Sonic Cell with Ableton Live 8 / help

[HenriKK]

Hi,

I'm having problems using Sonic Cell with Ableton Live 8. I've been stuck for a week now. I've read the manual, Roland's guide to using SC with Ableton etc. No luck so far.

Premise:
1. I want to use SC as a VST instrument in my DAW; and
2. It is my undestanding that only USB connection is required.

Gear:
1. Windows Vista 64 bit
2. Ableton Live 8
3. Yamaha S90ES
4. SC
5. E-MU 0404 soundcard

Progress so far:
1. I've used Ableton's "External Instrument" device to select the SC and the proper channel.
2. SC registers the midi message via USB
3. Sound is heard if I plug my headphones to the SC. No sound from the computer.
4. If I change the audio driver from ASIO to MME/DirectX and then select audio input as SC DX I can hear the sound from my computer but the latency makes it unplayable.

Goal:
1. To use ASIO as my audio driver
2. To use EMU 0404 as my audio devide.
3. to use SC as a VSTi with little or no delay

If any of you guys could help, you'd be my new best friends

Thanks,
HenriKK

[cwjohan]

Do you have the SC configured to "USB midi thru ON"?

Also, remove any USB memory stick in the SC.

I haven't got the USB driver installed yet, so I don't actually have SC working with Ableton Live yet, but at least I read the above tips in the manuals.

[cwjohan]

I forgot to mention that the "USB midi thru ON" item is in the "System" menu. You need to do a "Write" on the system menu to save the setting. Otherwise, it may always come up OFF.

[HenriKK]

Hi cwjohan,

Thanks for your comments. I made sure that the Midi through is set to "on". I also set sync mode to "slave". No luck so far. SC clearly receives the signal and I can hear the selected patch with headphones connected to SC, but it doesn't seem to travel back to Ableton.

Any idea as to what the Ableton's "audio from" setting should be in the External Instrument device, when SC is connected with USB? I think that's the one thing causing me trouble.

[zerocrossing]

You can only use one audio device at a time. If you're not using the SonicCell as that device you'll have to do what I do. Take it's analog outputs and route them to your audio interface. So each SonicCell track ends up being 2 tracks (or 3 for me... for some reason, but more on that later) You'll have the MIDI track that holds the SonicCell VST and an Audio track that takes it's audio.

For some reason when I upgraded to a Vista 64 machine I can no longer do it this way. I have to open up a midi track for the SonicCell VST, then open up another MIDI track to send MIDI to the SonicCell as a MIDI device and another to take it's audio out. I never had to do it this way in the past. It's strange. MIDI is clearly going to the SonicCell VSTi track but it won't react at all.

[HenriKK]

Thanks zerocrossing.

I was afraid of that. But it's nice to have it confirmed anyways, so I won't waste anymore time trying to figure it out. Too bad really, as I was hoping to plug S90ES into my soundcard's L and R inputs...meh what am I going to do now :S

[javaj_]

You need to enable the audio portion of the SC
send the sc sounds back through the audio channels through a setting in the system section
record the sc audio in and you will hear the synth engine
sorry- sent from my iPhone

[HenriKK]

Javaj,

Thanks for the comment. Could you be a bit more precise, please? Does your method allow me to use the SC with just a USB connection to my computer?