01/27: Use your iPhone or iPod with Ableton Live

Author: camille | Posted in Tutorials

This tutorial explains how to control a MIDI enabled software like Ableton Live from your iPhone.

Live configuration

First, launch OSCulator and Live.

In Live, open the Preferences, go to “MIDI Sync” tab and enable the Track and Remote columns for “OSCulator Out” and “OSCulator In” interfaces. This will enable us to record events and send control events to OSCulator as well.

tutorial_iphone_1

TouchOSC configuration

Now, launch TouchOSC on your iPhone. Please make sure you have latest version installed.

  • Click on the button under “Network” and choose the option corresponding to OSCulator (see picture above). TouchOSC will automatically fill the fields required for the network communications.
  • In the “Port (incoming)” field, enter 9000. This can be actually any port number you wish. 9000 is cool.
  • From there your settings page should look like this (your “Host” field can be different, due to network configuration differences).

tutorial_iphone_2

  • Select a layout, we will use “Beatmachine”.
  • Click on the “Done” button and leave TouchOSC running.

OSCulator Automatic Configuration

From there, we can either load a template or configure OSCulator manually. If you prefer to “plug and play” with MIDI, just use the template corresponding to the layou you chose (Beatmachine in our case). It is located in the Sample Patches folder of the OSCulator folder you installed on your computer.

Once you’ve loaded a template file, click on the Parameters button on the toolbar and go to the OSC Hosts tab. Set the “Default Host” to the one corresponding to your iPhone (it should read ‘TouchOSC’ in the name).

You can also learn how to make such a template by reading what’s following.

OSCulator Manual Configuration

We will configure the yellow slider so it can control the volume of the first track in Live:

  • Touch the yellow slider to send an initial event.
  • The event “/1/fader” should appear in the main window of OSCulator.
  • In OSCulator, select “MIDI CC” as Event Type, and “0″ as Value (well, the first value in the list).

Now, let’s tell Live we want to use this MIDI control change to control the volume fader of the first track. This procedure also works for any button or control in Live.

  • Return to Live, and click on the MIDI button, located upper right. Live turns to MIDI Learn mode.
  • Click on the volume fader of the first track. The track should now look like this:

tutorial_iphone_3

  • In TouchOSC, touch the yellow slider again. This will forward the event to Live, which will learn that we want to use the MIDI control change 0 to control the volume fader. A “1/0″ label is now displayed next to the volume fader, like this:

tutorial_iphone_4

  • Leave MIDI learn mode by click on the MIDI button upper right.
  • You’re done!

If you click the volume fader in Live, you will notice OSCulator will automatically detect a MIDI message and will convert it to an OSC message that it sends to TouchOSC running on your iPhone.

That means that TouchOSC and Live are synchronized both ways.

36 Responses

  1. musicalgeometry : Create An Ad-Hoc Network For TouchOSC On Your Mac March 27th, 2009 at 16:23

    [...] website. Mac users will find instructions on using TouchOSC with Osculator and Ableton Live here. Windows users will find instructions to do something similar using a combination of Pure Data and [...]

  2. BBoy April 22nd, 2009 at 17:22

    Ok, problems!

    Followed the above tutorial to the letter, however, OSCultator is receiving the signals but when I try to map the functions to ableton nothing happens?? Any suggestions kind folks??

  3. camille April 22nd, 2009 at 19:23

    Mmmh, is Live’s MIDI input bliking or not ?

  4. BBoy April 22nd, 2009 at 20:22

    Yeah, midi was blinking in Live when I was sending signals from the iphone. It was driving me mad because I had another iphone app working with Live no problems. However, I think I’ve fixed it now. I did a fresh install of OSCulator and it seems to be working fine now!! Phew, I’m not so useless as I thought!! Thanks for the quick response Cam & great site. Very informative.

  5. 2019 April 27th, 2009 at 22:08

    thanks it s work perfectly
    i have got a mini lemur

  6. Robert April 30th, 2009 at 19:28

    I’m having trouble here too…

    Usinc touchOSC on an ipod ttouch.The signal is showing up in OSCulator so i know the pod is communicating with OSCulator.

    The in/out for OSCulator shows up in my midi prefs in Ableton, and I checked track, and Remote for both in and out…

    But i don’t get a signal in Ableton.. No activity with the midi indicator light…

  7. Robert April 30th, 2009 at 19:32

    Also I have not registered yet, does that make a difference with this?

  8. Robert April 30th, 2009 at 19:37

    Also, when i turn on sync, and start Ableton rolling, i do get the sync signal coming into OSCulator…

  9. camille May 1st, 2009 at 10:00

    Hey Robert,

    OSCulator is virtually the same when in demo mode and registered. The only difference is that you won’t have signal drop outs every twenty minutes.

    I have sent you an email to help you, but please know that support is best discussed on the forum, thank you!

    Best,
    Cam

  10. francesco May 1st, 2009 at 23:14

    I Have the same problem of robert
    Camilla please:D can you help me?:D

  11. camille May 1st, 2009 at 23:22

    He he, Robert just sent me by email saying that everything is working fine now. He said he has done a small mistake. Knowing that it works well, the only thing I can suggest to you is:

    1. double check that you have followed the tutorial precisely.
    2. write a post on the forum describing the problem you have, and we’ll try to troubleshoot it in details.

    Thank you very much!
    Enjoy :-)

    Cam

  12. franky8oy May 21st, 2009 at 22:37

    works a treat!! da future is now!!

  13. claudio July 21st, 2009 at 15:11

    hello, i’m having some trouble using touch OSC – Osculator – iphone 3g and ableton. When i use the original template (basic, beatmachine, mix2 etc…), all is ok with ableton but when i try to use my own template, ableton don’t recieve any midi signals, please help me, i don’t know where is the trick….

    p.s.: I apologies for my bad english…..

  14. camille July 21st, 2009 at 19:38

    Hi Claudio,

    Have you configured anything in your template?
    What have you put in the file you have configured yourself?

    Thanks!
    Cam

  15. claudio July 22nd, 2009 at 08:20

    hi Cam, i simply create a template with touch osc editor and all the controllers i need (4 pages of faders, knobs, etc…), i save it and load it into my iphone. Than i touch all the items to receive “wi-fi-midi” signals in osculator and everything since here is ok,i save the preset with osculator and than i open ableton with the right setting in the preferences page but when i touch the button in my iphone i don’t recieve any signals….:-(

  16. camille July 22nd, 2009 at 10:01

    Dear Claudio,

    Have you configured any “MIDI CC” or “MIDI Note” events as in the other preconfigured templates? Please tell me if OSCulator receives signal from the iPhone, and then if Live receives MIDI from OSCulator. If Live doesn’t receive anything, that’s because nothing is sent to it :-)

    Cam

  17. claudio July 22nd, 2009 at 22:08

    yes, osculator receives signals from the iphone but not ableton, how should i set midi cc or midi note? :-(

  18. camille July 22nd, 2009 at 22:10

    Hi Claudio,
    This is explained in the “OSCulator Manual Configuration” part of this tutorial.

    Best,
    Cam

  19. paul August 4th, 2009 at 16:28

    hi, ive been through this tuturial over and over, and still having problems.

    Iphone 3gs connects to osc network, but i do not any input from touch osc into osculator or ableton?

    Its driving me crazy now, i have followed this exactly and still no joy, im not a newbie at midi control set up, so im stumped?

    Thanks for any help

  20. camille August 4th, 2009 at 22:09

    Hi Paul,

    The problem lies with the 3.0 firmware it seems.
    I suggest you follow the manual configuration procedure, I have described at the end of this forum post:
    http://www.osculator.net/bp/topic/146

    I hope it helps.

    Best,
    Cam

  21. Thecheekyscamp August 7th, 2009 at 08:40

    Hi I’m having problems getting the toggle buttons in touchosc to work with live. I’ve set them up as midi cc toggles in osculator and mapped one to the activate track switch for track 1. If I press the toggle in touchosc it works about 1 time in 10, but if I press the switch on the mac it updates the switch in touchosc every time. I’m not experiencing any problems with push buttons, rotaries or faders. Can anyone help? It’s drivingme nuts!

  22. camille August 7th, 2009 at 08:45

    Hi,
    Toggle buttons in TouchOSC don’t need to be setup as MIDI CC Toggle in OSCulator, it just stands out they use the same name. Just try with regular MIDI CC, it should work.

    Happy summer!
    Cam

  23. Jonas August 7th, 2009 at 17:55

    Hi!
    I have some trouble with setting up the XY Pad from my iPhone …
    Everything else works fine!
    Once i want to “learn” in live only one Signal seems to be sent from my iPhone.
    Thanks!

  24. camille August 7th, 2009 at 18:06

    Hello Ionas,

    the problem is that if you want to use the learn mode in Live, you need to send only one MIDI signal at a time. To do this, use the checkboxes on the left of the table.
    There is a more easy way to do the same:
    check out the “solo” feature, there is a post about that on the forum, and in the manual as well.

    Best,
    Cam

  25. Jonas August 7th, 2009 at 19:33

    Thanks so much Camille!
    The Check Boxes are worth gold! :)
    Regards!

  26. john October 17th, 2009 at 17:29

    Thanks for this software, Camille.

    I’m using it to run sound for a play that happens in a house/museum here in Toronto. I’ve got a laptop running ableton with 8 speakers hidden throughout the house as the play moves from room to room. I built a really simplified control, with scene advance, stop and a fader, which is all we need and it means that we can cue the show all around the house. Its worked so well, easy to set up and powerful in what it can do. The only thing that could make it better is to find a way to receive text through osc, so the sound operator could see what scene/cue is coming up. I’m going to be using this program so much now.

    john

  27. Josh Ohaire October 20th, 2009 at 06:10

    Thanks for the software Cam!! You rock!

  28. Mio November 5th, 2009 at 00:45

    I only have problems when I’m using my iPhone and itouch at the same time with osc in live. One will work perfect and the other is dead. I use my touch as the d pad to select tracks and activate clips in live while i use my phone to control levels/effects. The first time I set it up it worked great but now only one works at a time. I’m sure I’ll figure it out but does anyone have any suggestions?

  29. camille November 5th, 2009 at 00:51

    Hi Mio,

    I would suggest you delete all the message starting with “/midi/cc”.
    They will be re-created automatically when you use the software.
    If this doesn’t solve you problem, please post on the forum and we’ll have a deeper look at your issue.

    Best,
    Cam

  30. Rene Alexis Penaloza Munoz November 11th, 2009 at 04:48

    I’ve seen pictures of the controls having names but I have not figured yet how to do that. I mean buttons, faders and knobs with their respective names. Any hints on how to do this I would appreciate.

  31. Will December 14th, 2009 at 05:24

    Can’t connect to Osculator…Not sure why my Iphone just continues to search for the network. Turned 3g off.. any thoughts?

  32. camille December 14th, 2009 at 16:57

    Hi Will,

    I would suggest you search on the forum.
    More specifically, this thread currently talks about the problem you have.

    Best,
    Cam

  33. emj_antonin January 8th, 2010 at 13:19

    Hi,
    I’m trying you beautiful software together with my iPhone, toucOSC and Live. I don’t succeed in working in a bidirectional way. if I move a fader on my iPhone Live’s fader responds, on the contrary it doesn’t work. is it a normal beheavior or am I missing something?
    thank you so much
    Best,
    Antonino

  34. camille January 13th, 2010 at 12:08

    Hi Antonin. Sorry for the late answer, the best way to ask for help is to go on the forum. Thanks!

  35. tim January 14th, 2010 at 14:58

    Hi, i’m trying to configure my ipod touch, using ableton, but it doesn’t find the network, it just keeps on searching.
    I have to do a performance with it on sunday.
    can u help me out
    thnkx
    tim

  36. camille January 14th, 2010 at 16:37

    Hi Tim,

    Please use the forum for your help request.
    For a quick fix, I would suggest you create a network on your computer and go from there.
    There are numerous posts about the iPhone, TouchOSC and wireless connections on the forum, I am almost sure you will find the solution you need.

    Best,
    Cam