Ableton Live Using Hardware or Outboard Effects

Learn how to use your favorite analog rack gear, mixers, guitar pedals, reverb tanks, etc to process tracks in Ableton Live. Computer DAWs are really good at many things but even the unrained ear can tell that sometimes using hardware, especially in terms of distortion / saturation and reverb is sometimes better handled by a dedicated hardware unit. Here I use Ableton Live and my UAD interface to process a drum loop with my tubescreamer distortion pedal and my Strymon Big Sky reverb. Please subscribe if you are an aspiring musician looking to get on stage with Ableton!

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[seantomalty]

can i ask why you don't use abletons external effect plugin to achieve the same results? great video, and thanks for the send/return clarification too.

[brycethomas]

i've always been curious how to route hardware effects. bruh!!! Thanks!

[little_records]

Lifesaver! So easy! Hard without knowing though lol

[graphene]

Love that busted kick drum sound. Thank you sooo much for the info man.

[Sasketchejuana_man]

Ideally wouldn't you want to use a Re-amp device like a radial X amp to get the signal from line level to instrument level? You're a genius for this latency proof method.

[onemountain]

Thank you for showing this, i will try it out right away, as i always wondered how to record Ext. FX properly. Stay Safe.

[vitaminpisation]

I'm also trying to affect drums, synths and vocals with the pedals that I have but took so much time to figure it out and I really can't get my head around what's wrong.

My configuration is as follows:

I have a Zoom H5 as an interface, selected Stereo instead of Multi-Track.

I plugged my Jack in the output 1 running throug the pedals and then going into output 2.

Was happy to know that I could test this out before deciding whether to buy an impedance box as I could hear on my 2 speakers (connected through the line out of the Zoom H5) the effect of my cathedral reverb and big muff pedal when I messed with the knobs.

When I tried to send a drum sample through another track with the the "In" activated it just won't get affected by the pedals, but the sound of the drums is heard in conjunction with the sound that the pedals make(without anything else) separately.

I only have the channels 1, 2 and 1/2 and tried various combinations to see what to do to get those drums affected by the pedals.

The reason why I mentioned setting my interface to Stereo instead of Multi-Track is that I have seen in other posts some people mentioning that you need a 3/4 channel which is not showing up in Stereo Mode on my setup but only in multi track. However, I have huge issues with the Multi-Track as I can't seem to figure out how to not make the sound crack. I tried something with my 3/4 channel but still didn't get any results.

When I got the output 1 jack out of my interface and plugged my guitar, it worked fine. I just want to get into doing some sound design for instruments.

What do I really need to do step by step? What's the correct setup for this from the very beginning?

Can I get them to work with just the 1, 2 and 1/2 channels?

Really wanted to ask it in the most basic way so other who are new to this can understand the whole process.

[aliensalvation]

Wow, thank you for shedding light on this. Awesome video tutorial.

[cameronwynn]

when i try direct monitoring reverb as a send, there is a phasey sound on the vocals. is this because of latency with the hardware? How do I fix it?

[palovibes]

Wow, I've been looking for a vid like this. Good explanation with visual and live demos. Thanks! Will this same process work for trying to mix with external gear? Based on ableton website the way they show how to route audio was totally different. They wanted me to send our from AL on 5-6 to a virtual channel on the twin that had to be linked etc. So confusing

[MadelnMachines]

This is a great tip. I don't quite understand why it works though. Why does DAW monitoring cause latency - isn't the audio interface processing causing latency regardless of whether you listen to the playback or not? What about using Lives external audio effect plugin?

[Fishoilification]

Dope. Thanks brah. Would you always recommend direct monitoring? Why would anyone use that external instrument device if they have direct monitoring?

[vitorleal]

Guitar pedals have TS inputs and outputs. What cables did you use? TRS - TS?

[vdifwqm]

Dude GREAT tutorial ...so much new info... Same setup kinda

[guestantoine]

Hello! Thanks for the video. Something is not working as your saying in the video when I'm using the send. Try to do a send as you would like to do a parrallel comp with an external comp and let me know what is the result for you. When I'm doing that kind of config a latency is generated on the monitored track. No problem with the recorded track. I found a trick which is working but let me know what's your feeling about that. Thx again

[Ntradamus]

so dope! thanks ... I have Ableton Intro ... this method will work perfectly ...

[brandonrote]

so wait are we not using a re-amping box to convert the line level to Instrument? Any reason why you feel that is unnecessary ??

[NipperWhite]

Hi Seed,

my name's Stefano, nice to meet you!! :) A few days ago the Audio Merge KTBK HPF also arrived for me but I can't get it to work. I have a sound card which is the Apollo Twin from Universal audio and I use Ableton live 11 as a daw. Could you tell me how to connect the HPF to the sound card and how should I make it work inside the daw??
I await your kind feedback, thank you!! :)❤💛💚

[santiagoviale]

Super useful dude! Is it the same to use an API lunchbox?

[chrisgou]

I connected my SP404 i/o to apllo 1/2in and 3/4out. It gives a very high pitched noise and if I turn up the input level pass certain amount(not even loud) it immediately burst out screaming with the super high pitched noise. I intended to use it as a realtime FX and I setup the way you did in the begining, the channel that outputs to 3/4(Apollo to SP404) I see signal bumping, but the second channel thats for sending it back in to input1/2 shows no signal and I can't hear anything through my headphone. Do you have any suggestion for me to troubleshoot this issue? Much appreciation! Having been trying for two days its driving me nuts