Using hardware synths with Live

Connecting and using external synths with Live is super easy and super fun, in my opinion, as you are expanding your tool set for your music-making projects.

There are different ways you can manage external devices with Live, but we will look at the easiest and most convenient way: using an External Instrument device.

In this example, I will use my Moog Minitaur, one of my favorite synths:

Figure 14.22 – Moog Minitaur synthesizer

Let’s see how to set this up in this section. First, we need to connect and configure the synth, so let’s get started.

Configuring Live’s audio and MIDI preferences

To configure Live’s audio and MIDI preferences, do the following:

1. Open the Chapter 14.2 project file. (Everything is already set up, so you can follow along.)
2. I connected the Moog to the computer with a USB cable. This synth supports MIDI over a USB cable, so I can send MIDI...