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Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

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Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#61

I wish there was something like this for flstudio. I've got 25 years of loops that basically to finish them need better arrangements. Using AI to auto generate sections is what I'm missing.

> I've got 25 years of loops that basically to finish them need better arrangements

Welcome to the club. You need to learn how to actually finish a track, which is the most difficult but also the most rewarding part. Why would you use AI for that? I mean, just listen to that demo track Codex made in the above repo, you surely don't want that.

There's a good book about this, published by Ableton, you can read it for free here:

https://cdn-resources.ableton.com/resources/uploads/makingmu...

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#62
Interesting work and I’m really interested to see where this direction goes.

One question I keep coming back to is where tools like this MCP go beyond templating, like what I already use heavily in Ableton Live. In music production, many tasks are repetitive but not identical and that’s exactly where something like this can shine.

At the same time, music is widely seen as a "manual" craft. Every step in the chain from playing an instrument to a final music piece has both a technical and a creative side, and part of the process is staying curious and critical about what could be improved / done differently in the next project. That makes it an open question where automation actually adds value versus where it takes something away.

Where I’d personally love to see AI make a difference is in audio engineering / post processing, which also requires a lot of creativity beside a solid fundament of experience to really excel. There’s often a big gap between a great musical idea and a polished mix or master. If AI could help close that gap and contextually help to improve on things like tone, space, EQ, and loudness would be hugely valuable.

But the key for me is trust and transparency about modifications. I don’t want a black box that just makes things "better™." I’d want something that clearly explains its actions, like: "I've added an EQ to the piano on track 3 at 01:23 to open it up for the bridge so it sits better in the mix."

That kind of assistive, explainable approach would feel much more aligned with how people actually would be open for an assistant to create music.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#63
post #62

Interesting work and I’m really interested to see where this direction goes. One question I keep coming back to is where tools like this MCP go beyond templating, like what I already use heavily in Ableton Live. In music production, many tasks are repetitive but not identical and that’s exactly where something like this can shine. At the same time, music is widely seen as a "manual" craft. Every step in the chain fro…

Thank you, this gave me an interesting idea: while it can already set up a mastering chain for you, it is missing the full feedback loop of actually analyzing the processed audio signal. I think I'll add a small Max4Live device that enables the agent to probe the signal chain wherever it wants; from there it can write python to analyze the audio.

And yea, I kept the MCP general purpose so you can use it however you want. You can use it to simply ask questions about your live set; it can see the arrangement, see all the settings of all your devices, see all the MIDI, etc. I had it "fix a discordant sounding section" of one of my songs; it was like "oh yea tracks 3, 5, 6 all had some unfortunate notes colliding"

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#64
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…

Same here! I tried all of that, have 1, 2, and 5 working. So far it doesn't seem like Ableton's stem splitter or semantic search are programmatically accessible, but I didn't try very hard. I do have Serum so maybe I'll look into its file format; that does seem doable. The MCP already enables the agent to make patches for built-in Ableton devices.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#65

Yes! I want this for MainStage -- this would allow me to automate my weekly template setup for playing at my church. Each week before practicing I look up the songs in Planning Center and create a new MainStage concert file with one patch per song, and add notes to each patch screen with the song's key, etc. Automating this would save me the time of doing the busy work and get right to practicing.

Interesting use case! I'm not familiar with MainStage, but that workflow is possible with Ableton using this MCP. Codex itself can pull info from websites or other apps using its existing toolset and then push it into Ableton using this MCP.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#66
post #61

I wish there was something like this for flstudio. I've got 25 years of loops that basically to finish them need better arrangements. Using AI to auto generate sections is what I'm missing.

> I've got 25 years of loops that basically to finish them need better arrangements Welcome to the club. You need to learn how to actually finish a track, which is the most difficult but also the most rewarding part. Why would you use AI for that? I mean, just listen to that demo track Codex made in the above repo, you surely don't want that. There's a good book about this, published by Ableton, you can read it for f…

To be fair, the demo track was one of the first I had it make, and I didn't put much effort into it because I thought it was especially funny with the macos "say" command vocals.

It's a garbage-in, garbage-out situation. If you give it more musical direction you will get more out of it.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#67

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 agree! I made this mostly so I could stay in the flow more in Ableton without getting lost spinning knobs and pressing buttons. Although I do enjoy spinning knobs and pressing buttons.

With this I can keep my hands on my keyboard or guitar and direct Codex to make a quick backing track.

Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

#68

Very cool! I posted my own experiments in this area a few months back, which were an iteration on an existing Ableton MCP. It’s great to see more people experimenting in the spaces of interfacing with complex applications and music production. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46428922

Nice, the audio analysis M4L device is something I wanted to add next, as that would close the feedback loop and let the agent actually analyze its setup. Kind of like how giving agents screenshots of its UI work helps improve the UI.
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