XTC Mode in combination with ableton live

[WAUXAR]

In "Scope XTC" not much is going on lately, so let's change this

Last week I was thinking to let Ableton run with the XTC mode again, after purchasing the Push2.
I have tried it before in the last 16 years, but not always it was a success, but now it's running steady for over a week now. So let' s share this information how I did this.

Working in SFP mode is great, but the XTC mode can be very handy as well.
So this topic is about how I managed it to make it work with Ableton live, who knows it's handy for someone who is trying the same.
The info I have gathered from PanetZ, the sonic core site and searching some PC stuff via google.

Here are the steps:

A. Checking the following link (http://sonic-core.net/joomla.soniccore/ ... 56&lang=us) what shows this:

- VISTA/Windows XTC/VSTIM: You have to launch the sequencer as Administrator

1. During Scope installation choose Steinberg/VSTPlugins path or your active VST-path.

2. Start Scope and activate XTC in the "Settings". Deactivate "Startup Project".

3. Start your sequencer and choose Scope ASIO driver.

4. Close the sequencer and than Scope.

5. Start the sequencer. After a while all plugins are loaded, on after another. If the key dialog appears, than close it. If the process is interrupted, you let it run twice by activating the plugins in your sequencer again.

6. After installation you will find a folder named SCOPE (XITE or PCI) inside your VST-Plugin-Folder.

7. Very important plugin is the Multi FX, because you can load any other Scope effect independent from the XTC installation. Also if you use more than one Scope effect in one channel
it´s the most effective way to do it.

8. The master out of the sequencer needs to be selected first time.
Open the driver configuration of the sequencer and click on "Settings".
Activate the ins and outs you need from the hardware and select
in "Direct Play Mixer Out" the active output of the master bus.

9. Now you need to select the busses for your recording in and your master out. Take care of your speakers and check the loudness of the master out before playing your song.


Tip: Missing VST.dll files can be generated from the existing dll files.
There are only three types, synth-dll, mono-effect-dll and stereo-effect-dll.
You can simply copy the dll of MasterVerb and rename it to Optimaster,
than restart your sequencer.

B. When you have followed the steps of A, you probably will notice that if you record automation in the Ableton clips this will crash the appliation. The cause of this is making use of multiple cores.
I have 4 cores, so I have set the affinity of Ableton live to just 1 core, then it runs smoothly. You can so this by setting the affinity to 1 core in the task manager at the tab "processes".
But of course you don' t want to do that every time when starting up Ableton, so let's make this permanent:
1. Create a shortcut of Ableton live, you can find Ableton here: C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 9 Suite\Program.
2. Change the target of the shortcut in: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C START "" /affinity 08 "C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 9 Suite\Program\Ableton Live 9 Suite.exe" (Now only core 4 will be used for Ableton).
Now the only thing that's need to be done is running that shortcut as a administrator all of the time, so do the following:
-Right click the shortcut, go to tab " Shortcut" and select " Advanced" and over there mark "run as administrator".
-If you also want to change the icon: In the properties of the shortcut, go to tab " Shortcut" and select "Change Icon" and refer to: C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 9 Suite\Program and select "Ableton Live 9 Suite"

C. In Ableton go to to Preferences, go to CPU and set " MulticoreMultiprocessor Support" to "off".

Have fun!!

Some extra info:
My setup regarding Ableton, Scope and PC:
-Ableton live 9.7.2
-2 scope Professional cards (total of 30 dsp's)
-Scope 5.1
-PC: HP XW4600 workstation (Intel core Quad CPU Q9450 @2.66 GHz) 4 GB ram
-OS: Windows 7, 32 bit
-Push2 (works like a charm )

[yayajohn]

that's great!!! Thanks for sharing all of that hard work, i'm glad you got it to work and I hope it runs perfectly from here on out. Hope others can benefit.

[petal]

Thank you very much WAUXAR - The affinity trick was the nut I have not been able to crack!

I havn't tested it thoroughly yet, but my setup seems stable, and it might be intersting to others.

I'm running Live + XTC on my PCI cards. From the PCI XTC setup I'm running ADAT out into my XITE which is running SCOPE on the same machine. And I can control midi stuff on the XITE from Live running in XTC mode.

As I said, I havn't tested it thoroughly, but at least I can control Profit 5 and Minimax with my Push 2, which has been something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

I can't seem to load Prodessey in XTC mode though? Other devices load, but doesn't map out the parameters at all? What is your experience here - does all devices load and map out parameters automatically corectly in live/Push2?

Windows 7 32-bit
Scope 5.1
Live 9

[WAUXAR]

Hi petal,

In ableton just use instrument racks for your synths.
In the rack you can configure which parameters to automate and after that map it to the macro knobs.
It works for all the synths, also the prodessey.
The benefit of this is that you can make multiple presets of a single synth. For example a minimax preset with just one voice and another minimax preset with multiple voices. Just save your instrument with another name and you have a new preset/ rack.

So the answer to your question is that it isn't mapped automatically.

And if you want to save fx settings, then just create a effect rack in ableton which consist of a scope multi fx rack. Then you can put one or more scope effects in the multi fx rack.

For automating those effects I still have to check. I think it's not possible, but I am not sure.

When working in sfp mode making use in ableton of external effects, then it works because you make use of the cc's. And via M4L you can map the cc's to the ableton macro knobs.

For now I am quite satisfied. It works great in combination with the Push

[petal]

Well, the SFP-mode is plagued by the cc-bug = some cc's are not saved and others are saved incorrectly rendering the affected devices flawed/not sounding correctly after reload, which is why I've been interested in XTC-mode.

I still have to test out, if the parameters mapped in XTC-mode will reload the device correctly after saving though.