Virus in ableton live question

    I have 10 tracks in ableton and a virus part on each in sequencer mode ( i think) my question is can i put abletons effects on these tracks? or is there a way to do it without putting it on the track that has the TI vst on it?
    I'm new to virus by the way so sorry if its a silly question

    Hey Angus,


    You could possibly get 10 separate tracks in Ableton (although not without some difficulties, and putting the bulk of your sounds in left or right mono with Live's utility plugin). Specifically, Virus Control allows you to stream audio from 3 stereo usb channels and the 3 stereo analog outs. However, using the analog outs with VC is problematic because you lose sample accuracy. Therefore, if you are using VC, I suggest sticking with the usb outs.


    What you have to do is use Live's "external instrument" plugin and route it to the track with the Virus. When you use external instrument, you will see a drop down menu allowing you to select which midi channel you want to access on the Virus (no pun intended) and another menu allowing you to select from usb channels 3/4 and 4/6 (1/2 are reserved for the track that the Virus is on). To assign each Virus part to a specific usb out in VC, simply right click on the "D" in the VC mixer and assign which out you want. If you want more than 3 stereo channels, you can use Live's utility to isolate L/R channels into mono.


    As a final note, I don't know if this is across the board for all users, but I need to perform a kind of clunky workaround to get the virus into audio in Live. If I simply try and record usb parts into audio in one of Live's audio channels, the audio (during recording) plays back in sync with the track/metronome, but the resultant audio file is totally off (late about a 1/2 -1/4 note, which requires warping). To get Virus audio in sync, I perform a realtime bounce through a somewhat elaborate system of loading Virus parts into Live's instrument rack plugin and running a parallel "dummy" external audio effect (not actually going to anything). The reason this works is that Live forces realtime bouncing for hardware instruments and effects. If I simply record, the Virus is off. I f I perform a realtime bounce (which in effect seems like the same thing), the Virus is spot on 8| . I only mention it because it sounds like you're just starting out with the Virus in Live.


    Hope this helps.