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.
Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
21–30 of 92 posts
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#22For 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 will caveat my first comment by also noting that I am well versed in computer music history, and read many many papers in CMJ[1] and elsewhere about generative and automatic composition tools such as Emily Howell[2]. I do NOT have a problem with generative, algorithmic and automatic composition in this sense, as an extension of the creative intentions of the human composer, in the right context. See also Autechre[3] for what can be done with Markov chains and good taste. What we are discussing here is the musical equivalent of a dishwasher.
[1] http://www.computermusicjournal.org/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cope#Emily_Howell
Addendum: I would highly recommend the Margaret Boden book referenced in the wiki on David Cope/Emily Howell, which is an absolutely fascinating read and was incredibly far-sighted in its enquiries on this topic.
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#23For 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.
Agree to some extent. At some point though we jump the thin line between creative expression and… magic?
Like if at some point I can just say “Generate a song similar to Smooth Criminal, different enough to not trigger copyright claims” and it just works, and everyone loves it… well is that creative thinking?
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#24> Ever wanted to control Ableton with just your voice? Never.
I guess the guidelines don't apply to you, as long as you disagree vehemently enough with the OP's basic intent.
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#25For 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 will caveat my first comment by also noting that I am well versed in computer music history, and read many many papers in CMJ[1] and elsewhere about generative and automatic composition tools such as Emily Howell[2]. I do NOT have a problem with generative, algorithmic and automatic composition in this sense, as an extension of the creative intentions of the human composer, in the right context. See also Autechre[3…
Can I ask what the specific markers / qualifiers are for you to consider (let's call them) 'classical' generative and algorithmic techniques fair game in creative composition, but LLM agent based techniques not so?
To me, it seems like the "do it for me" aspect is similar, just at different levels of abstraction.
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#26If 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.
The Matrix wants everything solved, doesn't it?
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#27Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#28If 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.
Solved !== Good
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#29Yes! 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.
Re: Show HN: Ableton Live MCP
#30For 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.
Well in "traditional" music production every individual component of a song has the creative intent of the artist in it. With AI you have no idea if there is any intent or if its just something an LLM spat out.
If all you care about is the raw sound file created and you don't care about the connection you might feel with the artist behind it then maybe intent isn't relevant to you.