TDAbleton not connecting between two PCs

Bugs
1

Hi everyone, I’m trying to get TouchDesigner and Ableton Live to communicate across two different PCs connected via a direct LAN cable, but I can’t get the TDAbleton connection to work despite checking pretty much everything I could think of.

The setup is this: two PCs with static IPs (192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2), network set to private, and ICMP ping between the two works perfectly, with sub-millisecond times and zero packet loss. TouchDesigner runs on one PC, while Ableton Live 12.0.10 runs on the other (Ableton is also installed on the TouchDesigner PC, but for testing I’m using the one on the second PC). I installed tdAbletonPackage from the Palette (TDAbleton > Live 11+) and the “TouchDesigner” Remote Script shows up correctly in Ableton, loading without errors: in Log.txt I see the line Control Surface=“TouchDesigner” and the message (TDA) Initializing… with no error or traceback afterward.

The problem is that the Ping button on the tdAbleton component never produces any response in the Textport, and even toggling the Connect parameter off and on doesn’t produce any message or error — just complete silence.

I’ve tried a lot of things with no results. I’ve checked the IP address and port numbers (In Port and Ableton Port) multiple times, confirming they matched exactly on both sides. Using netstat filtered by PID, I confirmed the ports were actually listening on the correct processes, and at one point in the diagnosis they were listening on both sides. I created specific inbound firewall rules for the UDP ports being used, on both PCs. I completely disabled Windows Defender Firewall on both PCs as a test. McAfee is also installed on the Ableton PC, so I disabled its separate firewall as well. I deleted Ableton’s Preferences.cfg file to force it to regenerate from scratch. I changed the port number on both sides to rule out a conflict with other processes. I deleted and re-added both the tdAbletonPackage component in TouchDesigner and the TDA Master device in Ableton from scratch.

The most revealing test I did was with Wireshark, capturing traffic on both PCs at the same time. Normal network ping (ICMP) shows up correctly in the capture, confirming Wireshark is watching the right interface. But when I press Ping or toggle Connect on the tdAbleton component, absolutely no UDP packet shows up, neither outgoing from the TouchDesigner PC nor incoming on the Ableton PC.

It’s worth mentioning that at the start of this troubleshooting session, the Samples/TDAbleton folder was missing or incomplete on the TouchDesigner PC, likely from a past installation done with the Web Installer instead of the Full Installer. I manually restored it by recreating the correct path (Samples\TDAbleton\Live 11+\TouchDesigner), after which the component’s Install function worked correctly. I’m about to do a clean reinstall of TouchDesigner using the Full Installer, to rule out the installation still being partially corrupted somewhere.

My question is this: given that Wireshark shows no outgoing UDP packet at all even when pressing Ping or toggling Connect, it seems like TouchDesigner isn’t even attempting to send data, regardless of network/firewall configuration (which I’ve verified is otherwise correct and functional). Is there any deeper internal log, or any specific check on the Python side of the TDAbletonExt extension, that could reveal why the send attempt never fires?

3

Hmmm… let’s see if we can narrow it down.

There are some other tests you could try. If you’re familiar with Python, you can put some debug statements in the TDAbletonExt inside the tdAbleton master component in the package. Notably before line 77, 85, and 518.

Also, make sure you can connect TDAbleton to Live on both computers when they’re on the same computer, not across the network.

One more check is to go inside the tdAbleton component and make sure that the Network Address parameter is correct on the oscout node.

5

Thx Ivan for your answer. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix this, but it still doesn’t work.

I think the problem might be the different versions of Ableton Live running on the two computers, even though TDAbleton is the same version on both.

A few days ago, I finally managed to establish a connection between the two devices, but in that case the version of Ableton Live and the TDAbleton component was exactly the same on both computers.

Nowadays, I’m trying to connect TDAbleton 2.6.9, running on the TouchDesigner computer, to Ableton Live 12.0.10, running on the other computer. The two computers are running different versions of Ableton Live. I noticed another strange behavior: when I set the correct IP address, the TDA_Master switch changes to “Connected”, but in TouchDesigner the component still shows “0 connected”.

I really think the issue could be caused by the mismatch between the Ableton Live versions, but I don’t understand why this would be a problem if TDAbleton is the same version on both sides.

Could different Ableton Live versions actually prevent the connection from being established? And is there any solution that would allow me to use different Live versions without having to align them on both computers?

Thanks!

6

Ah, weird one! Unfortunately the bridge between TD and Live is the most difficult and problematic part of the whole thing, and largely invisible. I have no idea why the Live version would matter but anything is possible.

For sure you want to install the remote script of the same exact TDA version on the Live computer that you are running on the TD computer.

If you found a way to establish connection, what is the reason you need to use different versions?

Did you try any of the tests from my previous post?