the MIDI channels set to 1, 2, 3, and 4 (one channel per track, obviously). Set the MIDI track outputs to the target hardware synth with the MIDI channel set to the MIDI channel the synth is set to. That setup should result in Live acting as a MIDI splitter plus have the ability to record what the NDLR sends on each channel.

To hear the MIDI from the tracks you need to set the track monitoring button to “on” or, if the track is record-armed, “auto” will also work. To play back already recorded stuff on a Live MIDI track set the monitoring to “auto”.

I can’t be sure but I think that will work, at least it does with my sequencers."


And it works perfectly! So, if anybody else has issues with NDLR / Ableton / USB, then this will probably work for you too.

Now to spend some time with my NDLR :-)

[Jesse Johannesen]

This is great news! Glad to hear it's working, and thank you for sharing this info so that the next person to run into this challenge can see the solution as well. I wanted to add since it's not mentioned that if you right click on the Arm Track button it offers an option for arm exclusive, which when on only allows one track to be armed at a time, so if you want to hear all 4 this needs to be set to off.
Jesse