i started my channel not long ago, focusing on deep house and ambient house production techniques, but they can be useful for anyone. check it out. thank you

I've been a professional working bassist for 15 years. I have bachelor of music yet still feel limited composing. I suck at fluent chord changes on a keyboard other than basic first inversion block chords. Half a life time of instinct in one instrument and none of its technique transfers, so there's this gap between what I can hear and think up, and what my hands can actually do on keys fluently.

What I wanted was simple to describe...play chords, without fighting a lack of technical technique in one particular instrument. Not just diatonic triads, whatever I was hearing.

I picked up an MPC Live 3, which is a brilliant tool, but the built in chord selection is thin. But I thought what I wanted surely already exists. 

Then I found the 'Orchid', and it was alllmost exactly what I wanted (if you haven't seen it and are resonating with thus post, check it out, the way it handles chords is very clever). Buut it's around $900 AUD, and I wasn't ready to commit that before knowing whether this way of playing would stick, plus I have a horrible habit of buying stuff, using it for a month then never again. The only other things I could find were browser based chord tools, which are fine on a pc but felt very average on my phone/tablet and no one wants to play music with a mouse. 

Nothing I found seemed to sit in the middle.. So being apparently incapable of leaving things alone, I spent months refining a phone/tablet app:

The layout I ended up with: pick a key and mode, and you get a grid where every row is a scale degree and every column is a chord type, from triads out through extensions, sus and add chords, slash voicings, and a bank of secondary dominants, tritone subs and modal interchange for when you want to leave the key. 

There's a second mode (that I'll admit takes inspiration from how the Orchid approaches playing): hold a chord quality and tap the root. It made sense to me as someone having a good grasp on theory, and I wanted that feel on a device I always carry around. 

Then there's a fader on the side that walks the held chord through its inversions one inversion at a time, which is my favourite feature, because voice leading is exactly the thing I could never do with my slow hands.

It has a small synth voice built in, so it makes sound on its own with nothing attached if you're not around a synth or DAW, and it sends MIDI over USB when you want it driving hardware or a DAW. It also supports velocity changes (and aftertouch if your connected synth supports it)

It's on Android now ("ChordGrid: MIDI Instrument" on the Play Store) and  iPhone version is in testing and should be up in the next few days. 

The core diatonic chords are free so you can see if it feels right for you and the extended palette is a small one off purchase. 

If you've got a workflow for this already, or there's a tool I somehow missed, or you try it and something feels unintuitive, please let me know and I'll consider adding it in if it feels like it fits. I want this to be the perfect tool for the people that feel the same way I did.

Thanks everyone, appreciate the time reading.

Selling my Ableton Live 11 Suite license for $280 on KnobCloud.
Full Suite license, non-EDU and transferable through Ableton’s official license-transfer system.
Listed through KnobCloud for a safer transaction for both sides. DM me if interested and I’ll send the listing.

Hi guys,

I'm completely new to playing Live! (though I produce my own Tracks - House genre)

I'm moving to playing Live - mostly in a Hybrid setup - so can play my songs live on Ableton/controllers - also play others tracks later in same set through a XDJ/CDJ

My query -

Which is "Better for overall smooth workflow" for playing live - APC 40 or 2 Xone K3's ? Not PUSH cuz I want faders/knobs
(workflow is my only priority - not budget)

Since i'm new, my understanding is limited - as to the choice might depend on whether I want more "track control/faders" since K3 has 4 knobs - VS - "better control over scenes/clips" since APC40 has pads

My Live playing - will mostly be focused on playing songs with effects, fades etc (not too much on the fly changes)

Can anyone please help me how to decide

Much Thanks

4 tracks is plenty for a lunch break jam. It helps stop analysis paralysis I've found.

I can hardly hear the bass when I play the track in Ableton Live. Yet, when I master the track, bass booms over the entire track.

so i just bought abeltion and still trying to figure this stuff out but when i open a track and insert a midi clip and make some chords and then when im finished and wanna open another track and insert a midi clip on that one when i play notes on it, it only playes the 1st track midi nots and not playing the 2nd track its like its stuck only on the 1st midi track and now i can play multiple tracks

anybody have any soulutions ?

Hi everyone,

Recently, my Windows machine experienced the infamous Blue Screen of Death, and I therefore had to reinstall everything (Windows, Ableton, plugins, etc.). However, after the reinstall, I’m getting different CPU readings in Ableton compared to before.

I have one particular project that I had previously used as a benchmark. Before the reset, I recorded the CPU usage, and it consistently hovered around 46–47% when idle at 64 samples / 48 kHz.

Now, with the exact same project, it hovers around 51–53%, occasionally spiking to 58–60% when idle.

This is confusing me quite a bit, because I’ve spent a lot of time trying to recreate and further optimize my system after the reinstall. 

However, I have other projects where the CPU usage is exactly the same as before, or even slightly lower. For example, I previously ran a benchmark with 50 instances of AmpliTube 5 at a 64-sample buffer:

• Before reinstall: 79–80% CPU when idle
• After reinstall: 79–80% CPU when idle

My setup

I have always separated my files across three different drives:

• C: Windows, Ableton, VST directories, etc.
• R: Recordings / Ableton projects
• L: Libraries, VSTs, etc.

Fortunately, none of the drives were corrupted; only Windows was affected. Because of this, I was able to reinstall everything and match the exact plugin versions used in each project to the versions I had before the reinstall.

I also optimized the system in the same way I did when I originally built it. In fact, I had already spent quite a bit of time optimizing the machine a few months before the crash, so I have a fairly good idea of how it performed previously with different settings.

Things I have tried since the reinstall

Drivers / Windows

• Updated/reinstalled all relevant drivers (BIOS, audio, network adapters, SSDs, etc.)
• Tried older Focusrite Scarlett drivers as well — no difference
• Switched to Ultimate Performance in Windows Power Plan
  • CPU power management
  • USB settings
  • etc.
• Disabled Game Mode, Xbox Game Bar, Captures, etc.
• Disabled unnecessary background applications
• Disabled Fast Startup — actually made things worse
• Disabled Windows Controlled Folder Access
• Disabled the power-saving/turn-off options for USB controllers in Device Manager
• Optimized further using VilmCare, including disabling exclusive mode on the audio interface, etc.
• Set Windows to prioritize background services instead of programs

BIOS

I experimented with:

• C-States / Enhanced C-States
• Hyper-Threading
• Turbo Mode
• Performance Preferences
• SVID Behavior
• ASUS MultiCore Enhancement
• XMP-modes

Process / CPU management

• Experimented with ParkControl and Process Lasso (although my PC didn't seem to benefit from these even before the reinstall)
• Experimented with Task Manager by changing priorities and CPU affinities for:
  • audiodg.exe
  • Ableton AddOns
  • Ableton Index
  • Ableton Live 12 Suite
• Set Ableton to High Performance in Windows Graphics Settings — no effect

BitLocker

• Completely disabled BitLocker on all three previously encrypted drives — no effect

Ableton

• Tested Options.txt with:
  • -RestrictAudioCalculationToPerformanceCores=true
  • This actually made the CPU usage worse, so I removed it again.
• Tested Ableton's Preferences.cfg:
  • Restored my previous preferences — no difference
  • Tested with a completely fresh/default preferences file — no difference

What could be different?

I'm honestly very confused at this point. I've reached the stage where ChatGPT keeps suggesting the same optimizations I've already tried. The only things I can potentially pinpoint as being different from before the reset are the newer drivers (BIOS, network adapters, etc.) and possibly the Windows 10 version, as I don’t remember which version I was running before the crash, nor do I remember the exact driver versions I had installed at the time.

If anyone has any insights into what might be causing this, I’d really appreciate hearing them, as I cannot seem to solve this myself.

Best regards,

Specs:

• Windows 10 (Version 22H2, OS Build 19045.7548)
• Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 2nd Gen (Audio Interface)
• Ableton 12.4.3
• ASUS Prime Z690-P DDR5
• Corsair RM750x White v2 (2018)
• Intel Core i7-13700K - 3.4GHz
  • Noctua NH-D15
• Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200 BK C40 DC - 64GB - 2 pcs
• Kingston SSD KC3000 1024GB M.2 PCI Express 4.
• Kingston SSD KC3000 1024GB M.2 PCI Express 4.
• Kingston SSD KC3000 2048GB M.2 PCI Express 4.

I’m a software developer/guitarist based in Nashville, TN. I’ve been using Ableton Live since 2012 and have spent years running tracks in churches and professionally on the road, including MIDI, timecode, video, and redundant rigs.

Over the years, I’ve realized that Ableton is an amazing production tool, but it wasn’t really designed specifically for running tracks live. You end up adding tools like Ableset for setlists, looping, MIDI management, etc.

So I’ve been building my own solution: a dedicated live playback app designed for live playback.

The current version supports:

• Song editing/mixing
• Setlist creation
• MIDI events
• Song transitions
• Session compression for smaller devices
• Section looping
• Timecode
• Project sharing
• Redundancy support
• Setlist remote

It’s being built for macOS and iOS. It’s still early, and I’m looking for people who regularly run tracks to beta test it and give me honest feedback.

The app will be free, and I’d love to get some beta testers involved. If you’re interested, comment below or DM me!

Hi, I am a beginner when it comes to actually anything that has to do with music. But I have been trying to make a track that is similar to Conan Gray's Heather. However I am stuck, on what he actually does. First of all I can tell he has some reverb heavy drums, but I am not quite sure how to make mine sound like that, my attempts so far don't quite stick, even when I tune them to the key of my song. Additionally he has something else that is like a low tom or something (I am not sure correct me if I am wrong please) that goes in whenever he strums at the start of a beat that makes the start of it sound huge. Can anyone help me with this?

Hey everyone,

I built hellyee, an open-source MCP server that connects Claude directly

to Ableton Live — mastering/mixing assistance, vocal sample extraction, and

melody writing from audio files.

If you have a Claude account and Ableton, I'd love for you to try it during

your production process and tell me if it actually helps.

What it does:

- Mixing & mastering suggestions based on your session

- Extracts vocal samples from a reference track

- Listens to an audio file and writes MIDI notes for the melody

Honest heads-up: the melody-writing sometimes gets it wrong, especially

on complex or layered audio. I'd rather you know that going in.

How you can help:

- If something breaks or behaves oddly, please open a GitHub issue — I'm

actively fixing things.

- If you try it and don't like it, I'd genuinely appreciate knowing why.

That's just as useful to me as a bug report.

https://github.com/guvense/hellyee

every time I open a plugin, I'm facing this problem.

I’m a software developer/guitarist based in Nashville, TN. I’ve been using Ableton Live since 2012 and have spent years running tracks in churches and professionally on the road, including MIDI, timecode, video, and redundant rigs.

Over the years, I’ve realized that Ableton is an amazing production tool, but it wasn’t really designed specifically for running tracks live. You end up adding tools like Ableset for setlists, looping, MIDI management, etc.

So I’ve been building my own solution: a dedicated live playback app designed for live playback.

The current version supports:

• Song editing/mixing
• Setlist creation
• MIDI events
• Song transitions
• Session compression for smaller devices
• Section looping
• Timecode
• Project sharing
• Redundancy support
• Setlist remote

It’s being built for macOS and iOS. It’s still early, and I’m looking for people who regularly run tracks to beta test it and give me honest feedback.

The app will be free, and I’d love to get some beta testers involved. If you’re interested, comment below or DM me!

A little generative jam using prana sound studio’s Tracker,ORBS, and missing time devices. Missing time is free on the site if you want to grab it

Ever since I’ve installed Ableton 11, I’ve noticed an issue that was never the there before.

when selecting clips to duplicate or copy and paste it doesn’t snap to the grid. It ends up selecting a quarter bar or less than the full loop. Often it’s not visibly noticeable and it’s only later I realise that nothing is lined up properly.

i’ve looked through the options but can’t find anything about snapping selection to grid. is there an option to select clips by snapping to the grid?

Image shows what I’m talking about.