How to directly monitor PCIe-424 with 24I/O in Ableton Live?

[UltimateOutsider]

I own the PCIe-424/24I/O combo and when attempting to track out vocals in Ableton Live, there is significant latency. The PCIe-424 manual says that CueMix allows zero-latency monitoring, but cannot find any instructions on how to make it work. When I used to have an UltraLite-mk3, there was an option in the device's control panel to enable direct monitoring, but I can't find anything like that for the 424/24I/O. I can't find any documentation for CueMix FX either (not even in-app help), and I have no idea what, if anything, I'm supposed to do in there to be able to hear my vocals in real time.

So two questions: 1) How can I hear my live vocals with direct monitoring on my PCIe-424 with 24I/O in Ableton Live (32-bit, Windows)? and 2) Where can I find documentation on how to use CueMix FX?

Thanks.

EDIT: For what it's worth, I've got the buffer size set to 256 samples, and Live reports input latency of 6.30ms and output latency of 6.33ms.

[Radiogal]

Don´t know about Ableton but MOTU Digital Performer has direct monitor with all Motu interfaces. Now let´s hope DP8 Windows will be released soon for all Windows DAWers.

[UltimateOutsider]

Don´t know about Ableton but MOTU Digital Performer has direct monitor with all Motu interfaces.

I sent in a support ticket with MOTU and their response was the same. I was able to direct monitor with the UltraLite because that had the feature built in to the UltraLite control panel, but the same is not possible with the 24I/O, at least not in Live.

I just reduced my buffer. There's still a noticeable delay but it's not as distracting as the higher setting, when singing.

[Agent of Random]

Ultralite and 24io both do direct monitoring through Cuemix....cuemix will look different for each unit but you can still setup no latency monitoring.

[Radiogal]

If you have 24 I/O there is NO NEED to go into CueMix at all. Just leave it as it is. Just choose Direct monitoring in DP.

[NazRat]

Assuming that this is a similar issue to what I've experienced using PT with MOTU interfaces, use CueMix to monitor the input(s) you are recording (i.e. bring the faders up on those inputs and assign the monitor output bus). Turn of input monitoring in Live or if that's not available, mute the record enabled tracks. Something along those lines.

[Agent of Random]

If you have 24 I/O there is NO NEED to go into CueMix at all. Just leave it as it is. Just choose Direct monitoring in DP.

The OP is using Ableton Live, and for the time being DP isn't available on PC

[Radiogal]

If you have 24 I/O there is NO NEED to go into CueMix at all. Just leave it as it is. Just choose Direct monitoring in DP.

The OP is using Ableton Live, and for the time being DP isn't available on PC

I know and mentioned that in an earlier post.

[UltimateOutsider]

I really wish there were some actual up-to-date documentation for CueMix FX. The info in the PCIe-424 manual is thin indeed. While I still have absolutely zero idea how the control room talk/listen stuff works, I've finally managed to figure out how to use CueMix for direct monitoring in conjunction with Ableton Live.

It's apparently clear to some users, but took me a long while to understand how CueMix FX really works (at least with the 24I/O). Others in this thread obviously already know the following, but I'm stating it here for anyone who happens to stumble across this thread, looking for the same answer I was.

But basically the top-most controls in CueMix are for managing inputs, and changes there affect the signal coming into the DAW. Everything below those input controls is for monitoring only, and what you do there does not affect your DAW- and THIS is where the direct monitoring happens. There is no "Direct Monitor" button; if you listen to channels via CueMix you ARE directly monitoring the interface's inputs.

I finally figured this out last night when I learned that the whole reason Ableton Live was recording my audio tracks out of sync was that I had the "Monitoring" status of my audio tracks set to In or Auto... and Live actually disables device delay compensation when you do this. In order to get synced audio, I had to turn Monitoring to Off in Live- but that meant I really needed direct monitoring on my interface in order to hear my incoming audio at all.

I had to do two things in CueMix in order to hear the synth I was attempting to record; I had to unmute the synth's tracks in CueMix and also bring up the overall monitoring volume (the fader all the way on the right of the CueMix UI). Once I did that, I could hear the incoming audio straight from my synth, in time with the rest of my Live project while recording. Also, the audio was recorded in near-perfect sync with the project. (About 0.5ms delay, but I can live with that.)

Also, once you're done monitoring in CueMix, you'll probably want to re-mute those tracks in CueMix again to avoid unexpected phasing that might occur when you're working on other projects that don't require direct monitoring. I have a default configuration set up with all CueMix monitor tracks muted, and my desired input configurations, etc.