Show HN: Ableton Live MCP

116 points - last Sunday at 6:05 PM


Ever wanted to control Ableton with just your voice? Me too! I made this MCP server so I could just ask Codex to do anything in Ableton Live for me, while I was nap-trapped by my baby.

The chat messages I sent to Codex to make this:

in ableton, make a self reflective song, with audio vocals (via macos say) and chip tunes and 80's drum machines. should be a real edm banger

i want midi for everything but vocals please, with ableton devices. not prerendered audio for instruments

needs some fills

and should hit way harder after "3-2-1 i become the sound"

the vocals are squished too much (read too quickly), give them a little more length

add some dynamics, the song is basically one volume. and some pumping side chain

improve dynamics of the clap, seems a bit flat and indistinguished, want it harder after the 3-2-1 drop

introduce a new element on a new track after the 3-2-1 drop, that comes in but then recedes before the final exit

doesn't seem like the new thing has any notes

the element is a bit muddy/indistinct. perhaps it needs simplification and more space, different instrument choice, i dunno

Source

Comments

ssalka last Sunday at 9:03 PM
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.

bbrwx yesterday at 11:23 AM
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.

breakall last Sunday at 9:58 PM
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.
wartywhoa23 last Sunday at 7:22 PM
> Ever wanted to control Ableton with just your voice?

Never.

windowliker last Sunday at 7:59 PM
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.
deng last Sunday at 7:54 PM
> should be a real edm banger

I'm afraid Codex ignored that one.

jhurliman last Sunday at 9:21 PM
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

bel8 yesterday at 3:57 PM
This is really cool!

This kind of automation will allow impaired people to have access to a whole new world of creation. Blind and motor impaired comes to mind.

tim-projects yesterday at 10:15 AM
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.

PaulDavisThe1st last Sunday at 10:44 PM
MCP for Ardour was added more than a month ago, thanks to contributor zabooma:

https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/commit/d582a0b042a68ccb22c0...

xrd last Sunday at 9:03 PM
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.
deleted last Sunday at 6:05 PM
netics01 yesterday at 6:28 PM
Thank you for sharing!
shinydapps today at 1:28 PM
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ktbwrestler last Sunday at 10:28 PM
this is awesome. Does anyone recommend one for Logic Pro X? I see a few in the wild but would love to help support if anyone is tinkering with one
rlupi yesterday at 7:02 AM
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
maxbendick yesterday at 4:56 PM
Careful you don't fuck up your hearing with an fx chain mistake.
markalby last Sunday at 7:36 PM
is this using M4L or the LOM ?
hiayygo today at 8:10 AM
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aayushkumar121 today at 5:04 AM
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deleted last Sunday at 6:24 PM
eleion_ai yesterday at 5:58 PM
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Daniel_Visovsky yesterday at 8:46 PM
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m_ramdhan last Sunday at 8:34 PM
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robotswantdata last Sunday at 8:27 PM
If you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up Ableton MCP, you’ve already worked harder than Suno requires to make a banger