Hi guys! I’m developing a project that involves TD controlling parameters within Ableton via TDAbleton. Unfortunately I’m running into alot of mess with trying to connect everything properly. Essentially im trying to enable TD to control things like Tempo, Pitch, Looping and other mixing parameters but I cant for the life of me figure it out! I have tried routing through TDA master racks and custom M4L devices but nothing seems to stick sadly. It seems like this is quite a unique issue as I’ve been unable to find any guides or tutorials that cover the same thing I’m trying to do. Any help would be really appreciated 
I can try to answer any specific questions you have. Do you have TDAbleton set up so that the demo file works?
Hi Ivan! Thanks for the quick reply
I’ve never run the demo file, but if you’re asking to check whether TDAbleton connects and works, it does perfectly fine! its the more advanced connections im struggling with. But if the demo file could help then I could try it also!
1. Controlling Ableton Tempo from TouchDesigner
I’ve been trying to change the Ableton project tempo from within TouchDesigner using TDAbleton. The tricky part is its not a dynamically controllable parameter within ableton anyway, you can map keys to maximise and minimise tempo but not in a continous way in either direction, sort of like a sliding scale if that makes sense? So I’ve tried:
TDAbletonParameter— but tempo doesn’t appear as an available parameter.- Using
TDA Rack OSC— no luck getting tempo control routed through it. - Attempted via MIDI and CHOP exports — still not achieving tempo control.
Is there a known method (e.g., a specific Max for Live device or OSC route) that allows TD to directly control tempo? If not I can negate the tempo control for something else but would be useful to have if there was a way to crack it!
2. Controlling Ableton Parameters with Keyboard/Mouse Inputs from TD
My original plan was to use keyboard keys (e.g. 1/2, W/A/S/D, etc.) and mouse input (X/Y + clicks) in TouchDesigner to change parameters within Ableton. For example:
- Mouse X → controls audio effect in ableton which controls colour hue in TD
- Key 1/2 → increases/decreases tempo
- Key 3/4 → change down/change up pitch
I couldn’t find a clean way to link these controls between the softwares. Is there a standard practice for routing TD keyboard/mouse input into Ableton parameters through TDAbleton or any other tool?
3. Recent Progress (in case useful)
I’ve now moved toward using a MIDI controller mapped to knobs in the TDA Audio Effect Rack, to use the MIDI knobs/keys/pads to affect both audio parameters (ableton) and visuals (Touch) simultaneously. While still having mouse X/Y input. I haven’t properly got stuck into this yet so may be more issues to come but it looks promising initially!
I can drop in my project file if that would help! But any guidance on how to properly approach these points would be HUGELY appreciated especially as I’m running short on time to complete the project. Thanks!
Tempo is just a parameter on the abletonSong component. When TDA is connected, changing the Tempo parameter on abletonSong will change the tempo in Live. Similarly, you can connect an abletonParameter comp to any parameter in Live to change the Live parameter the same way. You can also use abletonRack or abletonMapper for a similar effect.
The basic idea is once a TDA component is connected to the Live object, you just react to keys or whatever in TouchDesigner and change the parameters on the TDA component… those changes will be sent to the corresponding Live object.