Producer Pal: MCP server running in Node for Max to control Ableton Live
I made a Max for Live device that runs an MCP server (via Node for Max) allowing AI assistants to control Ableton Live. You can generate and edit MIDI clips, manage tracks and scenes, and automate arrangement workflows through natural language.
https://github.com/adamjmurray/producer-pal#readme
There's demo videos and a detailed installation guide on the website to help you get started with:
Claude Desktop
Coding agents like Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, and Claude Code
ChatGPT and claude.ai in the browser
Local LLMs with LM Studio (experimental - models are still catching up to the cloud options, but improving)
Any other MCP-compatible tool (Cline, Cursor, etc.)
Open source and free to use. Gemini CLI has a generous free tier if you want to try without subscriptions. I'm planning to add a built-in chat UI for non-command-line users a little later.
Anthropic had a "Built with Claude" contest over the summer and Producer Pal got an honorable mention. Claude Code was a godsend. I'm a software engineer, but I wouldn't have had time for all the R&D on my own. It let me focus on ideas and iterate quickly without getting bogged down in implementation details.
Happy to answer questions about the technical details. The bridge between Node for Max and the v8 object (for Live API access) required some creative solutions.
Hi Adam, I am also working on Ableton AI agent. Thank you for sharing this! Especially the node to V8 bridge is very interesting to me, as I have struggled with making node logic connect to Live API in the past.
Looks great ! When I try to load the ".amxd" file after cloning the repo Max crashes. Its the latest version and fully authorised.
Hey Michael,
Thanks for giving it a try. If you grabbed the .amxd directly out of the repo, it won't work by itself because it needs other files (JavaScript) that need to be built.
Please try installing a released build by following instructions at https://producer-pal.org/installation
(or, to build from source from the repo, you'd need Node.js installed, run npm install, and then npm build before using the .amxd, but I recommend trying a released version)
However, even if you drag the "un-built" .amxd from the repo directly into Live, it shouldn't crash. I just tried that and it's fine for me. I test on macOS 26 Tahoe and Windows 11 with Ableton Live 12 (12.3 and 12.4).
I know it works for a lot of other people, and I use it nearly every day. I've had one other person reach out that it immediately crashed Live instantly ever time they drag the .amxd into Live. We compared machine specs and Live versions, and the only difference was they were on Windows 10. So I booted up an old computer to try to reproduce and it works fine for me on Windows 10 too. We never did track down what was causing the crash, and the person eventually gave up and moved on.
Maybe you're running into a bug in Ableton or Max, or some kind of edge case I somehow never encounter myself. If I could pinpoint the problem I'd do my best to fix it, but it's impossible for me to debug crash reports without being able to reproduce it (which I can't), or get some diagnostic info. If you're up for helping me diagnose, you can follow up with me using one of the support channels listed at https://producer-pal.org/support (or just respond here).
If you have any kind of OS-level error dialog popping up with crash details, we could start with that, and share your machine specs and Live version. And maybe the Ableton crash log has something useful in it.