Ableton Forum

Hi everyone,

If you've ever tried to write or modify a MIDI Remote Script, you know the problem: the framework behind every hardware integration in Live has never had real documentation. You learn it by reading other people's scripts and guessing.

I've been trying to fix that

https://midiremotescripts.structure-void.com



Quick background: I was the first to decompile Live's MIDI Remote Scripts back in 2012, and I maintain the decompiled-sources repos some of you already use.

For anyone starting out:

• Your first script: where the script folders live on Mac/Windows, a minimal skeleton, activating it in Live, and reading Log.txt.

• From idea to working script: a full walkthrough building a real generic-controller script (8 encoders to the device, transport buttons, a clip-launch grid), with all the code explained.

• A cookbook of short, copy-pasteable recipes.

For the more experienced:

• The full Live Object Model for Live 9, 10, 11 and 12, side by side, in one place. Finally compare what changed across versions instead of guessing after an upgrade.

• The framework internals: ControlSurface lifecycle, the Component / Layer / Mode model, Controls & Elements, the full MIDI message flow (button press to Live and back to the LED), and v2 (_Framework) vs v3 (ableton.v3).

How it's built, for the curious: Live 12 is Python 3.11, which can't be reliably decompiled anymore (zero-cost exception tables, adaptive interpreter). But documentation doesn't need the source. A compiled Python object still keeps the whole API surface: class hierarchy, argument names, docstrings. So I read that straight from the bytecode, and capture the rest (defaults, the C-level Live module) by introspecting from inside Live at runtime.

Unofficial, not affiliated with Ableton. Feedback and corrections very welcome.

Happy scripting.

Hi everyone,

Companion to the docs post. Even once you understand the framework, writing a script from scratch is mostly boilerplate: you wire up CC and note numbers by hand, guess at the right element types, reload Live, read Log.txt, repeat. For a simple "8 encoders to the device, transport buttons, a few faders" controller, that loop eats an evening before anything moves.



So I built a generator that does the tedious part for you, entirely in the browser:

https://midiremotescripts.structure-void.com/generator/

What it does:

• Live signal detection: plug in your controller, move things, and it reads the incoming MIDI over WebMIDI. No looking up CC numbers, it captures them as you touch each control.
• Mapping by action: assign each control to an action, grouped by family (selected track, global transport, selected device). Faders, buttons, encoders.
• Device parameter banks: capture a bank of 1 to 32 encoders, pick the MapMode per bank (absolute or one of the relative modes), and it wires them to the appointed device with blue-hand following.
• Real output: it emits a working ControlSurface script (the .py plus __init__.py), with a live code preview and file tabs, downloadable as a zip. Drop it into your Remote Scripts folder and it runs.

How it's built, for the curious: it is fully static. No backend, no account, no upload, nothing leaves the page. WebMIDI reads your controller and the Python is generated client-side. The output is plain readable code, not a black box: you can open it, learn from it, and keep editing by hand with the docs next to you.

One honest note: the generated scripts target the classic _Framework layer for now (v2). The ableton.v3 path is on the list.

Unofficial, not affiliated with Ableton. Feedback and bug reports very welcome.