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I am new to ableton but have been working with the Kronos for quiet awhile. Was wondering if anyone was using ableton as a DAW and had any tips for using the Kronos with ableton? From my understanding Korg bought ableton so using the Kronos with ableton should be a direct one-one..can anyone attest to this? Just trying to figure out if I will need to program midi for the kronos or does ableton already reckognize the Kronos? Any tips?

I'm not aware that Ableton are owned by Korg - I think you will find that it is an independent company based in Germany.

DB

Hi Amos, I also use ableton live 9 with the kronos. To integrate the kronos you need to create an external instrument and set the corresponding I/O for midi and audio channels for that instrument. Then group that instrument to an instrument rack so you assign the CC automation macros.
Then it's fully integrated in your environment.

In this video i use this kronos technique to automate and combine the sounds to one realtime song, where i use the push controller and Ableton live combined with some VST, FX and some sounds from my new Kronos Dance soundset which are also played through the push controller.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/k4H_rHTA_0I" frameborder="0"></iframe>

I've scheduled a tutorial in the future where i'm going to show how to setup your channels in ableton live to have the kronos fully integrated.

What kind of tips are you looking for?

Another great vid but wow how the heck do you remember what all those buttons do!

I currently do use the external instrument rack, I'm new to Ableton so I'm not quite sure how the instrument rack works? It sounds like your next video may be touching on some of my questions. I do want to know how to fully integrate the Kronos with Ableton. Very interested in sending and receiving midi cc between the two. Also routing other external instruments to Kronos tracks so I can use karma on other synths within Ableton is something I had a question about.

Bertotti wrote:Another great vid but wow how the heck do you remember what all those buttons do!

actually that's really easy, I use the row and color system for that in a consistant way with all my songs that i play live. The main thing to remember in my case is:

- every pad consists a midi clip or a sample
- the first three rows are the main theme (first song)
- row four and five are the break / bridge where row four is the downlifter and row five is the uplifter pattern series
- Row Six and Seven are song 2 which can be combined with the midi clips from song one
- Row eight shuts a column off

The column setup is color coded:
- each column is named (you can see that in the LCD screen on top with what it contains. I Always use the setup:
-- Main Melody , Sub Melody, Drums, Bass, addon Melody, Pads, Extra Melody, FX / Loops

Now the colors determines what it does:
- blue is main drums, ranging from kick only till more busy patterns
- white is bridge or buildup patterns
- yellow dark is main melody, yellow light is sub melody
- In the fx row the yellow are loops, and white are FX sounds

The active pattern that is playing is always green.

Now when you do this for every song, it's easy to remember and you can play any song you want live because the setup of the clips is always the same.


It's easy to set it up this way in ableton live. The routing to your vsts or Kronos or other hardware is taken care of in the channel with the corresponding midi clips. In this video two sounds are from my dance soundset which i put in a combi. The channel per clip decides which midi channel (timbre) it had to use.

You see me turning the cutoff of a sound in the video, but actually i can modify a lot more parameters (at the end i turn the cutoff, drive, resonance and Envelopes to get that noise sound). This is done by adding a M4L module to the Kronos instrument rack in ableton which i connected to the CC of the Real Time Control parameters of the Kronos.

Now the fun part is that in this case i played the song live, but i also could have pressed the record button, then everything you do is recorded to a song which then holds all midi information and samples and can easely be modified to an end product. It's a great way to create your songs without using the computer in a first stage. You have the benefit of a DAW combined with the hardware controler, in such a case ableton is much better suited for such a workflow then cubase which i also use.

Amos922 wrote:I currently do use the external instrument rack, I'm new to Ableton so I'm not quite sure how the instrument rack works? It sounds like your next video may be touching on some of my questions. I do want to know how to fully integrate the Kronos with Ableton. Very interested in sending and receiving midi cc between the two. Also routing other external instruments to Kronos tracks so I can use karma on other synths within Ableton is something I had a question about.

Creating an Instrument rack is really simple, press right mouse button on your instrument and select GROUP. You can do this for any synth. Each time you do this you will get 8 macros that you can assign to any parameter. In the case of the kronos you need to add an M4L module which gives you 16 CC mapping parameters, connect those to the Macro module of the instrument rack and you will have full automation for those 16 parameters. (you need at least Live 9 Suite to use M4L)

Using KARMA on other synths or a VST is done in the following way:
- Select a KARMA GE on your Kronos
- Filter everything in the KARMA Filter send tab exept note information
- Create a midi channel and use the I/O to play the Kronos
- in the VST (or other synth) select for the Midi input the Kronos Sound channel
- Arm your first midi channel and when you play now the KARMA midi notes will be played through the VST (you can also record them of course)

Again thanks Qui. So much helpful info.

Looking forward to your forthcoming tutorial.

And now off to watch your linked video above which I must have missed before.

Ok nice! Appreciate the help as always! I have a couple of synths in dying need of some karma treatment..gonna try this today! Looking forward to your next vid as well! Thanks

Amos922 wrote:Ok nice! Appreciate the help as always! I have a couple of synths in dying need of some karma treatment..gonna try this today! Looking forward to your next vid as well! Thanks

i've created an example how to do it, see the screenshot and set it up accordingly, then it works

This is beautiful! greatly appreciated sir! I am going to do this as soon as I get home!!! Will let you know how it turns out!!!

Yes, thank you very much. Never heard of this gizmo but looks like great fun.
I wonder, can it be applied to music other than dance of all sorts?

The Ableton site states that it's integrated with their software. I use Cubase but was thinking of switching over to Studio One or Reaper. All I know of Ableton is that it's geared toward modern dance/techno. CAn it be used as a traditional DAW and how does it compare to Cubase in terms of MIDI editing function? Alternatively, can Push be used with other software?

TheoG wrote:Yes, thank you very much. Never heard of this gizmo but looks like great fun.
I wonder, can it be applied to music other than dance of all sorts?

The Ableton site states that it's integrated with their software. I use Cubase but was thinking of switching over to Studio One or Reaper. All I know of Ableton is that it's geared toward modern dance/techno. CAn it be used as a traditional DAW and how does it compare to Cubase in terms of MIDI editing function? Alternatively, can Push be used with other software?

you can make any type of music in ableton, you also have a normal arrangement window, but that's not really the strength of ableton. Personally i think it's more a choice based on the way you create songs.

Ableton is really good on supporting the pattern based approach. So it has fantastic support for creating clips which can be of any length in Midi or Audio. These clips can be looped or set to one shot.

Cubase is really good on supporting Song based approach in a more traditional way, where you build your arrangement during your composing sessions.

Cubase has much better and more indepth Midi editting features then Ableton, where ableton has much better audio editting and beat syncing tools then cubase.

So it's a matter of preference which you would like. I use them both for different song approaches. The pattern based method suits dance music very well, that's why you hear so much dance musicians use ableton. The song based method is much more a traditional way in other DAW's. That doesn't mean that you are limited to one style in each DAW, but it's simply better suited for that task. I've done all my dance productions in the past in cubase and that worked perfectly, but now i use ableton for the dance style i have that specific sound that you hear all over the charts since the used ableton filters, EQ's , etc... have their own recognisable signature sound.

The Ableton Push controller can theoretically be used in other DAW's in the USER mode. However, the community is still working on drivers/programs to support that. For now it's only integrated with Ableton.

Just out of curiousity, why abandon cubase for reaper or studio one? That doesn't really makes sense to me since you get more or less the same DAW features in return.

Thanks Qui...

Since my last post I've learned much about Push. Particularly promising is what the folks at nativeKontrol and their Pxt general project will (eventually) do.

There is also an informative YT video comparing Push to Machine. Keeping in mind that Push is spanking new compared to the mature NI, I hope future updates will implement a method of sample preview and allow for smooth import and file management of libraries other than native Ableton.

As for Cubase...been using it since SX, know it fairly well (have 6.50.I never liked it and disliked it even more with every bloated update. Purely subjective but never bothered to seek alternatives.

Finally researching alternatives now that I'll change to 64bit and starting anew, Reaper seemed to me the logical alternative. First, analyzing the price:benefit ratio, customization/macros, developer responsiveness and other factors; second, the money saved will be used for for more useful things (imo) such as hardware upgrade or software. Ableton suite + Push runs ~$1K with 60gigs material of who knows what.

What changed my mind about Reaper is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5ar_3nG ... e=youtu.be video. If you have th time, it's impressive. I was blown away starting 8:30 to 15:00.

I've heard very good things about Studio1. Haven't tried the demo though.

QuiRobinez wrote: I've scheduled a tutorial in the future where i'm going to show how to setup your channels in ableton live to have the kronos fully integrated.

What kind of tips are you looking for?

Thanks for all this great info Qui. Very much looking forward to the next video on setting the K's channel assignments along side of the external Instrument. I get 3/4s the way there and then have a little trouble monitoring different channels. If Karma is in the picture it gets a bit more confusing.. I use to do this from Sequence mode, but now trying it from combi with Local off.