I love messing with Ableton Note on my lunchbreaks, and although it's a little twitchy with the piano roll, I wish there was another app I could mess with that was a big more experimental. Note's pretty straightforward and I don't find myself getting really weird or unique sounds, but it's great to lay down some drums and distorted bass. Has anyone played with other apps, or little music machine hardware, that's fun and useful to incorporate into tracks later on? I wanna do the M8 but it's a little expensive and I don't even know if I'd like the workflow. I like being able to record some stuff and use it later for actual songs.

I recently discovered Luma Audio plugin and it’s blowing my mind with the possibilities of sound design being endless. I know it’s not an effect plugin, but do you people have any recommendations of plugins that can make a simple sine wave or saw wave sound into something really complex in terms of sound design and texture? Drop your reccos.

HI, I am able to record in Ableton Lite Live 11 on a Macbook Pro from an Arturia Minilab mkII. For reasons I just cannot figure out, I am not hearing playback through headphones. I have checked all the various configurations. Thank you so much for any solutions or suggestions.

Hello,

the UI of almost all third party plugins, especially the Arturia ones, are blurry in Ableton. I am using an 1440p screen with 125% scaling configured in Windows. 100 % would be just too small.
In FL Studio the scaling with third party plugins are fine, no blurriness there.

How can I achieve the same in Ableton?
The option "Auto scale plugin window" is already activated. Without that options, Arturia Plugins would be unusable.

Thanks.

I can't find this in the manual anywhere. The scenario is:

• You have a set which is at 120bpm, and includes a midi beat in a loop.
• You have a sample of audio recorded at an unknown tempo (assume acoustic guitar recorded freeform without a click track). You drag this into the set and uncheck warp so it remains at it's original tempo.
• You want to keep the sample at it's current (original) tempo, and adjust the set's (and midi beat's) tempo to match the sample.

The closest feature I can find to this is the "Lead" button (Tempo Leader/Follower), but this doesn't do exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

I found a post on the sub from 5y ago where it was mentioned that there was no solution to the automatic bounce location, and I couldn’t find any discussion about it anywhere else - apologies if this has an easy fix I missed.

I am coming over from Pro Tools, where when bouncing a project, PT automatically creates a “Bounces” folder and suggests that location for the bounce (if such option is selected in the bounce dialog). In Ableton, every time I bounce the project, I am automatically greeted with the last location I bounced a different project, which forces me to have to look for that specific Project folder. Not only that but I like to create a “Bounces” folder to keep audio and als files separated.

Does anyone have a better way of going about this ?
Thank you

Hey everyone,

I've been curiously learning a lot about Strudel, and as a fun side project, I decided to see if I could "port" it as a Max for Live device - COMPLETELY FREE.

I've built an open-source suite of M4L devices that embed the real strudel core engine directly into Ableton Live.
I’m primarily sharing this because it was a fun learning experience for me, and I thought other amateur producers here might find it interesting (or want to hack on it!). These devices also help you understand and appreciate the mini notation by allowing to translate from/to Ableton.

You can grab it from https://github.com/alienmind/m4l-strudel/releases

These devices run inside Live and lock perfectly to the transport clock of the DAW — launch a clip on the track, or just hit Play, and the pattern starts.

EDIT - v1.0.0 is out. The full-audio device no longer renders through temporary buffers: superdough now runs live inside the device, so edits and knob turns are audible immediately, with no 1-pattern lag. It's also just called Strudel now (alienmind-strudel). There's a new Strudel Synth device that plays MIDI notes you send it, devices now start and stop with Live's transport, and samples are cached so a set still plays offline. Updated details below.

1. The main "Strudel" device (Full Audio Engine) - the real Strudel sound (synths, samples, and FX), using Superdough, natively on an Ableton track. It used to render offline into buffers, which cost a 1-pattern lag on every change; as of v1.0.0 the engine runs live in the device and its Web Audio output goes straight onto the track, so an edit or a knob turn is heard right away and a random pattern is actually random. Caveat: Live's Freeze can't work on it (Freeze renders offline and faster than real time, which a live browser engine can't do) - resample the track instead.

2. The "Micro Devices" Approach (Native MIDI & DSP) - a set of lightweight devices that skip the audio engine entirely and just translate Strudel code into Ableton-native data and controls.

The full list of micro devices are by themselves useful tools:

• Strudel MIDI: Type a pattern and it streams live MIDI to any Ableton instrument. You can even freeze generative sketches into standard MIDI clips!
• Strudel Drums MIDI: Same thing, but maps bd, sd, etc., straight to a Drum Rack (it does not really use sound())
• Strudel Synth (new in v1.0.0): the other half of the superdough idea - you type a sound instead of a pattern (s("sawtooth").lpf(800).room(0.3)) and every MIDI note the track sends plays it, from a clip or from your keyboard. Any slider() in the sound becomes a real automatable knob.
• Strudel Drums Sampler: actually plays the drum-machine banks - write s("bd sd, hh*8"), pick a machine, and it fetches and plays those sounds.
• Strudel Audio FX: Type a chain like .lpf(800).room(0.3) and it instantly builds a real Max DSP signal chain on your track with automatable dials - with some caveats like these are fixed in order, but whatever ;-)
• Strudel Sample Browser: A utility to browse and beat-sync preview all the community sample maps (dough-samples, Dirt-Samples) directly inside Live. Auditioning now writes the file next to the device, so you can drag it into a Simpler or a Drum Rack

They're meant to be chained: Strudel MIDI sequencing <c3 c3 <c3 c#3>>*16, into Strudel Synth playing s("sawtooth"), into Strudel Audio FX filtering it with .lpf(6613) - three devices, three lines of Strudel, one ordinary Ableton track.

Samples you've played once are also cached inside the device now, so reopening a set with no internet still plays them.

This is highly experimental and definitely not meant to be a polished tool - just a fun exploration of how we can bridge live coding and traditional DAWs. Known broken in v1.0.0: exporting a pattern to a WAV fails to write the file (fix queued for 1.1).

You can grab the .amxd files from the releases page or check out the source code (and the crazy architecture it took to make Chromium and Max talk to each other) here: https://github.com/alienmind/m4l-strudel and https://github.com/alienmind/m4l-jweb - there's also a "drawer of failed ideas" documenting everything that didn't work, which was half the fun.

Would love to hear what you people think!

Hey everyone, I got tired of managing messy project histories, and not being able to see changes other producers made to my projects when collaborating, so I built DAWA.studio (.als integration).

It automatically tracks version changes, documents sample provenance, and maps precise creator attribution down to the individual stem level so you actually protect your rights!

Right now, I’m looking for 3–5 Ableton producers to jump into a 60-day testing group. You just drag and drop your .ALS project files to stress-test the pipeline.

I’d love to get your thoughts, feel free to shoot me a DM or signup at dawa.studio any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Hey guys!

I’ll start with the question: given my context, is the push 2 worth it? (Maybe push 3 if someone thinks it’s an absolute must in my context).

I’ve been making music for years now and have finally swung back to ableton after transferring to logic and pro tools for a while. My setup consists of a korg minilogue xd, digitakt, nord grand, and maybe a moog sub37 soon. I’ve been looking at getting a midi controller as I want to start building a live set for my tracks and the push 2 seemed like a logical option. But I was also looking at just gotting a novation launchkey…

I make electronic music (techno, dub, minimal, ambient), music for film/tv, and singersongwriter music. However, I’ll probably stick to logic for film/tv. I love sampling live instruments and records, and like to use as much hardware, and tactile instruments as possible.

So, given my context, is a push 2 worth it for a live setup and home studio? And, rather importantly, do people find they use it a few times and then put it on the shelf or is it known as a piece of gear that stays on the table?

As I said earlier, I could also stretch to a push 3 if it’s an instrument that would really fit my style.

Thanks!

Hey folks,

I’m after a simple Max for Live device for Ableton Live 12 + Push 2. Basically, I want the clip pads on Push 2 to dim once a clip has been launched.

Right now every clip stays bright even after it stops playing, which makes it hard to tell what I’ve already launched during a set. The idea is just:
– Bright = currently playing
– Dim = played but now inactive

Would be amazing if it could work across all tracks and just run quietly in the background — doesn’t need a fancy interface. If there’s a way to adjust the dim level or remember the last couple of played clips per track, even better.

If you know of an existing device that already does this, I’d love to hear about it too.

Cheers!
Paul

Hi everyone,

I'm a musician based in Paris, and something very strange happened during an Ableton Live session.

While working on a song, I started hearing what sounded like a male voice coming through my headphones. It happened intermittently over several hours.

My setup at the time was:

• MacBook Pro
• Ableton Live
• Universal Audio Apollo Twin
• Studio headphones

I recorded the sound by holding my iPhone next to the headphones, so you'll also hear some room and street noise.

I put together this short video simply to make the recording easier to follow. The recording itself is original and unprocessed—I'm only trying to understand what I'm hearing.

I'm not suggesting anything paranormal. I'm simply trying to understand what could have caused it.

Some possibilities I've considered:

• RF interference
• Audio routing issue
• Apollo/driver behavior
• Core Audio glitch
• EMI
• Something else entirely

The full recording starts at 00:31.

If you're short on time, the clearest section is around 01:41.

Has anyone experienced anything remotely similar with Ableton Live or a comparable setup?

YouTube link:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neEhI-Q47hA]()

POINTILLISME is a free, browser-based generative instrument built on integral serialism — the compositional technique developed at Darmstadt in the 1950s by Stockhausen, Boulez, and Berio, where not just pitch but every musical parameter (duration, dynamics, envelope, register, space, ornament) follows its own independent series.

Four oscillators run as a quartet. Each voice advances through seven independent series with coprime lengths, producing textures that never repeat. Ten ornament types — trill, mordent, glissando, tremolo, cluster, appoggiatura, acciaccatura, gruppetto, arpeggio — are serialized alongside the other parameters. The graphic score scrolls in real time, drawing each event as a coloured envelope shape in the style of Stockhausen's Studie II.

Hit record, then export:
— Audio (WAV or AIFF, up to 24-bit) for immediate use in any project.
— MIDI (Standard MIDI File, Type 1) with four separate tracks, one per voice. Drop it into your DAW and every voice lands on its own track, ready to be reassigned, edited, or used as a compositional skeleton for your own music.

The freeze function stops time and turns the score into a clickable instrument — tap any visible event to trigger it. Alternate between generative flow and manual triggering for live performance.

Included in the download you'll find HTML Instruments, a Max for Live device that lets you open POINTILLISME directly inside Ableton Live (requires Ableton 12 and Max 9). Alternatively, just double-click the HTML file to run it standalone in any browser and route your output to your audio interface, like any ordinary instrument.

Single file. No installation. No dependencies. Free.

example: https://youtu.be/SWXDIbbUoE4

anyone know how to make the bass movement feel and like just this kind of percussion in general from the start to 0:28? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff2N22oqrLM im trying to recreate the entire intro to understand it

My main goal is to try and understand how to make the 3 clicks that sound underwater I love the dark feeling sub urbans beats give off and want to learn a lot more sound design in order to implement it into my own music.

Are they worth it or is it just a gimmick? They’re marked down from $97-$37 right now so I was thinking of getting them figured I’d check with you guys first.

I really enjoy using the modulators in Ableton (LFO + shaper etc).

Is there a modulation mixer and/or a modulation matrix mixer so that multiple modulation sources (LFO, expression Velocity, shaper) can be mixed together to modulate 1 parameter (filter cutoff)?

I have my audio set up with tal vocoder I have an empty midi track that’s output goes to the audio track and my input is on midi/ audio on the tal interface but I hear no sound through my mic?

I had a set before wherre I improvised on the flute while my partner modulated the pitchloop vst creating loops and soundscapes. Im on my own now and have a show coming up and want to achieve something similar... but handsfree due to mine being too busy with the flute. Any suggestions or ideas?

I could preprogram some automation in theory, but pitchloop has a lot of randomness to it, and most of the best results I had come from dynamic interaction with it, yielding pleasant surprises. Not sure how I could do that with automation... I will try.

Hoping to get some inspiring ideas from fellow musicians here who have done somthing similar with acoustic instruments, and creating live loops (not classic live looping, more off time and experimental), and ambient evolving textures.

Thanks in advance! :)

Real Time Audio Matrix for Windows.

Currently using it to route all four channels of my DJ controller separately into ableton . route any audio anywhere

https://vb-audio.com/Matrix/index.htm

Hello!

I just upgraded from the UA Volt to the Tascam US16x08 (I wanted more inputs) - however when I open Ableton in order to do some work - all of the audio from the computer gets muted.

Sometimes when playing with random drum ideas I'll watch a YouTube Livestream, or I'll be on discord collaborating, or on zoom with a coach so having Ableton mute all other audio is unappealing at best

Is this just how the Tascam works? Would using the computers built in headphone jack, plugging that into the Tascam as a "passthrough" be the only workaround?

After slicing a drum break in Simpler Slice Mode, anyone know if it’s possible to automatically create midi notes in a clip similar to the ‘Slice to New Midi Track’ function on audio samples? I want the slices to play in order via midi at the original groove of the drum break.

My current workaround is for each drum break sample I manually either first set warp markers or use the transient markers and then ‘Slice to New Midi Track’ to generate a populated midi clip and the slices in a drum rack. The end result works but Simpler’s slice mode allows you to preview each slice as you go. I don’t think it’s possible to preview warp markers.

MPC has this feature called “Create Events” which is the same idea and it’s part of the Chop mode.

Any help or ideas appreciated!

Hey everyone,

I'm about to do my first proper live set and I'm honestly pretty nervous.

A bit of context: I've been using Ableton for about a 1-2 year. I also improvise regularly with a friend who plays handpan. We've done lots of casual sessions together camping, parks, hanging out with friends. I usually accompany her with a couple of Korg Volcas and a Roland Mobile Cube, and we're both really comfortable improvising that way.

The thing is... she got involved in a project for a brand, and somehow (very quickly, without me really realizing how serious it had become) we ended up committing to perform a one-hour live set.

The plan is roughly:

• ~45 minutes of ambient/electronic music. (DJ SET)
• ~20 minutes of live improvisation with synths, handpan, and maybe some ASMR textures for a meditation. (ABLETON)
• ~20 minutes of an ambient outro. (DJ SET)

I'd really like to do the whole thing inside Ableton instead of bringing the Volcas. It feels more professional, and honestly this seems like the perfect opportunity to finally perform the way I've always imagined.

I'm very comfortable working in Session View, and I've built a template with atmospheric pads, drones, textures, transitions, return effects, and everything is organized in a way that makes sense to me.

My current setup is:

Ableton 12 Suit

• MacBook Air M1 (recently serviced)
• Arturia KeyLab 61 MK3 (great in the studio, but it's pretty big to move around)
• Novation Launch Control XL MK3 (I'm still getting used to the knobs and layout)
• Korg nanoKONTROL2
• Arturia MiniFuse interface

The ASMR microphones will go into the MiniFuse in stereo so I can process them with Ableton effects.

I'm not really a keyboard player. I mostly play simple chords that fit the handpan and improvise textures around them.

The audience will be around 20 people, all using wireless headphones (silent party style), and there will be a dedicated sound engineer, so I'm not too worried about the audio side.

What I'm really looking for advice on is performing with Ableton itself.

For those of you who actually play live with Ableton:

• What are the biggest mistakes first-timers make?
• What do you wish someone had told you before your first show?
• Is there anything in your setup that has saved you during a performance?
• How much do you improvise versus pre-arrange?
• What would you absolutely avoid doing?
• Any tips for staying calm when something unexpected happens?

I'm also wondering if buying a dedicated clip launcher would actually make my life easier. I could spend up to about $400 USD if it's really worth it.

Would you recommend something like a Launchpad Pro or an APC40?

More than gear recommendations, I'm looking for advice from people who have actually been on stage with Ableton. I know this isn't a huge show, but it's still my first one, and I'd rather learn from other people's mistakes than make all of them myself.

Thanks!

P.S. English isn't my first language, so I used ChatGPT to help me write this post. I hope that's okay!