TouchDesigner and Ableton - A Beginners Guide to TDAbleton

Written By Viraj Mistry

The brilliant thing about TDAbleton, is that you can do most, if not all of the cool things that you would do in Ableton, but in TouchDesigner, and a whole universe more in terms of visuals. Having the capability to work in Ableton whilst producing the visuals in TouchDesigner simultaneously is a game changer for audio-visual artists. 


Setting up the connection between the TouchDesigner and Ableton is easy, and the processing is seamless if you can get your CPU latency down, however if hardware is not your problem, then latency should be minimal. 


In this blog we will be taking our first glance at the TDAbletonPackage, how to get it all installed, set up, and then take peak under the hood of the engine to see what tools are available to us to tinker with our music projects and harness it’s audio-visual potential.


First let’s take a look at how to set up TDAbleton. If you have already set up and installed, click here to skip.

Link TouchDesigner To Ableton

STEP 1: Install TDAbleton


TDAbleton is the tool you’ll need that is crucial for making the connection between Ableton and Touchdesigner. You’ll need to download the correct version for your system requirements. Before doing this, open TouchDesigner, but make sure Ableton is closed!


  1. In TouchDesigner head up to the Help drop down menu, and click Browse Samples.

  2. A file explorer should pop up, go inside the TDAbleton folder, and locate the TouchDesigner folder. 

  3. In a separate file explorer, locate the MIDI Remote Scripts folder. Program data is hidden, so you’ll need to unhide this folder before finding it.  \ProgramData\Ableton\Live 11 Suite\Resources\MIDI Remote Scripts

  4. Now, copy the TouchDesigner folder into the MIDI Remote Scripts folder.


STEP 2: Link Ableton


  1. Open Ableton Live.

  2. Create a shortcut in the Places section on the left hand side of Ableton by dragging and dropping the TouchDesigner folder (the one you copied in MIDI Remote Scripts folder) into the Places section.

  3. Now when you select this new folder in Live, you should see the TDA MIDI.amxd and TDA Master.amxd devices in the browser (on the right).

  4. Open Ableton preferences (Ctrl + ,) on Windows or (Command + ,) on Mac.

  5. Select the Link/Tempo/Midi section on the left hand tab.

  6. Then in the MIDI section, select on one of your MIDI channels, you should see TouchDesigner in the drop down lists. Select this, with Input and Output set to None.

  7. Then restart Ableton Live.


STEP 3: Complete the Connection and Set Up.


  1. Now head back over to TouchDesigner, and in the Palette, click on TDAbleton and you’ll find the tdAbletonPackage.tox or tdAbletonPackageBeta.tox components. Drag this into your project. If there is an error then it is not connected to Live properly.


If Ableton Live and TouchDesigner are running on the same computer, no additional network setup is necessary. If they are running on different computers, you must set TouchDesigner to connect to Live's address. On the tdAbletonPackage/tdAbleton Component, set the Ableton Address parameter to the network address of the computer running Ableton Live


Inside tdAbletonPackage


Now we are going to take a look under the hood of tdAbletonPackage to get ourselves familiar with the engine of how this Touchdesigner and Ableton connection really works, and what built-in tools are available at our disposal. 


First select the dual pane so we can work inside and out of the component. Then select the tdAbletonPackage then press ‘I’, to jump inside the component.


Inside you will find a range of Base Components that’ll give you all the essential tools to get started. Base components are generally used to contain other nodes inside them.


These will be just quick overviews, just to touch base on each of the components to get an idea of what we are looking at inside the tdAbletonPackage.


tdAbleton


The first component you will see is a Base Component called tdAbleton. This component has a lot of the set up information, for example if you want to switch to an older version of Ableton Live, you can do this in Utilities. If for instance your tdAbleton component is showing a red x, this means something has been disconnected. You can solve this by going on the TDAbleton tab in the tdAbleton base component, and toggle On in the Connect section. Also whilst you are here you can find the Ableton Port and Max Port, this should correspond with the same numbers in you Ableton Master track, the TD Song should be showing the same Ableton Port and Max Port numbers. 


abletonSong


The abletonSong component is basically your master channel, as it will give you the highest level of control for your track. Hence you have such master controls as stop, start, record and even do tempo changes that real time manipulate your Ableton track. You can even activate the loop function by setting the start and length, which will result in the loop length in Ableton’s arrangement view being set to whatever you like.


We can quickly see the power of this Component in action by doing a quick Chop referencing. Notice on the abletonSong component there are some outputs on the right. Click on one of these outputs that says Output 1 (CHOP). We can select a Null Chop, and then rename it nullSong or whatever you want, then add Circle SOP anything really to manipulate. Then turn on ViewActive on the Null SOP, to then use a CHOP reference. The result is real-time audio-visuals directly from your Ableton project!



abletonTrack


This component allows you to have access to the tracks within Ableton, for example if you want to mute, solo, trigger and loop certain parts of the arrangement, you can do this here. It also has some clip functionality too, so if you are used to the Live session view, you can cue and trigger clips that you want to play in a certain order. 


abletonChain


This component allows us to make changes to the chain such as instruments in an instrument or drum rack. So if you have piano and need to switch to synth in your MIDI instrument rack, you can have control doing so with abletonChain.


abletonClipSlot

This component essentially allows you access the envelope data that the individual clips within Ableton hold. Using envelopes within Ableton allows you to nest parameters within the clip, for example pitch, time, duration, velocity and volume can be held within the envelope, almost like pre-production as opposed to doing it in post.


abletonDeviceParameters


This component will allow you to have read-only access to the parameters of any given device. You can then use the Parameter List to filter the device parameters if you don’t want all of them.


abletonParameter


This gives access to the automation and parameter controls that have been set in ableton, so if you want to ramp up the song the visuals to match this could be quite useful. 

abletonMIDI


This is probably going to be one your most used components, as it allows to harness all the input/output MIDI data and MIDI events happening in a clip, or whilst playing live. 

abletonLevel


This component gives more of an analytic look at the levels, and is when in rack mode it is extremely useful when performing spectrum analysis tasks.

abletonRack


This component allows for more accurate and faster OSC communication through TDA Rack (a Max for Live device). This tool also allows for better control through use of Macros, so we can imagine how powerful this can be if we have our Macros set to manipulate in an audio-visual set up. 

abletonMapper


Similar to the abletonRack, this also allows for more accurate and faster OSC communication, however it is best used for when sending a constantly changing value.

abletonValueListener


This component provides parameter access for creating listeners to anything in the Ableton Live Object Model. It allows for expressions to be created, objects to be selected and an OSC return address to be specified. 

abletonCOMP


This tool allows for a starting base to create your own TDAbleton Components, as it does nothing on its own. However this component is great to have as it allows us to maximize the potential for audio-visual control that we can add to our projects and the audio-visual community as a whole. 


Final Thoughts


TDAbleton is an incredibly powerful bridge between Ableton Live and TouchDesigner, unlocking a world of creative possibilities for audio-visual artists. By seamlessly integrating music production with real-time visuals, it provides an innovative workflow that enhances both performance and production. From linking the two software programs to exploring the various built-in components, TDAbleton offers unparalleled control over MIDI, automation, and live performance elements.

As we've taken our first look under the hood of the TDAbleton package, it's clear that this tool is only limited by creativity and experimentation. Whether you're manipulating tracks, triggering visuals in sync with your music, or diving deep into automation and OSC communication, the potential for immersive audio-visual experiences is immense.

Now that you have a foundational understanding of TDAbleton, the next step is to start experimenting and see how it can elevate your projects. Stay tuned for future deep dives into more advanced techniques and creative applications. Happy exploring!

Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date on future events and more interesting content.


Viraj Mistry
Next

A Beginners Guide to Feedback Loops - TouchDesigner Tutorial