I run 32 channels of synths and drum machines into the 16Rig and ADAT inputs, and I typically record performances all at once, in long chunks or for an entire song. I have my latency for MIDI and Audio performance dialed in perfectly, but the best way I have found to get zero latency in Ableton, is by setting the monitor for each track to Off (leaving me unable to monitor myself at all). Obviously I could direct monitor through the AFCC mixer, but I was wondering if anyone has thought of or could figure out a way that I could send a track from Ableton, maybe a Return track, or the Cue Mix, into a digital USB input in to the AFCC, to monitor myself while recording. Then I could hear the mix as it is in Ableton, as I’m recording.
I still haven’t really figured out how the USB inputs work in the 16 Rig, for instance, there are 32 USB inputs, but how to they work? I usually only use USB 1-2 because thats my DAW Master out. If anyone can help figure out a way to direct monitor this way, it would be a game changer.
I am now monitoring my live output in my Phones and I still get Live! Master to be outputted on USB1/2 (which can also be routed to anything you’d like, probably your Speakers but as you can see on the matrix screenshot, mine is not routed at all because I don’t even have speakers).
I see. I am trying to figure out how I could use it to make a separate monitor mix so I could monitor tracks recording in Live, without having them set to In or Auto, because that introduces latency in the recording. Not sure if it’s possible.
You can set up a monitoring mix in AudioFuse Control Center, but you can’t control the 16Rig mixer using the controls in Ableton, unfortunately.
I had a crack at creating a Max for Live device that would control the 16Rig mixer using MIDI mapping, but it doesn’t support receiving USB MIDI from the host computer, only devices connected to the USB A port on the front. I hope this will be implemented in the future!
Tim from Arturia just confirmed in another thread that they are adding the ability to control the mixer from the computer host in the future! So, hopefully soon I’ll be able to try again at my M4L device.
Sorry, but what exactly would this achieve? The ability to switch to direct monitoring, and have the AFCC mix reflect everything within Ableton/other DAW? I’ve also never figured out a way to use the AFCC Aux Sends, and not have to switch them to USB outs to use the outputs as sends within Ableton.
What I’m hoping to achieve for myself is the ability to easily switch between monitoring through Ableton and directly through the 16Rig mixer without having to go between Ableton and the AFCC app. I re-read your original message and now I see that I must have misinterpreted what you were asking, though.
I might still not be understanding what you mean, but the main use case for the AFCC aux sends is when you have external hardware effects that you want to be able to route your mixer tracks through (without having to go in and out of a DAW). One thing that might be confusing about them is that there is no “return” channel in the mixer or the hardware interface. You would have to connect the outputs of the hardware effects to ordinary inputs on the 16Rig and then include those in the mix (being sure not to create an accidental feedback loop by sending one of those channels back out to the same aux bus).
I find that talking about “inputs” and “outputs” can get to be confusing with the routing matrix, because whether something is an “input” or “output” can depend on your perspective (do you mean an input to the DAW, a hardware input to the interface, to a track in the mixer, or into the routing matrix itself?) I like that the AFCC itself uses the terms “sources” and “destinations” in the matrix, because it makes things less confusing IMHO. For example, the USB “destinations” in the routing matrix appear as “inputs” in Ableton, while Ableton’s “outputs” are “sources” in the matrix.
So you can route the aux send sources to the 16Rig analog outputs as the destinations if you want to use external hardware. You can also route them to USB destinations if you want to send your hardware instruments to effects in Ableton. In that case, you would put those effects on ordinary Audio tracks in Ableton, rather than in Return tracks, and set the “Audio From” for those tracks to the corresponding USB inputs from the 16Rig.
Going back to your first post, it sounds like what you’re looking for is a way to hear the output from Ableton alongside the hardware that you’re monitoring directly from the 16Rig. Is that right? The bit you might be missing is that you can add USB sources to the 16Rig mixer in AFCC by pressing the “+/- Channels” button on the right. They’ll appear under “Computer Sources”:
You can see the “USB 1-2” channel strip in the background there. That lets you include your DAW output in the mix alongside the hardware connected to the inputs on the 16Rig. If you want to monitor something other than the main output from Ableton, you can choose other Computer Sources channels and then set the routing in Ableton to go to those output channels. Is that what you’re looking for, or am I still misunderstanding?
