Most of the popular DAW applications have followed a similar evolution in the way that they work with external hardware instruments. In the days when software was predominantly used for sequencing, MIDI tracks were used to control hardware synths, and the audio from these instruments was patched into a hardware mixer. As the software itself took over the role of the mixer, many synths were plugged directly into the computer's audio interface, and brought up on audio tracks or input channels in the software. This is where Live was when we last discussed this subject in the February 2007 issue of SOS.

Like most of the competition, Ableton have now addressed the fact that having separate MIDI and audio tracks for hardware synths and Rewire clients is untidy and often confusing for new users. Most other applications have instrument tracks which combine the features of MIDI and audio (or aux input) tracks. Live already did something similar when using software instruments — when a soft synth is dropped onto a MIDI track, the audio output of the plug-in is handled by the MIDI track, which automatically becomes a hybrid MIDI and audio track. Live 7 extends this functionality to hardware instruments and Rewire clients, in essence by making the external device appear like a plug-in in Live.

Ableton haven't added an extra track type to Live 7: the new functionality is accessed via a plug-in ('plug-out' maybe?) called the External Instrument device. The screen on the next page shows two MIDI tracks. The one on the left is a standard MIDI track with no devices. The second track has the new External Instrument device in it — shown in the Device View below the mixer. Notice that the main I/O section of the track has changed, with audio output options replacing MIDI. Sends have also appeared, as the channel is now handling an audio signal. So far this is the same as if you'd added a software instrument, but the External Instrument adds MIDI output routing and audio input routing to the track.

In the screen, I've routed the MIDI side of the track to the MIDI output on my interface, transmitting on MIDI channel 1. When armed, the track now routes MIDI to my trusty old Yamaha CS1X...