User's Manual

51 Live Concepts
The mixer also includes a crossfader (page 239), which can create smooth transitions between
clips playing on different tracks. Live’s crossfader works like a typical DJ mixer crossfader, ex-
cept that it allows crossfading not only two but any number of tracks — including the returns.
Live’s Crossfader.
Devices that receive and deliver audio signals are called audio effects. Audio effects are the
only type of device that fit in an audio track or a return track. However, two more types of de-
vices are available for use in MIDI tracks: MIDI effects and instruments.
Consider a MIDI track playing a clip. The MIDI signal from the clip is fed into the track’s device
chain. There, it is first processed by any number of MIDI effects. A MIDI effect receives and
delivers MIDI signals. One example is the Scale effect, which maps the incoming notes onto a
user-defined musical scale. The last MIDI effect in the chain is followed by an instrument. Instru-
ments, for instance Live’s Simpler and Impulse, receive MIDI and deliver audio. Following the
instrument, there can be any number of audio effects — as in an audio track.
A MIDI Effect, an Instrument and an Audio Effect in a MIDI Track.
If a MIDI track has no instrument (and no audio effects), then the track’s output is a plain MIDI
signal, which has to be sent somewhere else to be converted into audio. In this case, the track’s
mix and Send controls disappear from the mixer.