Using External Gear to Control a VST in Ableton Live

Okay, so what I've been doing here is using this piece of external gear to control a VST inside Ableton Live. I've also been using the Push to sequence that.

Overview

That's basically what we're going to cover now: augmenting a piece of software, a VST drum machine, with a piece of hardware to make it more hands-on and akin to working with a real piece of hardware.

Setup

What we're going to do is:

1. Take a software instrument (a VST) called Drummerzon by D16 plugins.
2. Connect this Akai MPD32 (a bit of an older model, well-used, and road-tested) to Ableton Live.
3. Set it up so that we can control that VST as you might control a piece of hardware.

Requirements

In order to do this, we need only a few things:

• A USB cable to connect the MIDI controller to Ableton Live.
• A notepad and pencil (or pen) to make a few notes during the mapping process.
• A trusty roll of low-tack tape to label parameters. As you can see on the MPD, there are some old labels from a previous mapping situation that are no longer relevant. Rather than try to clean all that off, I will just put some new tape on and mark up the parameters that we're going to map out.

Benefits

This setup will enable you to interact with that VST instrument in ways that would otherwise be quite difficult. It will eliminate the need to use the mouse and keyboard for interaction, making it a whole lot more fun!

Let's Get Started

So, let's get things plugged in and get started.

1. First of all, I'm going to take the MIDI lead. Nice and simple, this bit.
2. Stick the MIDI lead in the back of the MPD.
3. Run it carefully around the side of the Push and into my USB hub.

Important Note

This is a USB 3 hub. It's really important to have a hub that can handle the amount of data being transferred when you've got this many peripherals plugged in. I've found this one to be really good.

So, that's plugged in, nice and simple. This device is powered by the USB, so we don't have to worry about external power.

Next Steps

Now, what we're going to do is head into Ableton Live, check out the VST that we're going to be working with, and get that set up. Then, we'll come back and do some mapping on the Akai.