A Scene in the Session View.
The exclusivity of clips in a track also implies that, at any one time, a track will either play a Session clip or an Arrangement clip, but never both. So, who wins? When a Session clip is launched, the respective track stops whatever it is doing to play that clip. In particular, if the track was playing an Arrangement clip, it will stop it in favor of the Session clip even as the other tracks continue to play what is in the Arrangement. The track will not resume Arrangement playback until explicitly told to do so.
The Back to Arrangement Button.
This is what the Back to Arrangement button, found in the Control Bar at the top of the Live screen, is for. This button lights up to indicate that one or more tracks are currently not playing the Arrangement, but are playing a clip from the Session instead. We can click this button to make all tracks go back to the Arrangement. Or, if we like what we hear, we can capture the current state into the Arrangement by activating the Record button. Disengaging Record Mode or stopping Live using the Stop button leaves us with an altered Arrangement.

4.4 Audio and MIDI

Clips represent recorded signals. Live deals with two types of signals: audio and MIDI. In the digital world, an audio signal is a series of numbers that approximates a continuous signal as generated by a microphone or delivered to a loudspeaker. A MIDI signal is a sequence of commands, such as now play a C4 at mezzo piano. MIDI is a symbolic representation of musical material, one that is closer to a written score than to an audio recording. MIDI
signals are generated by input devices such as MIDI or USB keyboards1. It takes an instrument to convert MIDI signals into audio signals that can actually be heard. Some instruments, such as Live's Simpler, are for chromatic playing of one sound via the keyboard. Other instruments, such as Live's Impulse, have a different percussion sound assigned to each keyboard key. Audio signals are recorded and played back using audio tracks, and MIDI signals are recorded and played back using MIDI tracks. The two track types have their own corresponding clip types. Audio clips cannot live on MIDI tracks and vice versa. Information about inserting, reordering and deleting audio and MIDI tracks is found here.
4.5 Audio Clips and Samples
An audio clip contains a reference to a sample (also known as a sound le or audio le ) or a compressed sample (such as an MP3 le). The clip tells Live where on the computer's drives to nd the sample, what part of the sample to play and how to play it. When a sample is dragged in from one of Live's built-in File Browsers, Live automatically creates a clip to play that sample. Prior to dragging in a sample, one can audition or preview it directly in the Browser; the switch in the Browser with the headphone icon activates previewing.

Live's Built-in Devices Are Available from the Device Browser.
You can also use plug-in devices in Live. VST and Audio Units (Mac OS X only) Plug-ins are available from the Plug-In Device Browser.
Plug-In Devices Are Available from the Plug-In Device Browser.
Consider an audio clip playing in an audio track. The audio signal from the clip reaches the leftmost device in the chain. This device processes (changes) the signal and feeds the result into the next device, and so on. The number of devices per track is theoretically unlimited. In practice, the computer's processor speed does impose a limit on the number of devices
you can use at the same time, a topic that deserves separate discussion. Note that the signal connections between audio devices are always stereo, but the software's inputs and outputs can be con gured to be mono in the Audio Preferences. When the signal has passed through the device chain, it ends up in Live's mixer. As the Session and Arrangement share the same set of tracks, they also share the mixer. The mixer can be shown in both views for convenience. To optimize the screen layout, the individual mixer sections can be shown or hidden using the View menu's entries.
The Live Mixer in the Arrangement View (Left) and Session View (Right).
The mixer has controls for volume, pan position and sends, which adjust the contribution each track makes to the input of any return tracks. Return tracks only host effects, and not clips. Via their sends, all tracks can feed a part of their signal into a return track and share its effects. The mixer also includes a crossfader, which can create smooth transitions between clips playing on different tracks. Live's crossfader works like a typical DJ mixer crossfader, except that it allows crossfading not only two but any number of tracks including the returns.

Live's Crossfader.

Devices that receive and deliver audio signals are called audio effects. Audio effects are the only type of device that t in an audio track or a return track. However, two more types of devices are available for use in MIDI tracks: MIDI effects and instruments.
Consider a MIDI track playing a clip. The MIDI signal from the clip is fed into the track's device chain. There, it is rst processed by any number of MIDI effects. A MIDI effect receives and delivers MIDI signals. One example is the Scale effect, which maps the incoming notes onto a user-de ned musical scale. The last MIDI effect in the chain is followed by an instrument. Instruments, for instance Live's Simpler and Impulse, receive MIDI and deliver audio. Following the instrument, there can be any number of audio effects as in an audio track.

Use the Loop/Region Markers to Select a Speci c Region of the Clip to Play.

10.4.3 Grid Snapping

Most functions in the MIDI Editor are subject to grid snapping. You can hold down the Alt (PC) / (Mac) modi er while performing an action to bypass grid snapping. Note movements will also snap to an offset, which is based on the original placement of the note relative to the grid. This is useful for preserving a groove or loose playing style that you do not necessarily want to set straight.

10.4.4 Editing Notes

Editing in the MIDI Editor is similar to editing in the Arrangement. In both cases, your actions are selection-based: you select something using the mouse, then execute a menu command (e.g., Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate) on the selection. Here is how selection works:
Clicking a note selects the note. Multiple notes can be selected in unison: rubberband select more than one note with one mouse motion by clicking in empty space, then dragging to enclose the notes in the dotted line that appears. Esc deselects all selected notes.; Clicking into the background of the MIDI Editor selects a point in time, represented by a ashing insert mark.
Clicking and dragging in the background selects a timespan. To select all of the notes that begin during the timespan, press Return.
After placing the insert mark, you can manipulate it using your computer keyboard.
Press or settings. Ctrl boundary.
to move the insert mark to the left or right, according to the grid (PC) / Alt (Mac) or moves the insert mark to the next note
Hold down while pressing the arrow keys to extend or retract the selected timespan by moving the insert mark. Alt (PC) / Alt (Mac)+ while pressing the arrow keys extends or retracts from the opposite side of the selection. The insert mark can be moved to the beginning or end of a MIDI clip by pressing the Home or End key, respectively.
As we have seen, notes in the MIDI Editor can be moved both horizontally (changing their position in time) and vertically (changing their transposition). They can be moved either by clicking and dragging, or with the arrow keys on your computer keyboard; in either case, they are subject to grid and offset snapping. If you are playing the clip while you edit notes, you can listen to them play in their new assignments as you change them. Several key modi ers also apply to note editing:
To transpose selected notes by octave, hold down

while pressing

or grid settings.
extends or retracts the duration of selected notes, according to the (PC) / moves
To change the selection to the next note in the same key track, hold the Alt (Mac) while pressing or. Alt (PC) / (Mac) or the selection to the next note in time.
You can use the modi er to click and add individual notes or additional rubberband selections to your current selection. You can also remove a single note from your selection by holding down and clicking on it. Holding and clicking on the piano roll adds all notes in a single key track to the current selection, or removes them if they were already selected.

If multiple tracks are selected, pressing one of the Monitor buttons applies this selection to all of the selected tracks.

External Audio In/Out

An audio interface's inputs are selected by choosing Ext. In from the Input Type chooser of an audio track. The Input Channel chooser then offers the individual input channels. Entries in this chooser each have meters next to their names to help you identify signal presence and overload (when the meter ashes red). Setting up the audio interface's outputs works the same way via the output chooser pair. If multiple tracks are selected, any changes you make to these choosers will be applied to all selected tracks. The list of available inputs and outputs depends on the Audio Preferences, which can be
reached via the Input and Output Channel choosers' Con gure. option. Note that the Audio Preferences also provide access to the Channel Con guration dialogs, which determine which inputs and outputs are used, and whether they are available to Live as mono or stereo pairs. Essentially, the Channel Con guration dialog tells Live what it needs to know about how the computer is connected to the other audio components in your studio.
13.2.1 Mono/Stereo Conversions
When a mono signal is chosen as an audio track's input, the track will record mono samples; otherwise it will record stereo samples. Signals in the track's device chain are always stereo, even when the track's input is mono or when the track plays mono samples. Mono is turned into stereo simply by using the identical signal for left and right channels. When a track is routed into a mono output, the left and right signals are added together and attenuated by 6 dB to avoid clipping.

External MIDI In/Out

MIDI from the outside world is routed into Live just like audio. From the Input Type chooser of a MIDI track, you can either select a speci c MIDI input port or All Ins, which is the merged input of all external MIDI ports. The Input Channel chooser offers the individual input channels of the selected MIDI port and the merged signal of all channels, All. As is the case with audio inputs, the Input Channel chooser also has meters next to every entry to represent activity on the respective input channel. If multiple MIDI tracks are selected, any changes you make to these choosers will be applied to all selected tracks.
13.3.1 The MIDI Ports List in the Preferences
The MIDI Ports List in the Preferences.
You can con gure which MIDI ports are made available to Live using the MIDI Ports section of the MIDI/Sync Preferences. All available input and output ports are listed here. For Live's tracks to receive/send MIDI from/to a speci c MIDI port, the corresponding switch in the Track column must be set to On. You can use any number of MIDI ports for track input and output; the mixer's In/Out choosers allow them to be addressed individually.

13.6.1 Internal Routing Points
Signals travel from Live's tracks into their respective device chains and then into the track mixer, where they might become panned or have their levels altered by the tracks' faders. Whenever a track's Audio From input chooser is set to another track (as described in the previous section's Approach 2), the signal received can be tapped from one of three different points chosen from the Input Channel chooser: Pre FX, Post FX or Post Mixer.
Tap Points for Track Routing.
Pre FX taps the signal that is coming directly from a track, before it has been passed on to the track's device chains (FX) or mixer. Therefore, changes that are made to the tapped track's devices or mixer have no effect on the tapped signal. Soloing a track that taps another track Pre FX will allow you to hear the tapped track. Post FX taps the signal at the output of a track's device chains (FX), but before it has been passed back to the track mixer. Changes to the tapped track's devices will therefore alter the tapped signal, but changes to its mixer settings will not. Soloing a track that taps another track Post FX will allow you to hear the tapped track. Post Mixer taps the nal output of a track, after it has passed through its device chains and mixer. Soloing a track that taps another track Post Mixer will not allow you to hear the tapped track.

Routing Points in Racks

Tap Points for Every Chain in a Track.
If a track has one or more Instrument or Effect Racks in its device chain, internal routing points (Pre FX, Post FX and Post Mixer) will also be available for every chain within the Rack. If a track contains one or more Drum Racks, internal routing points will be available for any of the Rack's return chains. Each Rack will also be listed in the Input Channel chooser:
(Rack Name) | (Chain Name) | Pre FX The signal will be tapped from the point that it enters the Rack, before it reaches the chain's devices. (Rack Name) | (Chain Name) | Post FX The signal will be tapped from the end of the chain, but before it passes to the chain's mixer. (Rack Name) | (Chain Name) | Post Mixer The signal will be tapped from the output of the chain's mixer, just before the point where all of the chains in the Rack are summed together to create the Rack's output.

between displaying the Time (attack and release), Below (threshold and ratio) and Above (threshold and ratio) for each band. For the Above thresholds, Attack de nes how long it takes to reach maximum compression or expansion once a signal exceeds the threshold, while Release sets how long it takes for the device to return to normal operation after the signal falls below the threshold. For the Below thresholds, Attack de nes how long it takes to reach maximum compression or expansion once a signal drops below the threshold, while Release sets how long it takes for the device to return to normal operation after the signal goes above the threshold. With Soft Knee enabled, compression or expansion begins gradually as the threshold is approached. The RMS/Peak switch also affects how quickly Multiband Dynamics responds to level changes. With Peak selected, the device reacts to short peaks within a signal. RMS mode causes it to be less sensitive to very short peaks and to begin processing only when the incoming level has crossed the threshold for a slightly longer time. The global Output knob adjusts the overall output gain of the device. The Time control scales the durations of all of the Attack and Release controls. This allows you to maintain the same relative envelope times, but make them all faster or slower by the same amount. The Amount knob adjusts the intensity of the compression or expansion applied to all bands. At 0%, each compressor/expander has an effective ratio of 1, meaning that it has no effect on the signal.
21.19.3 Multiband Dynamics Tips
Multiband Dynamics is a feature-rich and powerful device, capable of up to six independent types of simultaneous processing. Because of this, getting started can be a bit intimidating. Here are some real-world applications to give you some ideas.
Basic Multiband Compression By using only the upper thresholds, Multiband Dynamics can be used as a traditional downward compressor. Adjust the crossover points to suit your audio material, then apply downward compression (by dragging down in the upper blocks in the display or by setting the numerical ratios to values greater than 1.) De-essing To remove harshness caused by overly loud high frequency content, try enabling only the upper band and setting its crossover frequency to around 5 kHz. Then gradually adjust the threshold and ratio to apply subtle downward compression. It may help to solo the band to more easily hear the results of your adjustments. Generally, de-essing works best with fairly fast attack and release times. Uncompression Mastering engineers are often asked to perform miracles, like adding punch and energy to a mix that has already been heavily compressed, and thus has almost no remaining transients. Most of the time, these mixes have also been heavily maximized, meaning that they also have no remaining headroom. Luckily, upward expansion can sometimes help add life back to such overly squashed material. To do this:

Particularly when using external carrier sources, a vocoder's output can sometimes lose a lot of high end. Enabling the Enhance button results in a brighter sound by normalizing the spectrum and dynamics of the carrier. The Unvoiced knob adjusts the volume of an additional noise generator, which is used to resynthesize portions of the modulator signal that are pitchless, such as f and s sounds. Sens. sets the sensitivity of the unvoiced detection algorithm. At 100%, the unvoiced noise generator is always on. At 0%, only the main carrier source is used. The Fast/Slow switch adjusts how quickly Vocoder switches between unvoiced and voiced detection. Vocoder's large central area shows the levels of the individual bandpass lters. Clicking within this display allows you to attenuate these levels. The Bands chooser sets the number of lters that will be used. Using more bands results in a more accurate analysis of the modulator's frequency content, but requires more CPU. The Range sliders adjust the frequency range over which the bandpass lters will operate. For most sources, a fairly large range works well, but you may want to adjust the outer limits if the sound becomes too piercing or bassy. The BW control sets the bandwidth of the lters. At low percentages, each lter approaches a single frequency. As you increase the
bandwidth, you increase the overlap of the lter bands. A bandwidth of 100% is the most accurate, but higher or lower settings can create interesting effects. The Precise/Retro switch toggles between two types of lter behavior. In Precise mode, all lters have the same gain and bandwidth. In Retro mode, bands become narrower and louder at higher frequencies. Gate sets a threshold for the lterbank. Any bands whose levels are below the threshold will be silent. The Level slider boosts or cuts Vocoder's output. Depth sets how much of the modulator's amplitude envelope is applied to the carrier's signal. At 0%, the modulator's envelope is discarded. At 200%, only high amplitude peaks will be used. 100% results in classic vocoding. The Attack and Release controls set how quickly Vocoder responds to amplitude changes in the modulator signal. Very fast times preserve the transients of the modulator, but can cause distortion artifacts. The Mono/Stereo switches determine how many channels are used for the carrier and modulator. In Mono mode, both the carrier and modulator are treated as mono sources. Stereo uses a mono modulator but processes the carrier in stereo. L/R processes both the carrier and modulator signals in stereo. The frequencies of the carrier's lterbank can be shifted up or down via the Formant knob. With voice as the modulator, small Formant changes can alter the apparent gender of the source. The Dry/Wet control adjusts the balance between the processed and dry signals.

21.31.1 Vocoder Tips

This section explains how to set up the most common Vocoder applications. Singing Synthesizer The classic vocoder application is the singing synthesizer. To set this up in Live:

oscillator whose frequency is set by the Ratio slider. At 0%, the frequency of the internal oscillator and the audible oscillator match, so sync has no effect. As you increase the Ratio, the internal oscillator's rate increases, which changes the harmonic content of the audible oscillator. For maximum analog nastiness, try mapping a modulation wheel or other MIDI controller to the Sync ratio.

23.1.3 Noise Generator

Analog's Noise Generator.
The Noise generator produces white noise and includes its own -6db/octave low-pass lter. The generator can be turned on or off via the Noise switch in the shell. Its output level is adjusted by the slider to the right of this activator. The F1/F2 slider controls the balance of the noise generator's output to each of the two lters. When the slider is at the center position, equal amounts of signal will be sent to both lters. When set all the way to the top or bottom, signal will only be sent to Filter 1 or Filter 2 respectively. The Color knob sets the frequency of the internal low-pass lter. Higher values result in more high-frequency content. Note that Noise has only shell parameters, so adjusting them does not change what is shown in the display.

23.1.4 Filters

Display and Shell Parameters for the two Filters.
Analog's two multi-mode lters come equipped with a exible routing architecture, multiple saturation options and a variety of modulation possibilities. As with the oscillators, all parameters can be set independently for each lter. The Fil 1 and Fil 2 switches in the shell toggle the respective lter on and off. The chooser next to the lter activator selects the lter type from a selection of 2nd and 4th order low-pass, band-pass, notch, high-pass and formant lters. The resonance frequency of the lter is adjusted with the Freq knob in the shell, while the amount of resonance is adjusted with the Reso control. When a formant lter is chosen in the chooser, the Reso control cycles between vowel sounds. Below each mode chooser is an additional control which differs between the two lters. In Filter 1, the To F2 slider allows you to adjust the amount of Filter 1's output that will be sent to Filter 2. The Slave switch below Filter 2's mode chooser causes this lter's cutoff frequency to follow the cutoff of Filter 1. If this is enabled, Filter 2's cutoff knob controls the amount of offset between the two cutoff amounts. If any of Analog's modulation sources are controlling Filter 1's cutoff, Filter 2 will also be affected by them when Slave is enabled. In addition to the envelope controls, the displays for the lters contain various modulation parameters and the Drive chooser. Cutoff frequency and resonance can be independently modulated by LFO, note pitch and lter envelope via the sliders in the Freq Mod and Res Mod sections respectively. Positive modulation values will increase the cutoff or resonance amounts, while negative values will lower them. The Drive chooser in the display selects the type of saturation applied to the lter output.

decay phase to the release of the key. When this slider is set to 0, there is no sustain phase. With it set to 100, there is no decay phase. Finally, the release time is set with the R (Release) slider. This is the time it takes for the envelope to reach zero after the key is released. The Noise section can be toggled on or off via the switch next to its name.

23.2.3 Resonator Tabs

Collision's Resonators.
The majority of Collision's character is determined by the parameters in the two Resonator tabs. Each stereo resonator can be toggled on or off via the switch in its tab. Keep in mind that if both resonators are turned off, no sound will be produced. Each resonator section is further divided into three subsections. On the left are controls related to tuning. In the center are the controls that determine the physical properties of the resonant object. To the right are mixer controls. Each resonator's center subsection contains a Copy to button. Pressing this button copies this subsection's parameter settings from the currently selected resonator to the other resonator. The link tab between the Resonator tabs allows you to adjust parameters for both resonators simultaneously. The behavior here is similar to what happens when you edit the properties for a multi-selection of clips: parameters that have differing values will display the value range (either on the control for knobs or in the status bar for sliders and choosers) and can be adjusted with the linked control. Dragging the parameter to its absolute maximum or minimum value will make the settings thereafter identical, adjustable as a single value.

Tuning Section

Resonator Tuning Parameters.
The Tune and Fine knobs function as coarse and ne tuning controls. Tune moves up or down in semitone increments, while Fine adjusts in increments of one cent (up to a maximum of one quarter tone (50 cents) up or down). The Key slider below the Tune knob controls how much the resonator's tuning is adjusted by changes in MIDI note pitch. The default value of 100% means that the resonator will conform to a conventional equal tempered scale. At 200%, each half step on the keyboard will result in a whole step change in tuning. At negative values, the resonator will drop in pitch as you play higher on the keyboard. The Pitch Envelope parameters apply a ramp that modulates the resonator's pitch over time. Pitch sets the starting pitch while Time adjusts how long it will take the pitch to glide to its nal value. The starting pitch can be modulated by velocity via the Vel slider. Physical Properties Section

The Filter/Global Tab.

The Filter Sampler features a polyphonic lter with an optional integrated waveshaper. The Morph (M12 and M24) and SVF lter types can morph continuously from lowpass to bandpass to highpass to notch and back to lowpass. Naturally, lter morphs can be automated. Classic 24 dB lowpass, bandpass and highpass modes are also available, but these cannot be morphed. The lter's cutoff frequency can be modulated over time by a dedicated lter envelope, which works similarly to the envelope in the Pitch/Osc tab.
Four different curves can be chosen for the waveshaper, and its overall intensity can be controlled with the Amount slider. In addition, the signal ow direction can be adjusted with the button above the waveshaper area. With the triangle pointing up, the signal passes from the shaper to the lter. With the triangle pointing down, it passes from the lter to the shaper.
The Filter/Shaper Order Button.
The Volume Envelope The volume envelope is global, and de nes the articulation of Sampler's voices. Up to 32 voices are available simultaneously from each instance of the device. Voice retriggering can optionally be enabled by activating the Retrigger button to the right of the Voices chooser.
23.10.7 The Modulation Tab

The Modulation Tab.

The Modulation tab offers an additional loopable envelope, plus three LFOs, all capable of modulating multiple parameters, including themselves. Each LFO can be free running, or synced to the Live Set's tempo, and LFOs 2 and 3 can produce stereo modulation effects. LFO Attack (Attack) This is the time needed for the LFO to reach maximum intensity. Use this, for example, to gradually introduce vibrato as a note is held. LFO Retrigger (Retrig) Enabling Retrigger for an LFO will cause it to reset to its starting point, or initial phase, on each new MIDI note. This can create hybrid LFO shapes if the LFO is retriggered before completing a cycle. LFO Offset (Offset) This changes the starting point, or initial phase of an LFO, so that it begins at a different point in its cycle. This can create hybrid LFO shapes if the LFO is retriggered before completing a cycle. LFO Rate < Key (Key) Also known as keyboard tracking, non-zero values cause an LFO's rate to increase relative to the pitch of incoming MIDI notes. LFO Stereo Mode (Stereo) LFOs 2 and 3 can produce two types of stereo modulation: Phase or Spin. In phase mode, the right and left LFO channels run at equal speed, and the Phase parameter is used to offset the right channel from the left. In spin mode, the Spin parameter can make the right LFO channel run up to 50% faster than the left.

device or clip settings. On slower machines, you can unfreeze processor-intensive tracks one at a time to make edits, freezing them again when you are done. Many editing functions remain available to tracks that are frozen. Launching clips can still be done freely, and mixer controls such as volume, pan and the sends are still available. Other possibilities include:
Edit, cut, copy, paste, duplicate and trim clips; Draw and edit mixer automation and mixer clip envelopes; Consolidate; Record Session View clip launches into the Arrangement View; Create, move and duplicate Session View scenes; Drag frozen MIDI clips into audio tracks.
When performing edits on frozen tracks that contain time-based effects such as reverb, you should note that the audible result may be different once the track is again unfrozen, depending on the situation. This is because, if a track is frozen, the applied effects are not being calculated at all, and therefore cannot change their response to re ect edited input material. When the track is again unfrozen, all effects will be recalculated in real time.
A Frozen Arrangement Track with a Reverb Tail.
Frozen Arrangement View tracks will play back any relevant material extending beyond the lengths of their clips (e.g., the tails of Reverb effects). These frozen tails will appear in the Arrangement as crosshatched regions located adjacent to their corresponding clips. They are treated by Live as separate, temporary clips that disappear when unfrozen, since the effect is then calculated in real time. Therefore, when moving a frozen clip in the Arrangement, you will usually want to select the second, frozen tail clip as well, so that the two remain together.
For frozen Session clips, only two loop cycles are included in the frozen clip, which means that clips with unlinked clip envelopes may play back differently after two loop cycles when frozen. The samples generated by the Freeze Track command are stored in your temporary recording folder until you save your Live Set, at which point they are moved to the following project folder sub-directory: Samples/Processed/Freeze. Please note that freeze les for tracks that contain an External Instrument or External Audio Effect will be discarded immediately when unfreezing. You can also decide to atten frozen tracks, which completely replaces the original clips and devices with their audible result. The Flatten command is available from the Edit menu. Besides providing an opportunity to conserve CPU resources on tracks containing a large number of devices, the Track Freeze command simpli es sharing projects between computers. Computers that are a bit low on processing power can be used to run large Live Sets as long as any CPU-intensive tracks are frozen. This also means that computers lacking certain devices used in one Live Set can still play the Set when the relevant device tracks are frozen.

Interface A: At 44.1 kHz and 1152 sample buffer, jitter was fairly evenly distributed between +/- 4 and 11 ms. For all other tests, the maximum jitter was +/- 5 ms. In all tests, the majority of the jitter occured at +/- 1 ms. Interface B: For most of the tests, the maximum jitter was +/- 4 or 5 ms. At 44.1 kHz and 1152 sample buffer, there was a fairly even distribution of jitter between +/- 2 and 11 ms. In all cases, the majority of the jitter occurred at +/- 1 ms. Interface C: In all tests, the maximum jitter was +/- 1 ms, with most events occurring with no jitter.
We also performed a similar procedure for testing the timing of outgoing MIDI events, as represented in the following diagram:
Live MIDI Clip MIDI-to-Audio Converter Audio Recording (another instance of Live)
MIDI Output Test Con guration.
In all cases, the output tests showed comparable results to the input tests.
Tips for Achieving Optimal MIDI Performance
In order to help users achieve optimal MIDI performance with Live, we have provided a list of recommended practices and program settings.
Use the lowest possible buffer sizes available on your audio hardware, thereby keeping latency to a minimum. Audio buffer controls are found in the Audio tab of Live's Preferences, and vary depending on the type of hardware you're using. For more information, see the Lesson Setting Up Audio I/O. Use a high quality MIDI interface with the most current drivers in order to ensure that MIDI timestamps are generated and processed as accurately as possible. Do not enable track monitoring if you are recording MIDI while listening directly to a hardware device such as an external synthesizer (as opposed to listening to the device's audio through Live via the External Instrument device). Likewise, disable track monitoring when recording MIDI data that is generated by another MIDI device (such as a drum machine). When monitoring is enabled, Live adds latency to compensate for playthrough jitter. Therefore, it is important to only enable monitoring when actually playing through. The DirectMusic architecture on Windows allows outgoing MIDI events to be scheduled by the operating system rather than scheduled by Live alone, so performance may differ depending on whether or not you're using MME or DirectMusic mode. If you experience timing issues, we recommend switching to the other mode. This is set in the MIDI Ports list in the MIDI/Sync Preferences.
Selecting the MIDI Port Type (Windows).
Ableton wrote this paper in order to help users understand a variety of related topics:
the inherent problems in computer-based MIDI systems; our approach to solving these problems in Live; additional variables that we cannot account for.

L Language preference. 6 latency and the External Audio Effect.298 Latin Percussion. 384 Launch box. 100, 155 Launch Modes. 156 Legato Mode. 158 lessons. 5 Library. 29, 61 migrating from older versions. 64 Library Location preference. 63 Library Preferences. 7 Limiter effect.308 Link/Unlink Envelope switch. 267 Live Clips. 51 Live Device Browser. 8, 211 Live Packs. 61 Live Projects. 56 and device presets.60 and Live Sets. 57 packing. 70 Live Sets. 13, 52 changing sample references. 55 downloading. 451 exporting and importing. 52 saving the default template. 54 uploading. 449 locators. 77 Lock Envelopes command. 256 Lock Envelopes switch. 256 Look/Feel Preferences. 6 loop brace in the Arrangement. 80 with clips. 109
527 modulation. see clip envelopes monitor mix. 192 monitoring. 165 monitoring through Live. see Audio Preferences MP3 les. see samples Multiband Dynamics effect. 314 interface and controls. 316 theory. 315 tips. 318 Multicore/Multiprocessor Support. 483 Multiple Plug-In Windows preference. 220 Multisampling.409 muting.see Track Activator switch clips. 102 N Narrow Grid command. 85 New command. 52 Next Locator button.77 normalizing rendered audio. 46 Note Editor. 136 Note Length effect. 345 Notes box. 100 Nudge buttons. see Clip Nudge buttons O of ine clips. 64 Ogg les. see samples Open/Open Recent command. 52 Operator instrument. 386 algorithms. 387 aliasing and Tone. 391 AMS les. 389 and CPU resources. 397
MIDI exporting. 50 quantizing. 144, 206 sending bank/program changes. 117 MIDI clips. see clips MIDI controllers.see control surfaces MIDI Editor. 100, 135 and drawing MIDI. 136 and drawing velocities. 146 and grid lines. 141, 143 and recording MIDI.203 and step recording. 204 creating and editing notes. 141 editing velocities. 145 loop/region settings for. 140 MIDI note stretch. 147 navigation. 137 note-off velocity. 147 rearranging notes in. 141 MIDI effects. see devices MIDI Fact Sheet.500 MIDI les.19 and time signature changes.80 MIDI interface setup. see routing MIDI Map Mode switch. 459 MIDI Ports list. 167 MIDI Preferences. 7 MIDI synchronization. 477 MIDI Timecode Frame Rate preference 479 MIDI Timecode Start Offset preference 479 MIDI Track In Indicator. 170 MIDI Track Out Indicator. 170 MIDI tracks. see tracks Minimum Free Space preference. 42 mixer. 22, 185 Mixer Section selector. 186
528 plug-ins, using. see devices Plug-In Buffer Size preference. 223 Plug-In Con gure Mode. 221 Plug-In Device Browser. 218 Plug-In Device Browserselector. 218 Plug-In Edit button. 220 Plug-In Unfold button. 219 pre-listening samples. see previewing Pre/Post switches. 192 Preferences. 6 and recording clips. 207 Preserve chooser.131 presets.214 converting Sampler to Simpler.409 converting Simpler to Sampler.425 Defaults. 216 for speci c Live Projects. 60 saving with samples. 68 Preview switch. 37, 137 Preview Tab. 37 Preview Volume knob. 205 previewing in the Browser. 37 in the MIDI Editor. 137 Previous Locator button. 77 processor. see CPU projects/project management. see Live Projects Punch-In/Out switches. 201