r/ableton 13h ago

[Max for Live] Knobbler's core features are now free on iOS and Android

61 Upvotes

Greetings Abetonians --

First off -- Knobbler is an app for iOS and Android that pairs with a Max for Live device to give you multitouch hands-on control of device parameters, the mixer, and your clips from your tablet or phone over WiFi. Control Live from your vocal booth or drum throne, or jam with friends with its multiplayer capability.

Now for the news - I shipped two big updates in Knobbler land this week.

  1. The Android version of the app is now free to download. It started out as a paid app due to shortcomings of the Play Store, but I've worked around them. Search for Knobbler in the Play Store and give it a spin, with 30 days of access to all features.
  2. Both iOS and Android now let you use the Knobbler pages (32 assignable, auto-labeling, auto-coloring multitouch faders) and the Bluhand page (all parameters of the currently selected device or rack with support for Variations) after the 30 day trial period is up. Previously, the whole app was paywalled. These were the first features I shipped in Knobbler 4 years ago, and to me they are the most important.

All of the app features, including Mixer (smooth scrolling, all tracks/groups/sends and crossfader), Clips (record, rename, recolor, launch), and Session (mixture of Clips and Mixer page) are available during the 30 day trial. After that, it's a one-time purchase ($20) or subscription ($10/yr or $1/mo) to continue using all the features.

Search for Knobbler in the App Store or Play Store and check it out for free. It works on iOS and Android phones and tablets, Windows or Mac. Requires Live 12.4 or newer, and since it pairs with a Max for Live device it needs Suite or Standard+M4L. It also works great with Push 3 Standalone.

Full feature walkthrough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRUngy4AaFM

I'm happy to answer any questions about it!

The r/ableton community here has been instrumental in helping to shape the app over the last couple of years, and I'm grateful to all who have commented or emailed me their feedback and ideas ([zack@steinkamp.us](mailto:zack@steinkamp.us)). This is how software gets better! 🫶🫶🫶 Now go make some music!


r/ableton 20h ago

[Tutorial] Free 5 week coaching course for beginners.

26 Upvotes

As of now, I am opening two more slots for Ableton beginners who want to go from absolute scratch to a finished song.

This is a completely pro bono offer where we sit together in a call once a week (1.5 Hours), where the goal is to give you a solid foundation for your production journey.

As you might expect, this is a very intensive course where you learn a specific topic each week. At the same time we will be working on your first song, where I give you feedback and best practice tips along the way.

If you're up for the challenge and ready to commit, I want to hear from you!

This offer concerns Ableton Live Lite, Standard and Suite, Version 9 to 12.

Send me a DM and let's see if we're a fit!

Cheers


r/ableton 17h ago

[News] I built moving waveforms and DJ deck control for Ableton Live. Free open beta through Oct 15, looking for feedback and just sharing

12 Upvotes

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/vcSwwna Website with downloads and the manual: https://djwaveforms.com

I occasionally DJ with different software to have different experiences, an when I dj with Live I love the effects and complete tempo independence, but miss the nice big waveforms. People have been asking for this on the Ableton forum since 2007. The official answer- Serato x Ableton Bridge, was killed more than ten years ago from my understanding.

So I built it. DJ Waveforms is a desktop app (macOS and Windows) that connects to your running Live set through a MIDI Remote Script, the same way any control surface does, and turns it into a DJ rig. I started with just the waveforms mini app but it grew into the whole shebang and I think it's time to share:

  • side-by-side moving waveforms, beat-aligned to each clip's warp grid, coloured by frequency band with complete customization of how they look and presets
  • beat-exact play, cue, seek, beat jump, nudge and loops on every deck
  • mixer that automaps to your racks or plugins controls, completely remappable and customizable, can be mapped to sends, not just the effects on that channel
  • performance snapshots which remember the positions of all your knobs and allow to morph or jump from one state to another. One mapped button can turn any amount of knobs, quantized or instant, with quantized or instant release. You can go ham on effects, take them anywhere you want and then instantly return back to normal. I was heavily inspired by the Neuzeit Drop midi controller and since I have one- they compliment each other really well, that's how I play
  • customizable number of decks and knobs and panel sizes
  • mini-track overview that is used for jumping anywhere in the track, quantized or not
  • hot cues with names and colours (also reads the Serato cues already in your file tags)
  • a beatgrid editor, and one-pass prep: drop an unwarped file on a deck and it gets analyzed, warped and gridded (most of the times lol). Manual gridding is simplified and quick, but might not work great on the complex tracks witch tempo changes, so Ableton's default warping tool might be better for those cases
  • a library of the tracks in your set with key, BPM and energy from your tags, or detected from the audio when there is no tag, filtering, sorting, secondary sorting, comments and more, all stored in a local library and not overwriting your track's metadata in the files
  • auto gain
  • MIDI mapping for any controller with a learn mode, keyboard shortcuts
  • and more!

I tried recording a demo video I would be happy with and kept failing (framerates, colours, mixing on camera...), but I hope screenshots are self-explanatory.

I have only ran it on my own windows laptop and a mac on the latest Live version and played some sets with it- worked great for me. Before I take anyone's money for it I want the community to play with it on different hardware, other Live versions and editions, Windows audio setups, controllers I do not own etc.

The current build is a free open beta through Oct 15, 2026. The full app, no trial pauses, no signup, no account, no telemetry. When it switches to paid ($79 one-time, $59 at launch), the beta build reverts to a free trial that pauses playback briefly every 15 minutes.

The Windows build is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen will warn you; click "More info", then "Run anyway" and anyone with a DJ controller.

Requirements: Ableton Live 11 or 12 (I run 12 Suite, every other edition is exactly what I need tested), macOS 11+ or Windows 10/11. Download at djwaveforms.com. I am not affiliated with Ableton.

I will try to answer everything in the comments, technical or otherwise.


r/ableton 18h ago

[News] Ableton has released Beta Version 12.4.15b1

10 Upvotes

Ableton has release Live beta version 12.4.15b1 Lots of bug fixes. This one was noteable:

"Fixed a bug that could cause Live to hang when rendering, bouncing, or consolidating in Sets with many audio tracks and audio clips in the Beats Warp Mode with the Transients Granular Resolution."

Release notes here: https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/live-12-beta/


r/ableton 20h ago

[Question] Push 3 multi sample piano

6 Upvotes

Hi,

Does anybody know if there are any multi sampled piano packs available that will be compatible with push 3 in standalone mode?

Or loadable in Ableton only plugins / no vsts


r/ableton 10h ago

[Tutorial] SMC-Mixer recognized as SMK25 in Midi Suite — duplicate USB MIDI ID/ghost ports conflict in Ableton Live. Any fix?

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I'm having an issue trying to use two different M-Wave MIDI controllers (SMC-Mixer and SMK-25) simultaneously in Ableton Live 12 on Windows.

Here is the problem:

  1. When both are connected via USB, the Midi Suite app (v1.12.0) incorrectly identifies both controllers as "SMK25" (it reads the SMC-Mixer as an SMK-25).
  2. Because the SMC-Mixer is reporting the wrong Product ID / Firmware identity to Windows, the OS creates duplicate ghost ports like SMK25, SMK25 #2, SMK25 (Port 2), SMK25 #2 (Port 2).
  3. In Ableton Live, selecting one controller grays out/disables the other because the DAW treats them as conflicting duplicate ports.

What I’ve already tested:

  • Connected both directly to different laptop USB ports (bypassing the USB hub entirely).
  • Performed a deep clean of hidden/ghost MIDI drivers in Windows Device Manager (devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1).
  • Sent a support request to SincoAudio / M-Wave regarding a firmware update/fix.

Has anyone experienced an M-Wave device (like the SMC-Mixer) flashing/reporting the wrong device ID? Is there any tool to rewrite the firmware identity or force Windows/Ableton to assign independent drivers?

Thanks for any insights!

https://imgur.com/a/xG0F9bj


r/ableton 6h ago

[Question] Ableton help

2 Upvotes

Hey all, I’m using Ableton, running into a weird issue. When I create a MIDI clip and draw in four bars, only the first two show up in Arrangement View. No matter how far I extend the clip, anything past bar 2 doesn’t appear in the arrangement. I’ve checked the loop brace, clip length, and tried dragging it manually, but it just won’t reflect past two bars. Is there a setting in Ableton I’m overlooking, or is this a bug? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


r/ableton 15h ago

[Question] Buffering when trying to import stems

2 Upvotes

I have long stems from a recording project. When I try to drag and drop them in a file it just buffers forever My computer is old and I’m due for an upgrade in processing power. In the meantime is there anything else that can be done?


r/ableton 13h ago

[Hardware] Does this Midi inteface exist?

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/ableton 3h ago

[Performance] Need guidance in MacBook purchase

0 Upvotes

I thinking of upgrading my current 2016 windows laptop to a MacBook,
I mostly use serum for synth and have like a total of 40 -50 tracks in my project
I have two options but a used m2 MacBook Pro or get a new MacBook Air m4 or m5 if budget prevails,
What should I do?


r/ableton 23h ago

[Question] Can't get sound from a midi track after an hour of trying.... Video links provided

0 Upvotes

I'm fairly new to Ableton and I was learning how to manipulate envelopes like pitch bend and modulation. After making some changes to the pitch Bend I tried to go back to edit the MIDI data and notes, made a few changes then was unable to hear the track no matter what I did. I made sure it wasn't playing in session and I'm at a loss at this point as to how to hear the track. I could delete and record it again in a new track but I want to know what I did wrong.

If I solo the track and play the track directly from the midi editor I can actually hear the track. ​​​​

I appreciate any help. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Paying song, no sound from track.

Able to hear track from midi editor.


r/ableton 10h ago

[Question] Does anyone use a MAC ULTRA Chip?

0 Upvotes

As the title states, does anyone here use a MAC with a silicone series Ultra chip? I’m looking at running some local AI LLM’s while also using the same Mac Studio for producing. I was curious if you are able to get low buffer sizes of 32 or 64 sample sizes with no issues. When asking the AI algo’s they all sugggest getting a single chip architecture. I’m genuinely curious if anyone uses an ultra, and if so, have you run into any problems? Thank you in advance for your input!


r/ableton 22h ago

[Question] Courses or YouTube?

0 Upvotes

I am ridiculously eager to get going in the production scene. I’m only 18 so got bags of time. I’ve developed myself into a good DJ over the last year purely by listening to sets.

Anyway, I now want to get into producing and have seen mixed feedback on paid courses and YouTube videos, and was wondering are courses such as syntho actually worth it? I’m looking to get into uk garage, tech house production if anyone has any other pointers?

One thing I will say is that I learn in a strange way, I learn best when I’m able to ask questions and get live feedback, purely just reading from a book or following along is something that doesn’t bide well with my brain.

Thanks!