It’s one thing to know how to create a rock-solid Ableton Session, but when it comes time to move from your church office to the stage, connecting your computer to the sound system is a vital step. As with many other things in Ableton Live, there are multiple ways of doing the same thing. It all depends on your setup, workflow and personal preference. There are three ways that I’d recommend looking at when deciding how to get your tracks heard through the sound system and the click to your band.

1. Headphone Jack
Sometimes simple is best. This is honestly the easiest and most affordable way to send tracks to your sound system. It’s also perfect for beginners or worship leaders who want a really fast setup. Many people who first start using tracks are confused by the headphone jack. They think that because it’s a single jack it only has one output. However, your headphone jack is a stereo output. This means you can use the left side of the headphone jack to send your click and the right side to send your tracks. In Ableton Live, all you need to do is choose “Built-in Output” as your audio output device from the audio settings tab in preferences. Then on each track, choose “Ext. Out” in the dropdown called “Audio To”. You’ll be given another dropdown where you can choose which side of your headphone jack to send the audio. Selecting ‘1’ will send the audio to the left side of your headphone jack and ‘2’ will send the audio to the right side. You’ll need to buy a Hosa CMP-153 Stereo Breakout cable. You’ll then be able to plug each 1/4″ jack into Direct Boxes for your click and tracks. This is the setup I use about 75% of the time when I lead worship because I travel a lot to different churches and need an easy, quick and uncomplicated setup.

2. Audio Interface
The downside of using the headphone jack is that it doesn’t give your sound team full mix control over each individual track. When using the headphone jack, you’re sending all of your tracks out a single, mono output. This means that if your sound team wants to turn down the tambourine track, you would need to adjust it for them on the Ableton Live computer ahead of time. To solve this issue, another way to send audio to the sound system is by using an audio interface.

There are a lot of great options out there that will get the job done. I would recommend looking at anything by PreSonus, MOTU, or an audio interface that I helped design that’s called Track Rig. Don’t bother with an interface that doesn’t have at least 4 outputs. You need at least 4 outputs to make this option worth it. When using an audio interface, Ableton Live will let you choose which output each of your tracks goes out of. You can connect these interfaces directly to the sound system, or through direct boxes. I’ve never needed to use more than 8 outputs, because it can feel like you’re playing to a karaoke track. My best-practice tip is to group tracks together that have similar sounds. For example, I group and send all of my key tracks together out their own output. I do the same for percussion tracks, like shaker and tambourine. I also group and send all synth lead lines together and send them out their own separate output. This will be important for your sound team so they can EQ and mix the tracks properly.

Metronome Sounds. Ableton’s metronome offers three different sounds to choose from. They can all be accessed by clicking on the drop-down arrow to the right of the metronome button. Classic: This click sound has been around for a while, and is Ableton’s default click sound. I have come to really like this click, though, for many, it is a. Ableton Live is my number one recommendation for software for running this and doing a whole lot of other cool things for your worship ministry. Of all the software options, Ableton is hands down the most powerful for running a click and tracks in worship. Exact same sort of thing to 1234 Yeah. So there you go. Different sets of tracks. Um, there's also even one tune in here, Um, over here. Where, um, we have a click track set up, Um, and I mostly just playing percussion on the song. So actually just used the click track just account in the band just to give them time. Re: Click track ONLY through the headphones??? Did you set the cue out on the master track to 3/4 in ableton (what ever output numbered output your cue mix is). What are you using to send audio to your PA from ableton. A mixing console or audio interface. If you're using an interface you probably have to set the headphone out to 3/4. Apr 29, 2018 Download Ableton Live 10.0.1 below and extract all the files with any extraction program which you have. Install the application by using double clicking on Ableton live suite. Copy the file Ableton LivePatch from the Patch folder and paste it into the default installation folder. Run the patch file, and click the Patch button to enable it.

Track Rig is an 8-channel audio output interface that gives you everything you need to run tracks, including a 4-port USB hub for MIDI controllers and hard drives. It has 8 XLR jacks, which eliminates the need for direct boxes. It’s really easy to set up because there aren’t audio drivers and configuration software to install. Be sure to check it out at TrackRig.com.

3. Dante
I’m beginning to see more and more larger, tech-driven churches use Dante to send audio from Ableton Live to the sound system. If your soundboard is compatible with Dante, you can use Dante Virtual Soundcard to send up to 64 channels from Ableton Live to your sound system. What’s awesome is that it uses the ethernet port on your computer, which eliminates the need for a snake, direct boxes, and other cables/adapters. When you plug in the ethernet cable, you’ll be able to route your tracks to up to 64 different channels – which is by far the largest number of channels you can get. No USB audio interface will give you that many. If you’re able to go the Dante route, it’s a great option. It’s very stable and the audio quality is excellent. To learn more about Dante systems, visit audinate.com.

These are all excellent ways to get your track audio from Ableton Live to your sound system. If you’re just getting started with tracks, I would recommend the headphone jack. If you’re really comfortable with Ableton Live, try using an audio interface like Track Rig or Dante. If you’re interested in learning more about running tracks in worship, take my free course at tracksinworship.com.

Matt McCoy

Ableton Live is Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that is most often used in the live setting. Shocking, I know. I use Ableton during live shows and worship sets but I always do my post-production mixing in Pro Tools. It’s important to note that while both Ableton and Pro Tools are DAWs, they are used for totally different purposes. While I will not get into pages of details here on setting up a click track within Ableton, you can always click over to the video tutorial here for a detailed breakdown.

When you first open Ableton Live, you will notice that there is already a click track ready to go. It will always open at 120BPM and the yellow shading indicates that it’s armed and ready. Here’s what it looks like:

The problem with this click track is that it’s the ‘Master Click.’ This means that every track you play will be locked to this tempo. Obviously, this is not ideal. Not every song we play is 120BPM, so we need a work-around. We need to create our own click tracks and have them all at different tempos. How do we do this?

Steps to Create Click Track
1. Open up an Ableton session and save it
2. Make sure the Ableton ‘master click’ is turned off (click the yellow shaded area)
3. Go to ‘Instruments’ > ‘Impulse’ > ‘Percussion 1’ and double click ‘Percussion 1’ to load this sound bank

4. Double click on the first open track beneath ‘Percussion 1’ to create our first click track

5. Double click on ‘Percussion 1’ and hit CMD+R (Mac) to rename this ‘Click’

6. At the bottom, ‘two-finger click’ (Mac) and click ‘Draw Mode’
7. Draw in your notes on the row labeled ‘Wood Block High’ on the quarter note spacing (remember to use the time ruler if needed)

8. Rename the new click track by pressing CMD+R (Mac) and naming the song

9. On track one on the ‘Master Channel’, ‘two finger click’ (Mac) and scroll down to ‘Edit Launch Tempo’. Type in your new tempo and press enter

Ableton Click Track

10. Rinse and repeat. You can copy the click tracks down as many times as need, therefore saving you from having to draw them in every time. Do this by pressing CMD+C (copy) on the first click track, then clicking in the next open track and pressing CMD+V (paste)

11. Make the physical connections using audio cabling to send the new click track to the FOH engineer. *Link to diagram for physical signal connections with an Ableton setup here

Ableton Live Gospel Click Tracks

There you have it! If you have any further questions, please comment or shoot me an email. More than likely, your answers will be found by watching the much-more-in-depth video here.

Ableton Click Track Download

Until next time!