Greetings macPro Users, Here is my question: I am using Ableton live 8 in conjunction with my Mackie 1620i Onyx mixer and would like to send my drummer a "click" track to play live with Ableton. My mixer has 2 channels of Fire monitoring routable to either the control room or channels 15 and 16. The problem that I can not figure out is how to send a stereo signal out of my mixer without having the audience hear it. I configured the "click" to be on the left channel and the audio signal coming from Ableton on the right. The problem is that I am only sending out an mono signal to the house and I am having to connect my speakers to each other for stereo. Reading through the instruction manuel it states on page 196 "In order to set Live up for cueing, you must be using an audio interface with at least four dedicated outputs (or two dedicated stereo outputs). The respective settings are accessible in the Session View mixer. Make sure you have the Mixer and In/Out options checked in the View menu." Being that I only have two channels for firewire monitoring, is it not possible to configure my mixer with Ableton for the cue with a stereo signal out? Cheers and I hope I have nor perplexed anyone my my question! Bobby B

Hey Bobby B, I'm curious what version of Live 8 are you using? Is it a full version or Lite? The reason I ask is that I think the Lite version has some limitations. The other question that I have for you...is there an interface in the equation? How are you getting the audio out of your computer and into your mixer? If you have the click set to "L" and the rest of your tracks are truly in stereo (main outs) then connecting your speakers together and only sending the "R" half of the signal is not really stereo and you will be missing a whole lot of your sound, not too mention the spatial relationship of some of your instruments. If you don't mind, tell us a little bit more about the version you are running and exactly what gear you have in the signal chain. I will do my best to help you out. Cheers, Steve

Hey Bobby, Sorry to be a dummy. I just reread your post and realized you said firewire, etc. so forget about the interface question. All of the other questions still apply.

Hey Steve, Thanks for your reply! Well, after doing some research and purchasing "Ableton Live 8 Power!" by Jon Margulies I confirmed the issue with using live with my Onyx 1620i mixer. The mixer that I have has only two firewire outs. "You need at least 4 outs(or tow stereo pairs) which allows you to use one pair as your main output and the other for cueing(pre-listening) to tracks or clips in your headphones, just like a DJ." pg. 17 of the book mentioned above. So, I called mackie and they confirmed this as well and basically told me to upgrade to the 1640i which has 16x16 firewire routing! Except, that I now have to spend twice as much money for the upgrade but it will help with playing live. I have Ableton Live 8, but not the suite which I am thinking about upgrading to when I get this stuff figured out. I have been a live performer my entire career, but I love Ableton and find it to be the next logical step forward for musicians to integrate their acoustic skills with the electronic. Thus we won't be obsolete in this ever changing industry. Thanks for you help and concern!! Bobby B

That's a bummer that you have to shell out some more loot, but it sounds like the new piece is something that you can grow into for a while. I couldn't agree with you more about the integration of acoustics and electronics and what I believe will become a necessity in the not so far off future. I, too, have been a performer forever. I have really been diving in to both Logic and Ableton quite a bit over the last two years. The funny thing is, contrary to the critics, I find that using these programs as tools (not crutches) has really developed my songwriting and has given me new perspectives for song ideas. On top of that, you have the obvious benefit of cataloguing your work and creating songs SOOOOOOOO much faster. I can't say enough good things about it all. I'm glad that you are getting along ok now. Next step, re-assuring the drummer that playing to a click is ok!!LOL!!!!