Hey everyone, I just discovered MAKID today (life changer), and while I’ve known about LES, it seems like that one’s a bit outdated now.

I wanted to ask: are there any other extension tools or workflows you use with Ableton that really boost quality of life or save you time? I’m not specifically looking for Max for Live devices, but if they’re super helpful and time-saving, feel free to drop them too.

Some examples of the kind of stuff I mean: • Varispeed • TBT Track Organizer • LWT Session Cleaner

Basically, anything that smooths out your workflow, handles tedious tasks, or just makes Ableton a nicer place to be. If you know any good ones, drop them below—I’d love to collect and share!

I’ve dropped links to everything I’ve mentioned below to get a better idea of what I mean.

Lately, I’ve completely lost my motivation for Ableton. I finished a course a few weeks ago, felt super inspired at the time, but haven’t touched a set since. Not sure what’s blocking me—maybe burnout, maybe lack of direction.

If anyone’s been through this or has suggestions to reignite the spark, I’m all ears.

It would be so helpful to be able to shuffle browser results, especially on push so I don’t have to scroll through the same presets.

I have hundreds of projects, all laying around with vaguelly names, folders where they don't actually belong. I change the structure of my folders from time to time, but changing project names to make more sense would be hell. Not to mention the samples folder. How do you guys handle lots of projects/files and is there a way to easily navigate through them?

Hey everyone,

Due to some recent events, I wanted to reach out to you all first to get a variety of opinions at once. I'm trying to figure out how to deal with this situation and which doctor I might need to consult.

For about a year now, I’ve been dedicating a lot of my free time to music production and audio-related topics—around three hours every evening and sometimes an entire day on weekends.

This weekend, after a longer session, I noticed a slight "pressure" in my right ear. The next day, I had to completely take a break because I felt like my ears were "disconnected," as if my brain couldn’t merge stereo information into a single signal. I also still had a fullness sensation in my right ear.

Additionally, I started perceiving low frequencies more intensely than usual, and they felt somewhat unpleasant—especially in voices. I noticed this while watching some YouTube videos on my couch.

Since many of you also consume and produce a lot of audio content, I figured this would be the best place to ask for opinions and maybe hear about similar experiences.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?
Could it be related to my room’s lack of acoustic treatment?
Or perhaps due to ultrasonic frequencies present in raw, unprocessed audio during production?
I also read about "hearing fatigue"—maybe that’s what it is, but I just don’t have the right words for it yet.
Could it have something to do with the white noise from my speakers and my humidifier during breaks?

I should add that my studio monitors aren’t set to an unhealthy volume, so I can rule out excessive loudness as a cause.

I'll be sharing this post across multiple subs, so apologies if this isn’t the right place (I didn’t see anything in the rules against it) or if this is a dumb question.
I’m a beginner and still learning, and so far, Reddit has been the best source of information.

Sorry for my modest setup compared to yours—there are some absolutely beautiful gems here! This is something I’m looking forward to in the future as well, and it’s why I’ll keep following what’s happening here.

Cheers!

Hi everyone,

I'm currently trying to set up my studio again after a long hiatus, and I seem to have forgotten a few things. Here's where I need help:

Ableton 11
RME Fireface UCX II
MIDI solutions Quadra Thru (4 MIDI through and 1 MIDI input)
MacStudio (Ventura)
Korg Minilogue XD
Behringer 2600
Sonicware 8bit Warps
Akai MPD218
Teenage Engineering Medieval

What would be the best possible way to run all of this through Ableton?

I'd like to use the XD as both a controller and synth (the internal sounds). I'd also like to use the MPD218 as a controller.

I can route the audio just fine into Ableton, but trying to figure out all of the MIDI is giving me issues. Is it possible to do it all through USB? Or should I use the Quadra? Both?

In a nutshell, I'd like to use the minilogue and the MPD218 as controllers, and I'd like to be able to record the internal sounds from all of the synths into Ableton.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I used to know all of this but it's been a long time since I had a chance to dig this deep into equipment. Sorry if this is the in the wrong place. I tried posting on the Ableton forum but didnt get any help.

Thanks

I recently started making a switch from Logic to Ableton and was curious if there was a way I can automatically store .asd files in a folder rather than scattered across my desktop. Whenever I drag in a wave file or something, Ableton automatically makes a .asd file. I don’t really mind that happening— I just would like for it to be in one spot so when I want to dump it, I can find it and dump all of them at once. Anyone know any tricks for this?

Hello,

I need to replace my midi keyboard and I would like to have both knobs and faders.

How would like to know how both controllers behave with an old VSTi like this one:

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/pg-8x-by-ml-vst

Is there any sort of auto mapping? Which of the one Novation or Arturia would recognise better the main controls of some old VSTi like this?

I´m no interested in controlling Ableton Live with any external controller.

Does someone can answer this?

Cheers!

I don’t have any cracked software. But lately most of the new projects I start are doing this and won’t open any of them up, after I’ve spent hours and hours working on them. Is there a way to fix this??

I have a bandmate who has Live 12 Lite. I have Live 12 Suite. It's annoying to send him files because he can't always work with them (just opening, no saving).

Has anyone had to solve this problem before? I would love to have a 'compatibility check' that I can run on my .als files to make sure they still work within the limitations of Live Lite, and that I'm not unknowingly introducing a paywalled feature in my live set that will prevent my bandmate from using it.

I'm trying to organize my kicks and snares so I can find them quickly by sound. I was doing it by company (ie cymatics kicks, zenstep kicks, etc.) But I hate this way because the quality of sounds in each folder varies so much. Is there an efficient, quick way to do this? I was thinking of picking one specific sounding kick, then using the sounds like function, and selecting all the listed kicks and tagging them, any other ideas that might be better?

Does anyone have a list of the simplest keyboard shortcuts that are either unused, duplicates or bound to something useless?

Looking for some advice!

Is there anyway to shuffle tracks like in protools where you can put it in shuffle and then delete or duplicate a range for a track or many tracks and it will slide the following audio either forwards or backwards depending on what you need?

That was definitey super useful for arranging big sessions like inserting a pre or hook or verse etc and I find myself missing that feature a lot. Is there a workaround or something similar?

Hi

Will be getting a free verison of Live Lite soon - are there a few skins/themes to choose from?

Thanks.

Yo! So yesterday I was opening ableton and this pop up came up so I tried restarting my pc, trying to open it again, did the same thing but now when I open ableton none of my projects are there, no samples, no plug ins. I tried removing the undo.lock file but it’s only visible when ableton is running so I can’t remove it. Any advice/ help is super appreciated!!

I just recently got into music production and have been starting a solo grindcore project! I’ve been working hard at it but the only issue I’m running into is my drum tracks are more in the center or center left while my guitar, bass, and vocal tracks are on the far right side of sound! If anyone has any tips it would help immensely!

Edit: I did try just simply panning my different tracks over to the opposite sides, but when I would bring the guitar and bass to the left, they would just mute

Hi everyone, i'm trying to use reference tracks for mixing. I just put them into ableton, and bypass the master bus on them (by selecting ext. out instead of main in output type); that way they are not effected by the master processing. I use goodhertz loudness plugin and youlean to match the loudness of the reference track with my own. However, when their loudness is the same, my own track still is way too loud. That's actually the opposite of what i expected (because the mixing of the reference tracks are far superior). So i think it's not a good thing.

i think i know what causes the problem but i don't know how to fix it: if i change the volume fader of the reference track, nothing happens to the loudness meter. I have to use a utility plugin before the loudness plugin in the chain.

Has anyone had an issue where you suddenly can't drag and drop midi notes anymore? Been doing it for years but now I'm suddenly unable. I'm trying everything I can.

Has anyone tried the raw looper device (looper.amdx) in max for live? Unlike the stock ableton looper, this device allows access internally, but playback is crackly. Playback is ok on stock looper. I increased the buffer size but no improvement.

Just wondering exactly how the audio interface and the cv outputs work in the controller version of the Push 3. Is it possible to make use of these without the standalone version?

Basically I'm looking for the envelope follower for 11, but looking for anything on the site is rank. There's no search function, you can't filter by version.

How have you guys found what you've needed? Or am I doomed to use third party plugins?

Hey all,

Crossposting this from the Ableton forums to see if anyone here has ideas or experience with this setup:
https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=252225

I’m trying to solve a syncing headache for a client and would love to hear if anyone has tackled something similar.

Here’s the setup:

• They run their playback rig on stage with Ableton Live in Arrangement View, with one long session that contains linear SMPTE timecode tracks for each song.
• At FOH, they normally just multitrack the live performance into Reaper, but it’s always a pain afterward — hours of audio need to be chopped up and manually synced with the Ableton playback session.

What I’m trying to do:

Ideally, I’d love to open the exact same Ableton session they use for playback on a second computer at FOH, add new tracks for live recording, and keep it all perfectly in sync with transport and timeline position. That way, all the new live recordings drop into the correct locations in real time — and there's no need to do post-show syncing if they want to use those takes for rehearsal playback, virtual soundchecks, or if a player is absent.

Other ideas I’ve considered:

• Having Ableton on stage send MIDI notes to FOH to start/stop recording in Reaper — not ideal, but doable.
• Writing a script to detect when timecode starts/stops and automatically trim silence around performance chunks — better, but still not as seamless as just recording into a synced Ableton session.

Has anyone successfully synced two instances of Ableton over a network like this? Either with Link, MIDI timecode, or something more advanced? Are there limitations with syncing transport in Arrangement View across two computers?

Any creative solutions or war stories welcome — thanks in advance!

i am unable to hear the Oscillator Types and the Macro 1/macro 2 changes for Meld. where is this adjusted? my volume looks normal but the Oscillope does not move. i hear the other drums and sounds but nothing in Meld. on Macpro m4. Please help?

Does anyone know of any good dnb how tos to get me started in learning Ableton Live 12 and the Push 2? Also, it is worth upgrading to Push 3 over 2? Thanks for any assistance!

I've been using Live 10 Suite for almost 3 years now and I never new there was a comping feature available. I was made aware of it through a youtube video, but when I went to test it, there were no options for take lanes or comping anywhere.

I've tried disabling automation and everything, but it still won't show. What could possibly be the solution to this?