Reaktor MIDI Bouncing in Ableton Live under OSX

This problem had me stumped for a while and turned out to be very simple.

The intended recipe is this:

• You have a Reaktor ensemble that emits MIDI on Track-X
• You have some other VST/AU plugin on Track-Y that you wish to control via Reaktor's MIDI notes (rather than a Live MIDI clip)

I was stymied by this for weeks because I turned off VSTs in Live assuming that the 'duplicate' AudioUnits would be 'better' since they're 'More Mac'. Au Contrare! At least in Live, AudioUnits will not emit MIDI. I'll test this with Logic when I get home.

Here's how you do it:

Create a MIDI track, drop a Reaktor VST instance onto it, we'll call this Track-X

Create a MIDI track, drop a MIDI controllable VST/AU onto it, we'll call this Track-Y

On Track-X, verify that your Reaktor instrument is emitting MIDI, you'll see this in the toolbar for the instrument to the right of the wrench icon, there are two sets of dots on either side of the 'In/Out' ports. If the upper right dot next to 'Ext' is blinking, you're emitting MIDI.

If you're not seeing that blink, verify that you've enabled the instrument to emit MIDI externally by selecting the 'Out' port, then 'Ext MIDI' and choose a MIDI channel to be broadcasting on.

Another issue you may have is that your instrument is broadcasting to the wrong channel or not set to broadcast MIDI, you can verify this by opening the properties window for the instrument and checking out the connections tab (far right), it'll say 'MIDI Device In' and 'MIDI Device Out', if MIDI Device Out is set to 'none', change it to 'plugin'. (I think..)

On your target track-Y, under 'MIDI From', select 'Reaktor-1' (assuming that Track-X is 1). After this change, the pull-down menu below it will automatically change from 'All Channels' to 'Post FX' Now select the Post FX pulldown menu and at the bottom should be an entry named 'Reaktor5' Track-Y should now be receiving the emitted MIDI from Track-X.

Hopefully this will save someone a few minutes.