judahzf / abletonosc

In-development MIDI remote script to control Ableton Live 11+ via OSC

AbletonOSC: Control Ableton Live 11+ with OSC

AbletonOSC is a MIDI remote script that provides an Open Sound Control (OSC) interface to control Ableton Live 11+. Building on ideas from the older LiveOSC scripts, its aim is to expose the entire Live Object Model API, providing comprehensive control over Live's control interfaces using the same naming structure and object hierarchy as LOM.

It is currently (2022-10-09) a work-in-progress, exposing a few initial APIs.

Installation

To install the script:

• Clone this repo, or download/unzip and rename AbletonOSC-master to AbletonOSC
• Move the AbletonOSC folder to the MIDI Remote Scripts folder inside the Ableton application: /Applications/Ableton Live*.app/Contents/App-Resources/MIDI Remote Scripts
• Restart Live
• In Preferences > MIDI, add the new AbletonOSC Control Surface that should appear. Live should display a message saying "AbletonOSC: Listening for OSC on port 11000"
• On macOS, an activity log will be created at /tmp/abletonosc.log

Usage

AbletonOSC listens for OSC messages on port 11000, and sends replies on port 11001.

Application API

Address	Query params	Response params	Description	Implemented
/live/test		'ok'	Display a confirmation message in Live, and sends an OSC reply to /live/test	✔️
/live/application/get/version		major_version, minor_version	Query Live's version	✔️

Application status messages

These messages are sent to the client automatically when the application state changes.

Address	Response params	Description
/live/startup		Sent to the client application when AbletonOSC is started

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Song API

Address	Query params	Response params	Description
/live/song/start_playing			Start session playback
/live/song/stop_playing			Stop session playback
/live/song/continue_playing			Resume session playback
/live/song/stop_all_clips			Stop all clips from playing
/live/song/create_audio_track	index		Create a new audio track at the specified index (-1 = end of list)
/live/song/create_midi_track	index		Create a new MIDI track at the specified index (-1 = end of list)
/live/song/create_return_track	index		Create a new return track at the specified index (-1 = end of list)
/live/song/get/num_scenes		num_scenes	Query the number of scenes
/live/song/get/num_tracks		num_tracks	Query the number of tracks
/live/song/create_scene	index		Create a new scene at the specified index (-1 = end of list)
/live/song/delete_scene	scene_index		Delete a scene
/live/song/delete_return_track	track_index		Delete a return track
/live/song/delete_track	track_index		Delete a track
/live/song/get/is_playing		is_playing	Query whether the song is currently playing
/live/song/start_listen/is_playing			Start a listener that sends a message to /live/song/get/is_playing when is_playing changes
/live/song/stop_listen/is_playing			Stop the above listener
/live/song/get/tempo		tempo_bpm	Query song tempo
/live/song/set/tempo	tempo_bpm		Set song tempo
/live/song/start_listen/tempo			Start a listener that sends a to /live/song/get/tempo tempo changes
/live/song/stop_listen/tempo			Stop the above listener
/live/song/get/metronome		metronome_on	Query metronome on/off
/live/song/set/metronome	metronome_on		Set metronome on/off
/live/song/start_listen/metronome			Start a listener that sends a message to /live/song/get/metronome when metronome changes
/live/song/stop_listen/metronome			Stop the above listener

Additional properties are exposed to get, set, start_listen and stop_listen in the same manner:

• arrangement_overdub, back_to_arranger, clip_trigger_quantization, current_song_time, groove_amount, loop , loop_length, loop_start, midi_recording_quantization, nudge_down, nudge_up, punch_in, punch_out , record_mode

For further information on these properties and their parameters, see documentation for Live Object Model - Song.

Song status messages

These messages are sent to the client automatically when the song state changes.

Address	Response params	Description
/live/song/beat	beat_number	Sent to the client application on each beat when the song is playing

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Track API

Address	Query params	Response params	Description
/live/track/stop_all_clips	track_id		Stop all clips on track
/live/track/get/color	track_id	color	Query track color
/live/track/set/color	track_id, color		Set track color
/live/track/get/mute	track_id	mute	Query track mute on/off
/live/track/set/mute	track_id, mute		Set track mute on/off
/live/track/get/solo	track_id	solo	Query track solo on/off
/live/track/set/solo	track_id, solo		Set track solo on/off
/live/track/get/name	track_id	name	Query track name
/live/track/set/name	track_id, name		Set track name
/live/track/get/volume	track_id	volume	Query track volume
/live/track/set/volume	track_id, volume		Set track volume
/live/track/get/panning	track_id	panning	Query track panning
/live/track/set/panning	track_id, panning		Set track panning
/live/track/get/send	track_id, send_id	value	Query track send
/live/track/set/send	track_id, send_id, value		Set track send
/live/track/get/clips/name	track_id	[name, ....]	Query all clip names on track
/live/track/get/clips/length	track_id	[length, ...]	Query all clip lengths on track
/live/track/get/num_devices	track_id	num_devices	Query the number of devices on the track
/live/track/get/devices/name	track_id	[name, ...]	Query all device names on track
/live/track/get/devices/type	track_id	[type, ...]	Query all devices types on track
/live/track/get/devices/class_name	track_id	[class, ...]	Query all device class names on track

See Device API for details on type/class_name.

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Clip Slot API

Address	Query params	Response params	Description
/live/clip_slot/create_clip	track_id, clip_id, length		Create a clip in the slot
/live/clip_slot/delete_clip	track_id, clip_id		Delete the clip in the slot
/live/clip_slot/get/has_clip	track_id, clip_id		Query whether the slot has a clip
/live/clip_slot/get/has_stop_button	track_id, clip_id	has_stop_button	Query whether the slot has a stop button
/live/clip_slot/set/has_stop_button	track_id, clip_id, has_stop_button		Add or remove stop button

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Clip API

Address	Query params	Response params	Description
/live/clip/fire	track_id, clip_id		Start clip playback
/live/clip/stop	track_id, clip_id		Stop clip playback
/live/clip/add_new_note	track_id, clip_id, pitch, start_time, duration, velocity, mute		Add a new MIDI note to a clip. pitch is MIDI note index, start_time and duration are floats in beats, velocity is MIDI velocity index, mute is on/off
/live/clip/get/color	track_id, clip_id	color	Get clip color
/live/clip/set/color	track_id, clip_id, color		Set clip color
/live/clip/get/name	track_id, clip_id	name	Get clip name
/live/clip/set/name	track_id, clip_id, name		Set clip name
/live/clip/get/gain	track_id, clip_id	gain	Get clip gain
/live/clip/set/gain	track_id, clip_id, gain		Set clip gain
/live/clip/get/pitch_coarse	track_id, clip_id	semitones	Get clip coarse re-pitch
/live/clip/set/pitch_coarse	track_id, clip_id, semitones		Set clip coarse re-pitch
/live/clip/get/pitch_fine	track_id, clip_id	cents	Get clip fine re-pitch
/live/clip/set/pitch_fine	track_id, clip_id, cents		Set clip fine re-pitch
/live/clip/get/file_path	track_id, clip_id	file_path	Get clip file path
/live/clip/get/is_audio_clip	track_id, clip_id	is_audio_clip	Query whether clip is audio
/live/clip/get/is_midi_clip	track_id, clip_id	is_midi_clip	Query whether clip is MIDI
/live/clip/get/is_playing	track_id, clip_id	is_playing	Query whether clip is playing
/live/clip/get/is_recording	track_id, clip_id	is_recording	Query whether clip is recording

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Device API

Address	Query params	Response params	Description
/live/device/get/name	track_id, device_id		Get device name
/live/device/get/class_name	track_id, device_id		Get device class_name
/live/device/get/type	track_id, device_id		Get device type
/live/device/get/num_parameters	track_id, device_id	num_parameters	Get the number of parameters exposed by the device
/live/device/get/parameters/name	track_id, device_id	[name, ...]	Get the list of parameter names exposed by the device
/live/device/get/parameters/value	track_id, device_id	[value, ...]	Get the device parameter values
/live/device/get/parameters/min	track_id, device_id	[value, ...]	Get the device parameter minimum values
/live/device/get/parameters/max	track_id, device_id	[value, ...]	Get the device parameter maximum values
/live/device/set/parameters/value	track_id, device_id, value, value ...		Set the device parameter values
/live/device/get/parameter/value	track_id, device_id, parameter_id	value	Get a device parameter value
/live/device/set/parameter/value	track_id, device_id, parameter_id, value		Set a device parameter value

For devices:

• name is the human-readable name
• type is 0 = audio_effect, 1 = instrument, 2 = midi_effect
• class_name is the Live instrument/effect name, e.g. Operator, Reverb. For external plugins and racks, can be AuPluginDevice, PluginDevice, InstrumentGroupDevice...

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Stu Fisher (and other authors) for LiveOSC, the spiritual predecessor to this library. Thanks to Julien Bayle and NSUSpray for providing XML API docs, based on original work by Hans Petrov.