Ableton Live 7 MIDI Problems
A lot of people are having trouble with Ableton Live 7. This is especially true with MIDI functionality. It stems from the fact that Live 7 defaults to the DirectMusic MIDI interface. Apparently DirectMusic then has to do emulation because the standard Microsoft MIDI driver is not DirectMusic native (Microsoft, we will never understand you..). This is true for most USB MIDI devices.
This was affecting me by introducing high latency into MIDI I/O with my Novation Remote 61 SL and Akai MPD24. Initially all seemed well. Gradually, hitting a note on my keyboard would get slower and slower until the point where it was unusable. We’re talking hit a key and wait tens of seconds before the note plays.
Luckily the fix is pretty easy. Open up the MIDI preferences, and click the small arrow next to all your inputs and outputs. Now simply click the port type and it will change from DirectMusic to MME.
According to the forums, there are no drawbacks to this approach. It is unfortunate that Ableton decided to make this a default since so many people have had troubles with it.
Related posts:
- NIN Echoplex live rehearsal One of my favorite blogs, Create Digital Music, ran a...
- Why alternative search engines are bound to fail I’ve seen a lot of new bots crawl my site...
December 26th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Hey I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I’m having with this Oxygen 8 v2 keyboard I’m attempting to use with Live.
I’m having a problem in which the Input column in the preferences -> midi sync page is completely greyed out, and as a result I can’t use the oxygen keyboard as an external controller. Strangely, windows seems to think it’s installed and running properly although none of the audio programs detect it, most importantly Live. Please help? =)))
December 26th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Hi,
MIDI drivers should be built in to Windows, but M-Audio may have their own that let you use the audio feature. MIDI sync is also not necessary for using the device as a controller, the PC will function as a time source just fine. Perhaps the Oxygen doesn’t have timing built in? Also, are there multiple MIDI channels, such as one for the Oxygen’s keys and one for the external MIDI ports? I need more info to help, but hopefully this points you in the right direction.
December 26th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
After troubleshooting for a while I’ve decided that it’s Windows that’s screwing it up. It skips the step where the Found New Hardware wizard asks me to install software automatically and instead goes straight to “Your hardware is installed and ready to use”, and consequently Ableton doesn’t recognize it. Do you know how I could make it so Windows doesn’t do that step automatically?
ps. It’s connected via USB.
December 27th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Never mind
Got it figured out =]]