Ableton Live Integration
Signals & Sorcery exports any scene you generate straight into Ableton Live's Session view. Each layer arrives as audio and editable MIDI, at the right tempo. One click in S&S, one right-click in Live. No file wrangling, no choosing folders, nothing to install by hand.
What you get
When you send a scene, it appears as a row of clips in Session view:
| S&S layer | In Ableton |
|---|---|
| Drums / Instruments / Synths | a rendered audio clip and a MIDI clip (no instrument; drop your own) |
| Loops / Stems | a rendered audio clip |
The audio is S&S's exact sound (mix-ready); the MIDI is the raw notes, so you can re-voice any part with your own instruments and racks. Export a single scene, or your whole project as one Session row per scene.
Requirements
- Ableton Live 12 Suite, beta build 12.4.5 or later; Ableton Extensions run only in the Suite beta. Join the Ableton beta »
- macOS (the integration is macOS-first today).
Setup: nothing to install by hand
S&S ships the Ableton extension and installs it for you. The first time you run S&S with Ableton present, it places the Import S&S scene extension into Live's extensions folder automatically: no files to copy, no folders to pick.
First time only
If Ableton was already running, quit and reopen it once so Live loads the extension. You can confirm it under Live → Settings → Extensions.
Use it
- In Signals & Sorcery, generate or open a scene, then click Export to Ableton: the ▦ button on a scene, or Project menu → Export to Ableton… to send every scene in the project at once. A progress bar shows the render; you never pick a save location.
- In Ableton, switch to Session view, right-click a scene (the launch buttons in the rightmost column) and choose Import S&S scene…
- If you've exported more than one scene, a "Choose scenes to import" window appears; tick the scenes you want (your newest export is pre-selected) and confirm. A single scene imports straight away, no picker.
- Each chosen scene materializes as its own Session row: tempo set, audio + MIDI clips ready to play, with each track's level and pan carried over from your S&S mix.
Re-importing is additive: scenes are appended as new rows, so an earlier import is never overwritten. Export the same scene again and it re-renders in place, ready to import fresh.
Where your exports live
You normally never need these paths, but if you want to find, open, or clean up your exports, Signals & Sorcery → Settings → File Locations lists them all (read-only, each with an Open button):
- Export Folder: where S&S stages each scene for Live to import.
- Extension Install Folder: where the Import S&S scene extension is installed.
- Clear Exports: a one-click button to delete staged export bundles once you've imported them into Live.
The same panel also shows your sample, loop, SurgeXT preset, and app-data folders.
Troubleshooting
- No "Import S&S scene…" in the menu? Restart Ableton once (the extension loads at launch), and confirm you're on Live 12 Suite beta 12.4.5+.
- "No S&S bundle found"? Click Export to Ableton in S&S first, then run the import in Live.
- Right-click where? On a scene in Session view (the launch buttons in the rightmost column), not on an empty clip slot.
- Picker shows an old scene? Every export you haven't cleared stays available to import. Tick only the scenes you want, or clear old bundles from Settings → File Locations → Clear Exports.
- Imported a scene twice? Re-import appends a new row rather than replacing the old one; delete the extra Session row in Live by hand.