Ableton Live Control

Clone the project from GitHub and install it as an editable Python package so the MCP server script is available.

git clone https://github.com/uisato/ableton-mcp-extended.git
cd ableton-mcp-extended
pip install -e .

Create an 'AbletonMCP' folder inside your Ableton User Library Remote Scripts directory and copy the Remote Script file into it. On Mac: ~/Music/Ableton/User Library/Remote Scripts/AbletonMCP/. On Windows: C:\Users\<You>\Documents\Ableton\User Library\Remote Scripts\AbletonMCP\.

# Mac example
mkdir -p ~/Music/Ableton/User\ Library/Remote\ Scripts/AbletonMCP
cp ableton-mcp-extended/AbletonMCP_Remote_Script/__init__.py \
   ~/Music/Ableton/User\ Library/Remote\ Scripts/AbletonMCP/

Open Ableton Live and go to Preferences > Link/Tempo/MIDI. In the Control Surface dropdown, select 'AbletonMCP'. Set both Input and Output to 'None'. Close Preferences — Ableton will now listen for connections from the MCP server.

Edit claude_desktop_config.json to point to the MCP server Python script. Use the absolute path to server.py inside the cloned repository.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "AbletonMCP": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ableton-mcp-extended/MCP_Server/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

If you want AI-generated audio and voice cloning, add a second MCP server entry for ElevenLabs, supplying your API key in the env block.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ElevenLabs": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/path/to/elevenlabs_mcp/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "ELEVENLABS_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop to load the new MCP configuration. Open Ableton Live with a project, then ask Claude to create tracks, add MIDI clips, or adjust device parameters.