Use separate sound interface just for audio to midi tracking

1

I am a studio guy, no need for live performance. I just simply need guitar audio to midi conversion, that I can use my guitar as a midi controller for the Ableton live.

I have already installed the GK3 pickup on my guitar with a DIY 6 outputs breakout cable.

My Metric halo interface has 8 analogue inputs, which already been taken by other devices.

But have a portable Motu interface which has 8 inputs.

Here is my plan

  1. Open GM3 standalone Mac version，choose hex tracker, select motu as input sound device, no output
  2. Add midi out module inside GM3
  3. Open Ableton live, select GM3 as a MPE midi input device
  4. Under Ableton audio setup, choose Metric halo as sound output device.
  5. I can trigger any synth plugins inside the daw

Is this a feasible solution for my need? Will this produce more latency than just one interface?

I really do need your help.

2

my experience is with pc, so it may not all apply.

using two separate interfaces works well and perhaps in fact better than one. as it won’t be running any instruments or effects your motu can be set to 128 samples.

i believe you can route midi to ableton using mac midi ports, but mg3 has a trial feature called midicaster which may be of interest to you. in this case you’d have a second copy of mg3 running under ableton, receiving both midi and analog audio from the standalone copy.

nice work on the breakout cable. you’re very very close to nirvana.

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4

Thanks man!
Yeah, I did some ai researches, using two interfaces to process input signals and DAW audio data separately will be more efficiency than one.

Ok, I will give a try asap, and will post the results here.

Hope this can help those who have the same needs.

1 Like
5

I do this on my Mac m4.

I find that MG3 prefers smaller buffer sizes than Cubase or the plugins (esp. Kontakt) to play glitch free audio out.

With MG3 (regular or Hex) the midi out form MG3 will appear as a midi input so long as the midi output module is loaded MG3.

I have been playing with going further and routing the audio out from MG3 into Cubase also.

I set up a virtual audio connection (I use the free Blackhole connector set up as an aggregate device with the normal (Zoom L20) output. I have also fed back in audio from my GP-10 audio out – probably more latency as there are two Analog to Digital conversions but it’s till playable. I thing the Virtual Audio is the better way.

I just find audio routing easier and more flexible in MG3 so I this works for me.

If it’s just MIDI you need then it’s simple and works well for me.