Dubspot Instructor and product specialist for Native Instruments Mike Henderson aka DJ Endo answers a question on the minds of many Traktor enthusiasts and Ableton Live users, one of the most frequently asked questions he receives as a Native Instruments DJ expert; How can I sync Ableton Live to Traktor?
In this new tutorial video, Endo shows you how to use both programs on one computer, using a single audio interface. As long as your beatgrids in Traktor are set correctly and your tracks are properly warped in Ableton, you can mix tracks in Traktor and play loops and instruments in Ableton Live and everything will be perfectly beatmatched! Check out the video, read the article, and let us know if you have questions by leaving a comment below!
One of the most common questions I get as Traktor specialist is, “How can I sync Ableton Live to Traktor?” A common misconception is that in order to do this, you must have two computers, and two audio interfaces. This is not true. You can actually use both programs simultaneously on one computer, using one audio interface. As long as your Beatgrids in Traktor are set correctly, and your tracks are warped correctly in Ableton, you can mix tracks in Traktor, while playing your loops or other instruments in Ableton Live and everything will be perfectly beatmatched.
Some artists that are currently using Traktor and Ableton together live are Dubfire, Pete Tong, Carl Craig, Chris Liebing, Davide Squillace, Richie Hawtin and Luciano. I set up Dubfire, Pete Tong and Chris Liebing to do this, and all of them use Ableton in different ways with Traktor. Dubfire and Chris Liebing use Ableton as a host for Maschine, where each “Group” or drum bank in Maschine is routed to its own audio channel in Ableton. Pete Tong uses Ableton to play loops over whatever he is playing in Traktor.
Not too long ago, the only way to sync Ableton and Traktor (that I knew of) was to use a MIDI cable. I would actually plug the MIDI on my Audio 8 DJ into itself by plugging the MIDI output into the MIDI Input on the Audio 8 DJ. This would in a way trick the computer into thinking it was reading a different MIDI clock source when it was really just reading its own! This method however wasn’t very stable. In a recent Traktor update, Native Instruments introduced Traktor’s Virtual MIDI Output Port, which means you can send MIDI internally inside your computer from Traktor to any other program that receives MIDI and visa versa.
Setting up Traktor and Ableton to sync together takes a little time (hopefully no more than 15 minutes), but once you have the two programs sync’d to one another, you shouldn’t have to mess with the settings much after that since they will be saved for the next time you play.
To Sync Traktor and Ableton you will go through the following steps.
- In Traktor open your preferences (the Gear Icon in the upper right hand side of the screen)
- Go to the MIDI Clock section of the Preferences and turn on the option for “Send MIDI Clock.” I always keep the MIDI Clock sending offset at zero ms.
- Make sure your soundcard is set to “Audio 8 DJ” or whatever soundcard you are using for both programs. Also make sure your “Output Routing” is set correctly.
- Next thing your going to want to do is go to the Layout Manager tab and make sure your Global section is showing, so you can see the Master Clock and Effects at the top.
Now we’re going to make a new MIDI device in the controller editor so that Traktor can send MIDI clock to Ableton. We can do this by performing the following actions:
- Go to Preferences / Controller Manager
- Under the “Device” dropdown menu click on “Add” and then select “Generic MIDI”. This will add a new MIDI device, which in this case is simply a port to send MIDI clock.
- Rename this device by clicking on “Edit” under the Device dropdown menu, and name this device “CLOCK”
- Next to the device called “CLOCK” you are going to set the “Out-Port” to “Traktor Virtual MIDI” by clicking on the drop down menu under “Out-Port” and selecting “Traktor Virtual MIDI.” Also set the In-Port to “None” to prevent any MIDI loops.
- Now you are going to make sure no other device is sending MIDI clock through this port. You will do this by selecting each device in the “Device” menu and setting the Out Port to whatever the controllers port is (example – Allen & Heath Xone 2D). You want to make sure that no Out Port is set to “All Ports”
- For the clock device, make sure the device target is set to Focus.
The next thing we’re going to do is set Ableton Live to receive MIDI clock from Traktor. We can do this by doing the following:
- Open Ableton Live and go to the Preferences window
- Click on the “MIDI / SYNC” Tab
- Where it says “Input – Traktor Virtual Output” in the MIDI Ports section, make sure the Sync button is highlighted.
- When you turn the Sync button on in the Ableton preferences, you’ll notice there is now a little window next to Ableton’s Master Clock that’s called EXT. Click on this button. Now Ableton is able to receive external MIDI clock from other applications.
- Next set up your Audio setup in Ableton by selecting your soundcard (audio output device), and choosing the appropriate outputs for the Master channel in Ableton.
Now that we’ve created a virtual device to send MIDI clock in Traktor, and set up Ableton to receive this clock signal from Traktor, now we’re going to start sending MIDI Clock from Traktor into Ableton. Here’s how to do it.
- At the top of the Traktor screen click on the Metronome Icon next to the effects panel. This will show the Master Clock panel of Traktor.
- Click on the Play | Pause button in the Master Clock Panel. This will send MIDI clock out of Traktor. I like to have the Master Clock Mode be in “Auto” Mode (which means whatever deck has been playing the longest is the Master Deck), but if you are just using controllers you might want to use “Internal” Master Clock Mode.
- Press the Sync button in Traktor’s MIDI Clock panel. This will tell Ableton where the ‘one’ is in the track (the first beat in a measure) and will start playback in Ableton. You should see a flashing light next to the EXT button in Ableton, indicating that its receiving MIDI clock and that Ableton playing.
Now that we have MIDI clock sending from Traktor to Ableton, now we have to make sure the two programs are in SYNC with each other by adjusting Ableton’s MIDI Clock Sync Delay, and using the metronome from both programs to Match both programs. Here is how we do this:
- In Traktor’s Master Clock panel, turn on the Tick button. Also turn on the Cue button for Deck A. This will make it so you can hear a metronome (click) sound representing Traktor’s master clock.
- With the Play button enabled in Traktor’s Master Clock panel, Click on the SYNC button in Traktor’s Master Clock to make sure its sending MIDI clock.
- In Ableton, turn on the Metronome by clicking on the metronome button in the Master Clock section. Now you should have an Audible Metronome playing in both programs.
- The next thing you are going to do is adjust the MIDI Clock Sync Delay in Ableton, so that the metronomes in both programs are playing perfectly in Sync. To do this, go to the Ableton Preferences – MIDI / SYNC. Where says “Input – Traktor Virtual Output” in the MIDI Ports section, click on the little arrow to the left of “INPUT” to open up the advanced MIDI clock preferences.
- We are now going to beatmatch the two metronomes by adjusting the MIDI Clock Sync Delay bar. We can just click on this Bar and drag it up and down until both Metronomes are playing perfectly in sync. I had to adjust my MIDI Clock Sync Delay to about 14ms, but that value is different on other computers.
Once Traktor and Ableton are in Sync, we can then play tracks in Traktor, and have loops and instruments running at the same time in Ableton! Its even possible to share an audio output on the same Audio interface for both programs if you wanted to say, run 4 decks in Traktor out of the Audio 8 DJ, and share output 4 with both Traktor & Ableton.
Happy Mixing!
DJ Endo
Mike Henderson aka DJ Endo is a DJ and product specialist for Native Instruments and lives in Brooklyn.
