How can I get output from TDAbleton in just 2 audio channels? Breaking my head trying everything

General TouchDesigner Discussion
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Hi all. Maybe this is a stupid question, but I just can’t find the answer.
How do you take what is coming out of TDAbleton and jsut with one or two CHOPs turn it into one audio stream?
Purpose?
I have a video that is audio-reactive, and currently the TOE is working fine as-is, with an AudioInFile Chop playing, well, audio.

It goes from that into an AudioAnalysis chop, and I have the Kicks and Highs (for example) making the video wind forward.

All I want to do is the same thing, but from what is coming out of TDableton. (in realtime.)
TDA has clips, song track, etc. I have 4 different clips.

Is there a way to take them all and just plug them into something, and then an OUT chop or something, that I can plug into the AudioAnalysis, in order to do the same?

I’ve tried everything, like AudioDeviceOut from TDA, or that into an Out, then an In going to the AudioAnalysis.
The BEST attempt I made was getting some wave signal into the AudAnalysis CHOP, but by that point I could clearly tell it was not audio- it was just noise, and no matter how much I tweaked the levels of the AudAnalysis Chop, it would not pick up anything…not even simple highs or ANY band at all.

It works fine with an AudioInFile. I’m just trying to sub a file on my system with the sound coming out of a TDableton.
I’ve even tried making both separate TOXs (Bases) and tried with everything in the same component together.

Nothing seems to work and I’m still a newb at network anatomy.

Thanks.

1 Like
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Unfortunately, TDAbleton cannot stream actual audio in realitime. This is because TDAbleton is designed to give you access to an Ableton set’s data, not the audio output. For info on audio routing between applications, see this article: https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010526359-How-to-route-audio-between-applications

The way you would achieve the effect I think you’re looking for using TDAbleton is to use the abletonLevel component in rack mode to send low, mid, and high power levels, then use CHOP networks to analyze the data coming through.

Hope this helps

3

You can do this with Reaper if you are interested. You can route 16 channels via ReaRoute sends and they show up as individual audio device inputs in TD.There’s a fully featured trial version that doesn’t expire.

If you want to try it I can share a two useful .tox files for routing and minitoring mono and stereo sends from Reaper.

1 Like
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Awesome. How is the latency with Reaper?

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It should be going into TD without delay, but some plug-ins can add latency. I’ve been using it with live sources and every thing is just as real-time as using a wav file.

I’ll hop on my computer in a minute and share that .tox file for you.

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Hi!
I appreciate the recommendation, but I’m not trying to add more to it. Especially trial things I might need to purchase.
The network I have is pretty packed as is, consisting of three main components- one being TDA in its own Base.
There’s a reason I’m using it- I’m controlling clips and several other parameters of Ab with a kinect, and I know it pretty well already independently. Introducing one more thing is unnecessary and inefficient (for this at least.)

There has to be a way, I’m willing to bet.

TD can give birth to a baby of flesh, convert it into an advanced cyborg, raise it to become master of the universe and then convert it into protein powder for someone to drink with their coffee. lol.

Pretty sure audio already flowing around in there can be captured and dropped somewhere else.

I just don’t know how. =/

Thanks for the suggestion though.

7

Gotcha. Sounds like you should look into virtual audio cables, or many of the other solutions streamers use for routing audio between apps.

I don’t know if you are on PC or Mac, but here’s a generic starting point:

1 Like
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I’ll add- theoretically yes it can route audio. TD collects data from TDA and some of it is in the form of audio. I assume since MIDI is a 2 way protocol, and some settings in Ableton show TD as being the “output” for audio, or you can choose multiple output sources.

If TD can grab audio from a file, midi, movie, input device, various devices, cameras, other programs, MAX, even different formats, then there has to be a way.

You are right Ivan, about it (Ableton) coming in (to TD) thru as data, such as just the level peaks and timecodes and such, that can drive many things in TD networks.

But I strongly feel that with mappers now a days, and so many of the racks that you can put in Ableton, that come already with TDAbleton, there’s something I’m overlooking.

And it usually is my curse that it’s like the simplest thing! Just the right person hasn’t come across it lol.

Wish there was a way to summon all the TDA gods at once. Hahaha.

Thanks again for responding though. I’m not completely writing off your suggestion and it could fit in another project.

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Yes that’s exactly the theory of what I’m doing.
It’s a PC.

And since everything is already ping ponging back from TDA to TD, and thru Kinect COMPs, I would like to just keep it all in the family.

So many signals flying around- so many capabilities within TD and Ableton just alone- heck, so many possibilities with just the CHOP family and COMP families…there must be a way. I am determined! lol

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Liked “Virtual audio cables…”

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Wish there was a way to summon all the TDA gods at once. Hahaha.

Haha, I’m sorry (and proud) to tell you that I am in fact “All the TDA Gods”:wink: I made that entire thing, and unfortunately Ableton Live does not provide a way to get the audio out except via an audio router as discussed above. You are right, TouchDesigner could totally do it if there was a way, but Live just doesn’t provide a direct interface for audio out.

Again, though, if you want to get the levels of a track, experiment with the abletonLevel component. I am willing to bet you can get the info you need, unless you actually need to play the audio within TouchDesigner.

2 Likes
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Hello,
I work a lot with Ableton Live and TD and I avoid to use TDAbleton because its generaly too powerful and complicated for my use.
To send the result of analysis/filter etc. from Ableton, I just made a very simple max4live device “enveloppe OSC”. For Midi, I use a very simple midi/OSC sender.
If I need to use the sound on TD, I use soundflower on macOs, VB audio-cable on Windows and if, as most of the time, I use Ableton on my macBook Pro and TD on my Windows laptop, I use Dante to route the sound (Dante Virtual Soundcard on the Mac, Dante Via on Windows)
MaxForLive.zip (22.2 KB)

3 Likes
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Ya TDAbleton is designed to extract more detailed data from Live. Audio routing is sufficient if you’re just using the actual final sound wave output.

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Hi UPDATE.

I’m posting my results of how I finally got success with this.
So as someone suggested, I needed “virtual cables”.

VB Audio along with Voicemeeter is how I accomplished this.
Voicemeeter is basically like a mixer/extra audio router.
VB is the “cables”.
I’m not gonna lie, it took a lot to get this configured, playing with my audio sound settings and the Ableton Audio settings, along with the TD audioFileIn settings.

In the end, what is stable is:
TD actually using ASIO drivers, and the parameter of Device and Driver set to that.
Then in the virtual mixer, have everything outputting to that, and the settings in Ableton using ASIO or the regular Windows driver.

Now, ASIO has a control panel, and that’s where it got tricky, because a BUNCH of devices showed up, all the ones mentioned above, the VB cables, INs and OUTs, my standard sound card drier, Voicemeter, ASIO, and I don’t know how exactly I configured it, but after trying multiple combinations, the above config, and turning some settings off in the ASIO panel finally worked. I don’t know exactly what- because once it was working, I started turning things off, to deduce and eliminate what I didn’t need “on”, and it doesn’t make much sense, but everything stayed working, and I didn’t want to mess with it more. So the ASIO panel settings and config is that only thing I can’t for sure say which combo makes it work.
Plus it might be different for everyone else depending on the devices and their sound cards, but yeah…

VB Cables
Vmeeter
ASIO.

Success!!

No extras beyond that.
Ableton utput to the VM mixer, that routes everything to ASIO, and TD takes audio from ASIO in. Sounds simple but took me 3 FRUSTRATING days trying to figure it out.
Not to mention that sometimes when you turn sound playback settings on and off so much, the system will just get confused and just not play audio at all.
That made extra false troubleshooting, because it means it may have actually been working (a combo of config) but the driver was just needing a reboot and I wasn’t getting any audio at all- and not because of a bad combo.
After a restart, I figured that little pesky part out.

Hopefully this validates or helps someone.
Thanks

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PS I will add that this is a Real-Time solution, and that’s what I needed.
There is a slight lag, but I am totally fine with this for what I’m doing, which is just to progress a video forward depending on the hi, mid, and low freq.

Thanks all! This is a good thread with a lot of different suggestions from many people, that can still be applied for many other setups, so no effort lost.

Everyone’s input was HIGHLY appreciated!
Thanks!
:raised_hands:

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Thank you, @jacqueshoepffner jacqueshoepffner

Yes I heard Dante is a good solution.
I was able to resolve (thankfully) with free software from VB Audio.
I am downloading your zip and will definitely take a look at it to try to understand it.
Thank you for taking the time to create that and also for your contribution in sharing it! Gallant gesture!

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If others are on OSX here, I’d highly recommend using Rogue Amoeba’s software as an alternative to Dante. They made SoundFlower and have since replaced it with a paid (but decently priced) software called Loopback. It’s super easy to use for creating virtual cables.

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there is also BlackHole, a free 128 channels solution for macOs