Lost trying to sync with ableton

[KnifeAndrew]

So I am new to analog synths, bear with me. I am trying to simply get the mother 32 to only listen to midi input from ableton. So I have the MIDI In port connected to a MIDI/USB cable into my usb port. Then I have an audio jack out the back of the mother 32 that goes into my focusrite scarlett 2i2. What is weird is that even if Ableton isn't even on, I am getting audio from the Mother through my speakers. First, how do i eliminate that, so that I only receive audio when an audio program is open?

Second, when I am finally in ableton, I use an "external instrument" so that MIDI is going to "mio" (the name usb/MIDI cable connected to the mother)and Ch. 1, and then audio is coming back from Ch 1. The problem is that the MIDI notes are not being played. Let's say I have a melody of MIDI notes, only the first 1 or 2 notes get played, and then not the rest, the sound stops out after the first 2 are played, and those first 2 notes are actually played twice each. So it's like this weird doubling effect of only the first note or two. It seems like randomly the Tempo/Gate Length knob takes over everything I'm doing, and suddenly it is in control of whether or not the notes will be played, but only it plays them too fast or too slow depending on where it is turned to.

For the record, under preferences, I have the "mio"(USB/MIDI connected to Mother) MIDI port so that Track and Sync are both turned on.

Plz help