Once you enable Live’s EXT button, the drum machine’s transport controls Live but Live can still send MIDI messages the other way at the same time – if you enable Track and Remote Out in MIDI preferences, you can send MIDI notes, CCs, or program and bank changes. With the MachineDrum and DrumBrute, and probably every drum machine out there, sync results are better if Live slaves to the hardware (having said that, if you want totally solid timing, the best solution is something like ERM’s Multiclock, which generates its own sync and shares it across several outputs). Identify the MIDI port your drum machine is coming in on, and activate Sync, ensuring the outgoing Sync switch is off. Working with a dedicated control surface streamlines the user experience and standalone hardware provides security in case of computer failure… and just maybe, it sounds different, too.Īfter the physical hookups, you’ll need to configure MIDI in Live’s Preferences. This is perfectly sensible, and some prefer to keep everything in the DAW.īut a self-contained drum machine has more of an instrument vibe than a software/computer combo. You might ask why anybody bothers with this kind of complicated arrangement, especially when Live includes perfectly good drum kits, and a hardware controller like Push can take care of the programming and control. Recently, I’ve been using the KMI K-Mix audio interface, which doesn’t have MIDI, so I use a USB cable to connect the DrumBrute, or the Elektron TM-1 USB MIDI interface for the MachineDrum. Not all audio interfaces include MIDI ports, so you might have to deal with that separately, with a dedicated MIDI interface, or USB, if relevant. It also connects to Arturia’s MIDI Control Centre software, which makes configuration and updates easy (more recent Elektron boxes like the Analog Rytm and Digitakt can send multi-channel audio over USB, via the Overbridge plug-in). However, it does have a USB connection (as well as MIDI ports), which can be used for MIDI sync, and to send notes out from the pads (it doesn’t do USB audio). Ironically, this machine is more ‘retro’ in some ways, being entirely analogue, with recallable patterns, but without automation or presets. Second, we have Arturia’s DrumBrute, from 2016.

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