alt Hacker NewsShow HN: Ableton Live MCP
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
Comments
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.
> Ever wanted to control Ableton with just your voice?
Never.
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.
MCP for Ardour was added more than a month ago, thanks to contributor zabooma:
https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/commit/d582a0b042a68ccb22c0...
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
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.
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.
> should be a real edm banger
I'm afraid Codex ignored that one.
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
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
[flagged]
If you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up Ableton MCP, you’ve already worked harder than Suno requires to make a banger
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.