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Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

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Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#11

Post by brookst »

windowliker wrote: post #8

For me, the point of making music is making it myself. If want to have something done for me I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it.

The is the age-old music parochial thing. "Oh, he's just in a cover band, he doesn't write anything" / "Oh, she's just a composer, she can't even play the stuff she writes" / "Oh, he writes and plays his own stuff but knows fuck all about theory so it's not real music" / etc.

Me, I'm having a blast with claude code, MCP, and Ableton. I'm directing harmony and asking for arrangements and variations in rhythm, mixing, and production. Don't know if that counts as "making it myself", but then I was writing music before I could actually play any instrument at all, so :shrug:

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#13

Post by dyauspitr »

robotswantdata wrote: post #10

If you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up Ableton MCP, you’ve already worked harder than Suno requires to make a banger

Honestly, music generation is solved. You don’t have fine control at this point but people are unable to tell the difference anymore. There are tons of YouTube videos with blind tests between real artists and AI and people have no idea.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#14

Post by brandonb »

windowliker wrote: post #8

For me, the point of making music is making it myself. If want to have something done for me I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it.

Previous generations might have said the same thing about Ableton itself, vs playing a physical instrument. In that regard, AI might become just another power tool for creative expression.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#15

Post by ssalka »

Things I would use AI for in music production:

1. Generating track layouts (add tracks + empty audio/midi clips throughout)

2. Generating MIDI sequences

3. Generating Serum patches

4. Extracting stems from existing audio

5. Automating common workflows (eg sidechaining)

6. Semantic search of sample library

That being said, I don't think I want a full agentic workflow for vibe-producing. Point solutions seems like a better fit for me, personally.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#16

Post by xrd »

Does anyone know of other MCP servers for similar music creative tools? I'm interested in things like sonic-pi, strudel.cc and orcas. But very open to anything. I think there is a good opportunity for kids to learn using these tools, especially if I can wire it into my mycroft.ai/neon device.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#18

Post by jrm4 »

windowliker wrote: post #8

For me, the point of making music is making it myself. If want to have something done for me I could just play someone else's record and pretend like I made it.

I get why people make gut statements like this, and to me something does feel different about AI.

But I realize I have not seen any criticisms of AI generated music that are meaningfully different from criticisms I've heard of other advances/changes in music technology, whether performance or recording.

Sampling, scratching, drum machines, autotune, electric guitars even.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#19

Post by dmje »

ssalka wrote: post #15

Things I would use AI for in music production: 1. Generating track layouts (add tracks + empty audio/midi clips throughout) 2. Generating MIDI sequences 3. Generating Serum patches 4. Extracting stems from existing audio 5. Automating common workflows (eg sidechaining) 6. Semantic search of sample library That being said, I don't think I want a full agentic workflow for vibe-producing. Point solutions seems like a be…

I’ve had some fun building simple instruments in the browser using AI and piping midi to Live, then munging from there [0]. The whole principle of fully AI generated music leaves me cold but AI as a sort of sidechain to the creative process seems potentially interesting.

[0] https://variousbits.net/2026/02/22/building-generative-music...

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#20

Post by corysama »

ssalka wrote: post #15

Things I would use AI for in music production: 1. Generating track layouts (add tracks + empty audio/midi clips throughout) 2. Generating MIDI sequences 3. Generating Serum patches 4. Extracting stems from existing audio 5. Automating common workflows (eg sidechaining) 6. Semantic search of sample library That being said, I don't think I want a full agentic workflow for vibe-producing. Point solutions seems like a be…

Generating MIDI sequences

https://www.muse.art/home

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