Ableton Live guide

Install

Prest Server’s Ableton Live integration is a Prest folder that goes in the Remote Scripts folder of Live’s User Library. It contains the Control Surface and the prest-ableton bridge, a small program the Control Surface starts. It is available for macOS and Windows; Ableton Live has no Linux version. It comes in a package for your system: prest-server-ableton-macos-universal.tar.gz or prest-server-ableton-windows-x86_64.tar.gz. Prest Server is in early access: ask for the package on its download page. The commands below take it from your Downloads folder.

Names in releases after 0.1.1

The 0.1 packages were published before the product was renamed Prest Server, so their folder, Control Surface, bridge, and messages still say Prest. Releases after 0.1.1 use a PrestServer folder, list PrestServer as the Control Surface, name the bridge prest-server-ableton, prefix their messages with Prest Server:, and keep the catalog in User Library/Prest Server/prest.pb.

Note

These commands use Live’s default User Library location. If you moved it, check the location under Settings → Library in Live (Preferences in older versions) and use the Remote Scripts folder inside it.

macOS

1. Quit Ableton Live.

2. Open Terminal and run:

   mkdir -p ~/Music/Ableton/User\ Library/Remote\ Scripts
   tar -xzf ~/Downloads/prest-server-ableton-macos-universal.tar.gz -C ~/Music/Ableton/User\ Library/Remote\ Scripts --strip-components=1

If macOS blocks the bridge

Prest Server’s macOS files are not notarized by Apple yet, so macOS can block a bridge that came from a download. If Live does not start it, or macOS says it cannot be checked, clear the download flag once in Terminal, then start Live again:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Music/Ableton/User\ Library/Remote\ Scripts/Prest

Windows

1. Quit Ableton Live.

2. Open PowerShell and run:

   $scripts = "$HOME\Documents\Ableton\User Library\Remote Scripts"
   New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $scripts | Out-Null
   tar -xzf "$HOME\Downloads\prest-server-ableton-windows-x86_64.tar.gz" -C $scripts --strip-components=1

3. If Windows Firewall asks about prest-ableton when Live first loads Prest, allow it on private networks so other devices can connect.

Select Prest in Live

1. Start Ableton Live.
2. Open Settings → Link, Tempo & MIDI (Preferences in older versions).
3. In an empty Control Surface slot, choose Prest.

Expected result: Live loads the Control Surface, which starts the bridge. Problems show in Live’s status bar as a message starting with Prest:. Live’s Log.txt records Prest: bridge ready on port 80 (or the port in use) when the bridge is running. If the bridge stops, the Control Surface starts it again.

Update or remove

• Update: quit Live and run the same install command again. Your songs and setlists are kept.
• Moving from a 0.1 package to a later release: download a backup first, because later releases keep the catalog in a new place. Install the new release, delete the old Prest folder from Remote Scripts, choose PrestServer in the Control Surface slot, and import the backup.
• Remove: set the Control Surface slot back to None, quit Live, and delete the Prest folder from Remote Scripts. Delete User Library/Prest/prest.pb only if you want to discard the catalog. Download a backup first if you might need it.

Older versions are available on the Prest Server releases page.

Files

• Catalog: songs, setlists, the show library folder, and network settings are kept in Prest/prest.pb inside Live’s User Library at its default place: ~/Music/Ableton/User Library on macOS, Documents\Ableton\User Library on Windows. It stays there even if you moved the User Library.
• Messages: the Control Surface writes Prest Server’s messages to Live’s Log.txt. Lines from the bridge start with Prest[bridge]:.

Ports

Prest Server listens on port 80. To use another port, set Server Port in Setup, under Network & Redundancy, save, and restart Live. Devices then add the port to the address: http://prest.local:8080/. A PREST_PORT set in the environment Live starts from overrides it.

When the port is taken, Prest Server serves on the first free port from 8418 to 8422 and Live’s status bar says so: Prest: … so Prest is serving on port 8418 instead. Open http://prest.local:8418/. In 0.1.1 Live’s start-up can hide that message; Log.txt keeps it. In the next release it stays in the status bar until the first play.

Prepare the show library

Put the show’s Live Sets in one folder, the show library, directly or in subfolders. Prest Server lists every .als file in it.

Live’s backup copies, in 0.1.1

Live saves a copy of a Set in a Backup folder beside it each time you save. Prest Server 0.1.1 lists those copies as projects, and + Add All Projects would open and add each of them. Before you choose + Add All Projects, move the Backup folders out of the show library, or add songs one at a time with New in Editor. In the next release, folders named Backup are skipped.

Songs

• A Live Set without song locators is one song, named after the file.
• To put several songs in one Set, add a locator at the start of each song named S\ and the song’s name: S\Opener, S\Night Drive. Each song runs to the next song locator, or to the end of the arrangement.
• Locators named \ and a name (\Chorus) mark sections inside a song. Locators with other names are ignored.

Put song locators on bar lines, so that lyrics and chords at a boundary belong to the right song.

Lyrics and chords

Prest Server reads them from clips in the Arrangement View, not from Session clips:

• Lyrics: on a track named Lyrics, each clip’s name is a lyric, placed at the clip’s start. A name that starts with / begins a new line, one that starts with \ a new paragraph.
• Chords: on a track named Chordtrack, each clip’s name is a chord, held for the clip’s length.

Track names are matched in any case.

In the next release:

• A track named +LYRICS, or with +LYRICS after its name (Vocals +LYRICS), as prepared for AbleSet, is read as the lyrics track when there is no Lyrics track. Each of its clips starts a new line.
• Chords written in square brackets inside a lyric clip’s name ([Am]Hel[F]lo) are drawn over their syllables, unless the song has a Chordtrack.
• MIDI clips on tracks whose name starts with Score can be shown as notation.
• Files in a folder beside the Set named after it with Attachments added can be shown as charts. See Editor.

Tempo and time signature changes

Live tells Prest Server only the tempo and time signature at the playhead.

• In 0.1.1, bars are counted in the time signature at the playhead, so bar numbers, lyric and chord positions, and song lengths can be off when the time signature or tempo changes inside a song.
• In the next release, Prest Server reads the time signature changes from the saved Set, so bars match Live’s. Changes you make are seen after you save the Set. A tempo change inside a song can still make times in seconds and song lengths differ from Live’s.

What Prest Server does in Live

• Opening a song in another Set stops playback, opens the Set, and dismisses Live’s save prompt without saving, so unsaved changes in the open Set are lost. Prest Server waits up to 2 minutes for Live to load the Set. If another dialog appears, finish it in Live.
• Stop stops and returns to the start of the song.
• At the end of a song in a Set with several songs, Live stops.
• Adding projects opens each new Set in turn.

In the next release:

• A Set whose arrangement audio clips use missing files still opens, and Prest Server shows Missing Media: Open in Ableton Live, but these media files are missing: what they play is silent. and the files. Session clips and samplers are not checked.
• The Mixer view moves Live’s faders, pans, mutes, and solos, with groups as folders and return tracks.
• Metronome turns Live’s metronome on or off.

Start and connect

Private network only

Prest Server has no login: any device that can reach the host can control the show. Connect stage devices only to a network your band controls. See Network and security.

1. Open Live with Prest chosen as a Control Surface.
2. On a device on the same private network, open http://prest.local/.
3. If the name does not resolve, open the host computer’s IP address instead, for example http://192.168.1.20/.
4. Check that the page reads Runtime Active.
5. Set the show library folder in Setup, and add the songs in Editor. See Ten-minute first show.

Current limitations

• Live has no way to open a Set other than as a file, so every switch goes through Live’s save prompt, which Prest Server answers without saving.
• Live does not report unsaved changes, so Prest Server cannot warn you about them.
• No list of tested Live versions is published. Rehearse with your own Live version before a show.

Next: Connection troubleshooting.