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
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.
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.
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.
> Ever wanted to control Ableton with just your voice?
Never.
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.
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...
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.
> should be a real edm banger
I'm afraid Codex ignored that one.
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
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
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If you’ve gone to the trouble of setting up Ableton MCP, you’ve already worked harder than Suno requires to make a banger
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.