CHAPTER 13. ROUTING AND I/O
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For every track that can play clips, the In/Out section has the same layout:
The upper chooser pair ( Audio/MIDI From ) selects the track's input. Audio tracks
have an audio input, and MIDI tracks have a MIDI input. Return tracks receive their
input from the respective
sends
.
The Monitor radio button selects the monitor mode: the conditions under which the
track's input is heard through the track.
The lower chooser pair ( Audio/MIDI To ) selects the track's output. All tracks have
audio outputs, except for MIDI tracks without instruments. Remember that
instruments
convert MIDI to audio
.
Within a chooser pair, the upper chooser selects the signal category ( Ext., for instance,
for external connections via an audio or MIDI interface), and is called the Input/Output Type
chooser. If this signal type offers sub-selections or channels, they are available from the
lower chooser, or the Input/Output Channel chooser. In our Ext. example, these would
be the individual audio/MIDI inputs and outputs.
13.1
Monitoring
Monitoring, in the context of Live, means passing a track's input signal on to the track's
output. Suppose you have set up an audio track to receive its input signal from a guitar.
Monitoring then means that the signal from your live guitar playing actually reaches the
track's output, via the track's device chain. If the track's output is set to Master, you can
hear the guitar signal, processed by whatever effects are used (and delayed by whatever
latency the audio hardware interface incurs), over your speakers.
The In/Out section offers, for every audio track and MIDI track, a
Monitor
radio button with
the following three options:
The default
Auto
-monitoring setting does the right thing for most straightforward
recording applications: Monitoring is on when the track is
armed (record-enabled)
,
but monitoring is inhibited as long as the track is playing clips.