FAQs

Audio

Audio interface troubleshooting list:

  1. It is always a good idea to check for driver updates for your audio interface on the manufacturer's website.
  2. Be sure that you have properly installed all necessary software and drivers for your audio interface.
  3. Be sure that your audio interface is properly installed and connected and is receiving power.
  4. Check the Live Preferences Audio tab and be sure that your device driver is selected in the Device type field. Also check the Output Device field and be sure that it is properly set for your device.
  5. Check that all additional hardware and cables are properly connected between your audio interface and monitoring source.
  6. If you are attempting to record or monitor input, be sure that your audio source is coming into the audio interface at a sufficient level. Some devices such as turntables, guitars and microphones may require a preamp to boost them to line level to work properly with some audio interfaces.
  7. Check the output levels of your audio interface and be sure that they are set at a sufficient level.

Please be sure the drivers for your audio device are properly installed and that the hardware is properly installed, turned on and/or connected to the computer.
In Live's Preferences/audio tab. You can configure your inputs/outputs in the Live preferences/audio tab. Click on the "input config" button to activate or deactivate the inputs of your soundcard and on the "output config" button to activate or deactivate the outputs of your soundcard. All enabled inputs and outputs will show up in Live's "in-out chooser".
Please be sure that the hardware is properly connected and all necessary software drivers for the device are properly installed.
Please be sure that you have the latest drivers for your audio hardware installed. Check the Live Preferences Audio tab, and be sure that your audio driver type is selected in the Device Type chooser. Be sure that the hardware is properly installed, turned on and/or connected to the computer. Reinstalling the drivers for the device may help.
Be sure that you do not have your Digidesign hardware set as the default Input and Output in the OS X Audio Midi Setup Utility.
Yes, as long as Pro Tools is installed, you have the latest driver for the hardware and run Live 2.1.2 or higher.
We recommend using CoreAudio. If you prefer to use Direct I/O, you can enable it by using the Options.txt file. Please see the instructions here.
Please be sure that you have the latest version of Live and try again. Some devices such as the Mbox only allow 512 as the lowest buffer size when using CoreAudio.
Live does not support multiple sound cards/audio interfaces.
You can use the Options.txt to enable lower buffer sizes. Please see the instructions here.

Please be sure that you have properly selected your audio interface in Live's Preferences Audio tab. Also, if you are in the Session View, you must launch the clips to begin playback.

fig10

Press the clip launch button to play Session View clips.

Yes, because of Live's nondestructive editing, this is possible using the Clip View's loop/region markers to specify the clip region. If you wish to export the clip as a new file, use the Render to Disk command from the File menu. If you use Live 6 or later, you can use also the Crop command (available via the context menu in the sample display).
Live does not support simultaneous use of multiple sound cards/audio interfaces.
Yes, this is possible using the pre-listening function in Live if your sound card/audio interface has multiple outputs. The metronome is routed to the Cue Out output. To send an individual track to another output of your sound card/audio interface, be sure that the In/Out View is enabled and select the output in the Output Channel chooser.

To play your guitar through the effects in Live's tracks, you first need to plug it into an audio interface or preamp that boosts the signal to line level. Then, you should set up Live's Audio Preferences to reflect your setup (see the reference manual for assistance with this). Now, you can set up a track in Live through which to play your guitar by doing the following:

  1. If necessary, create a new audio track in Live. (From the Create/Insert menu, select "Create Audio Track" or "Insert Audio Track.")

  2. In the Session View, make sure that the View menu's "In/Out" option is checked.

  3. Verify that "Ext In" is chosen from the upper "Audio From" chooser and that the appropriate channel for the incoming audio signal is chosen from the lower "Audio From" chooser.

  4. Assure that the "Monitor" radio buttons are set to "Auto."

  5. Arm the track, as shown below.

    fig22

    Activate the "Arm" button to hear your instrument through a track's effects.

Please enable the In/Out View in the View menu. Be sure that you are looking at the correct chooser, as the options "None" and "Mixer" apply to the automation Device chooser. Check that you have selected an Input Device in the Preferences Audio tab.

fig1

Select In/Out from the View menu to set the track for the correct Input Type.

These devices do not operate at line level. You must be sure that your audio interface has a preamp or use an external preamp to boost the level of these devices to a suitable level in order to properly record them.
Yes. Set up Live as you would for recording. Select "Live In" as the Input Type in the In/Out View and be sure that "Monitor through Live" is set to "yes" in the Preferences Audio tab. Enable the monitoring switch for the track to hear Live through the effects.

You can use the Live effects on a Live Input when Monitoring is enabled for the track.

fig3

Activate monitoring for the track to monitor the input through effects.

This can be solved using the "Remove Stop Button" command in the Edit menu. If a clip slot does not have a stop button, a scene launch will not affect that slot. This can therefore be used to prevent interruption of your recording. For instance (see screenshot below), you can record in the slot of the track named "Rap" in the scene named "Remix." When launching the scenes named "Robots," "Fade" and "Silence," the track "Rap" will not be affected because the stop buttons have been removed in the clip slots aligned with these subsequent scenes. This can also be used to keep a clip playing in a track when launching scenes.

fig5

With clip stop buttons.
fig6

With clip stop buttons removed.

Live does not support the use of multiple audio interfaces simultaneously.