Controlling Ableton with Code – my live-coding setup and light tutorial

I have spent the last three years learning to make music with code. This is a walkthrough of my setup, and how I control Ableton using a live-coding tool called TidalCycles.

I do not think this is by any means the best way to make music, it is just a way that I enjoy making music. A lot of my practice is improvisational, and this is a method that allows me to make electronic music on-the-fly with code.

Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
02:17 - Getting started with code
05:39 - Integrating with Ableton
10:23 - Improvisation & Explaination
16:55 - Why I do this

Links:

[teamcosmicseeds]

Dude, I'm so glad I found your music! Big inspiration to many! Especially to those whom suck at playing instruments! 🎶

[nerdsummit]

Hi Dan! Oh man this is just what I was looking for! (this is Rick)

[akacollier]

Very cool! And surprisingly musical, you've got those virtuoso coding chops!

[Jojnes]

Great tutorial Dan! I got to try this with FL Studio :)

[voltijuice]

Thank you, Dan! I am a noob and appreciate how you communicate your process.

[jenny]

Best live coding tutorial I’ve ever seen ! 3Q><

[firehandszarb]

this totally makes me want to get into tidal cycles.

[blankensmithing]

Yesss Dan, this is soo good! 10/10 would love to see more tutorials and experimentation like this 😄

[axiomcrux]

Very cool, seems like an interesting way to approach composing. though supercollider is cool I don't really know what benefits it has over my many various current tools. Cheers! :)

[freddylem]

Thanks a mil for this video, wonderful!

[PuzzledSean]

This is so cool!!! The explanations of building blocks piece by piece was really interesting and helpful, especially since we can hear it in real time, well done!!

[discoRyne]

Dope bangs, dope tutorial and walkthrough presentation. Thanks for sharing this -- a lot of fun to be had here!

[solidmoods]

Love what you do, really fresh approach

[nhestrompia]

I have seen tidal cycles from your video with Jason and got interested immediately. I play some instruments and was curious about your setup with Ableton. Like how do you connect tidal cycles-super collider to ableton and be able to use plugins/vsts within ableton via tidal cycles. Anyway love your work!

[EdoardoMarcora]

How do you define "kick", "snare" etc. to go to a specific MIDI channel/note in Ableton?

[sid]

Super cool! I'm learning Rust rn so the idea of making music with Rust cracks me up 😂

[mathismenrath]

Hello Dan, this was such an interesting video. Im livecoding for a while now and im also active in the Toplap Community.
Like the others in the comment, i dont get how you make ableton realize how you trigger the Drum Rack. Could you give further instructions to that topic?

[seanlivesnetwork]

I love that you are doing this Dan and you’re showing people how to do this. Question - you mention Tidal Cycles as a REPL framework. But is it possible to use it without the loop? I want to apply effects on a single set of notes and stop … then move on to another set of notes and different effects.

Is Tidal Cycles the best way to live code through Ableton if I am not looking to loop?

Thank you.

[alvaro.makes.music]

Love it, so inspiring! By the way, what are your laptop specs?

[marioganau]

Hi dan thanks for your video ! I was trying to set my ableton 11 with tidal. Are the instrument that you are using in your ableton tracks vst ? how you have to set super collider for to be able to recognize directly the vst inside ableton?