Let’s get straight to it: there are two big problems with controlling Ableton Live from an iPad. One, relying on WiFi means risking disaster if a connection is unstable for some reason (OS updates, wireless interference, gremlins and demonic possession, whatever causes that). Two, you invariably wind up with remote controls for some things you need, but not others. It’s like having a remote control for a TV with half the buttons missing. You wind up going back to the mouse just because you can’t work out any way to turn such-and-such knob.
touchAble 3 fixes both problems.
There’s loads of stuff in this update, but … that doesn’t matter. All you need to know:
1. Plug in your Apple USB cable, and skip the WiFi whenever you want. See bottom. (Being able to choose wireless or wired – good.) Works on OS X and Windows.
2. Get the add-on (in-app purchase) Live Template Pack, and you get some 42 templates for Live’s instruments and effects that look like the on-screen ones, only adapted to the iPad. Use them, and skip the mouse. See top.
(Note that you can’t use those devices on iPhone yet, but I suspect that’s a smaller group of you.)
Video:
touchAble 3 – THE IOS controller for Ableton LIVE from touchAble on Vimeo.
There’s also a recoded server that starts as a system service on both Windows and Mac. That way, you don’t have trouble if you’ve forgotten to start the server, and it re-starts automatically if Ableton crashes. (System resource use is apparently negligible – if you’re not connected; it’s asleep.) One missing Device from the templates that I’m sure a lot of you want – there’s no Looper. Apparently issues with Ableton’s support of that device in the Live API are to blame. (Yes, Ableton, please fix this!)
It’s clear to me that touchAble is the Ableton Live controller to beat. In fact, if you already own an iPad, it’s a must-have – now, certainly, with the add-on template pack. Conductr I think remains interesting, partly because it does less – focusing on big, tough-to-miss controllers that work well in live performance. But for an app that controls everything in Live, touchAble is what you want.
US$21.99 for the Live Device Template Pack.
And thanks to the new Bundles feature, they’ve put a combination meal of touchAble for iPhone / iPod and the iPad version on sale for US$28.99 for a limited time. Put those two together, and I think it’s well worth your fifty bucks, especially compared to a plastic controller that might not solve your problems.
Two more use cases:
You can split the screen between Devices.
And, also as shared on the touchAble Facebook page, you can make custom templates. Here, one user went completely nuts:
And it’s still nice and snappy on my old ipad 2.
thanks for the info! just what i wanted to know
Nice, was gonna ask about iPad 2 support! That device is still amazing to me even though its “outdated”, its all I need from a tablet.
And it’s still nice and snappy on my old ipad 2.
thanks for the info! just what i wanted to know
Nice, was gonna ask about iPad 2 support! That device is still amazing to me even though its “outdated”, its all I need from a tablet.
And it’s still nice and snappy on my old ipad 2.
thanks for the info! just what i wanted to know
Nice, was gonna ask about iPad 2 support! That device is still amazing to me even though its “outdated”, its all I need from a tablet.
I still don’t know what i’m missing from Lemur with Ableton template 2 or Custom template for stage use in TouchOSC.
As i have those two this article didn’t sell TouchAble for me.
Btw, does this run on iPad 1 / iOS 5?
If not then i don’t even need to think about it 😀
Yes it does, iPad1 full compatibility and high performance optimization.
What do you miss?
mmmmmh… full integration, touchAble being 10 times faster and more responsive than livecontrol 2 (no offense to Lemur which is an unbeatable and amazing touch-control for most general purpose or very personal uses, I use it very often, but in the Ableton domain, livecontrol 2 is far behind it now, I think I can publicly say it without declaring war 😉 ), access to browser within the app, snap length feature, and plenty of other stuffs.
yeah – used or tried to use livecontrol 2 via midi-cable (iconnect) just yesterday & damn it was so slow and laggy & buggy. was no fun to compose stuff. and here is my question – how is touchable on the midi-composition-side? a “normal” non-artsy, extensive workflow-video would be great. but to be honest it looks perfectly in those little video-bits, but damn 50€ again. you guys killing us unpaid “trying-to-make-it” electronic musicians… don’t know if I can pull this up. there is no demo & I didn’t even find a manual…
Slow and laggy even with iConnect? I was looking to get the iC2 for the holidays, specifically for use with LiveControl 2. How bad was your experience, really?
Feeling your comment. This looks great, but I don’t think I can drop that much cash right now. Especially after already getting the Lemur (thought I was lucky enough to hop on the 50% off a while back).
Will probably scrounge up some holiday apple gift cards, save some pennies and give this a shot. Though, it does sting a little. LiveControl 2 was supposed to be alpha and omega. Not sure how many $25-$50 apps I want to collect before realizing I’m just getting burned repeatedly.
especially the midi editor is laggy. other tools are k. but I wouldn’t buy lemur for livecontrol only. lemur is a good controller-environment which changes with your live shows, but more interesting things also need more studying the manual – even some basic script-understanding.
Apps are a spiral of hell, no demo and then you can’t even sell the sh**. I was also burnt a few times.
touchable: your “no money then don’t buy advice” is pretty redundant and feels not friendly to me. the matter with money & gear & inspiration & work is much more complicated.
no offense here 🙂
there is more than 1 hour of video guide on our website: http://www.touch-able.com/video-guide
the guide presents touchAble 2 but you’ll 90% of the feature of the current version, the other 10 will be online very soon.
there is a quick user guide integrated within the app in pdf as well.
If money is not on your side, don’t buy it, and focus to your music, you probably have a decent computer and a sound card, it more than enough to make good music these days. The rest is comfort, fun and distraction 🙂
I went quickly trough the videos. Is this only to control clip view? I don’t use clip view as does not many others as we use arrangement. Are there controls for that? I’d love to get control of muting parts and adjusting lengths etc. Also move on the time line , soon etc.
the Ableton LiveAPi doesn’t allow that yet, so there is nothing we can do . We cross are fingers to see some lines moving, it’s all in the hands of Ableton.
I still don’t know what i’m missing from Lemur with Ableton template 2 or Custom template for stage use in TouchOSC.
As i have those two this article didn’t sell TouchAble for me.
Btw, does this run on iPad 1 / iOS 5?
If not then i don’t even need to think about it 😀
Yes it does, iPad1 full compatibility and high performance optimization.
What do you miss?
mmmmmh… full integration, touchAble being 10 times faster and more responsive than livecontrol 2 (no offense to Lemur which is an unbeatable and amazing touch-control for most general purpose or very personal uses, I use it very often, but in the Ableton domain, livecontrol 2 is far behind it now, I think I can publicly say it without declaring war 😉 ), access to browser within the app, snap length feature, and plenty of other stuffs.
yeah – used or tried to use livecontrol 2 via midi-cable (iconnect) just yesterday & damn it was so slow and laggy & buggy. was no fun to compose stuff. and here is my question – how is touchable on the midi-composition-side? a “normal” non-artsy, extensive workflow-video would be great. but to be honest it looks perfectly in those little video-bits, but damn 50€ again. you guys killing us unpaid “trying-to-make-it” electronic musicians… don’t know if I can pull this up. there is no demo & I didn’t even find a manual…
EDIT: I found the video “guides”, which are nice…!
Slow and laggy even with iConnect? I was looking to get the iC2 for the holidays, specifically for use with LiveControl 2. How bad was your experience, really?
Feeling your comment. This looks great, but I don’t think I can drop that much cash right now. Especially after already getting the Lemur (thought I was lucky enough to hop on the 50% off a while back).
Will probably scrounge up some holiday apple gift cards, save some pennies and give this a shot. Though, it does sting a little. LiveControl 2 was supposed to be alpha and omega. Not sure how many $25-$50 apps I want to collect before realizing I’m just getting burned repeatedly.
especially the midi editor is laggy. other tools are k. but I wouldn’t buy lemur for livecontrol only. lemur is a good controller-environment which changes with your live shows, but more interesting things also need more studying the manual – even some basic script-understanding.
Apps are a spiral of hell, no demo and then you can’t even sell the sh**. I was also burnt a few times.
touchable: your “no money then don’t buy advice” is pretty redundant and feels not friendly to me. the matter with money & gear & inspiration & work is much more complicated.
no offense here 🙂
there is more than 1 hour of video guide on our website: http://www.touch-able.com/video-guide
the guide presents touchAble 2 but you’ll 90% of the feature of the current version, the other 10 will be online very soon.
there is a quick user guide integrated within the app in pdf as well.
If money is not on your side, don’t buy it, and focus to your music, you probably have a decent computer and a sound card, it more than enough to make good music these days. The rest is comfort, fun and distraction 🙂
I went quickly trough the videos. Is this only to control clip view? I don’t use clip view as does not many others as we use arrangement. Are there controls for that? I’d love to get control of muting parts and adjusting lengths etc. Also move on the time line , soon etc.
the Ableton LiveAPi doesn’t allow that yet, so there is nothing we can do . We cross are fingers to see some lines moving, it’s all in the hands of Ableton.
I still don’t know what i’m missing from Lemur with Ableton template 2 or Custom template for stage use in TouchOSC.
As i have those two this article didn’t sell TouchAble for me.
Btw, does this run on iPad 1 / iOS 5?
If not then i don’t even need to think about it 😀
Yes it does, iPad1 full compatibility and high performance optimization.
What do you miss?
mmmmmh… full integration, touchAble being 10 times faster and more responsive than livecontrol 2 (no offense to Lemur which is an unbeatable and amazing touch-control for most general purpose or very personal uses, I use it very often, but in the Ableton domain, livecontrol 2 is far behind it now, I think I can publicly say it without declaring war 😉 ), access to browser within the app, snap length feature, and plenty of other stuffs.
yeah – used or tried to use livecontrol 2 via midi-cable (iconnect) just yesterday & damn it was so slow and laggy & buggy. was no fun to compose stuff. and here is my question – how is touchable on the midi-composition-side? a “normal” non-artsy, extensive workflow-video would be great. but to be honest it looks perfectly in those little video-bits, but damn 50€ again. you guys killing us unpaid “trying-to-make-it” electronic musicians… don’t know if I can pull this up. there is no demo & I didn’t even find a manual…
EDIT: I found the video “guides”, which are nice…!
Slow and laggy even with iConnect? I was looking to get the iC2 for the holidays, specifically for use with LiveControl 2. How bad was your experience, really?
Feeling your comment. This looks great, but I don’t think I can drop that much cash right now. Especially after already getting the Lemur (thought I was lucky enough to hop on the 50% off a while back).
Will probably scrounge up some holiday apple gift cards, save some pennies and give this a shot. Though, it does sting a little. LiveControl 2 was supposed to be alpha and omega. Not sure how many $25-$50 apps I want to collect before realizing I’m just getting burned repeatedly.
especially the midi editor is laggy. other tools are k. but I wouldn’t buy lemur for livecontrol only. lemur is a good controller-environment which changes with your live shows, but more interesting things also need more studying the manual – even some basic script-understanding.
Apps are a spiral of hell, no demo and then you can’t even sell the sh**. I was also burnt a few times.
touchable: your “no money then don’t buy advice” is pretty redundant and feels not friendly to me. the matter with money & gear & inspiration & work is much more complicated.
no offense here 🙂
there is more than 1 hour of video guide on our website: http://www.touch-able.com/video-guide
the guide presents touchAble 2 but you’ll 90% of the feature of the current version, the other 10 will be online very soon.
there is a quick user guide integrated within the app in pdf as well.
If money is not on your side, don’t buy it, and focus to your music, you probably have a decent computer and a sound card, it more than enough to make good music these days. The rest is comfort, fun and distraction 🙂
I went quickly trough the videos. Is this only to control clip view? I don’t use clip view as does not many others as we use arrangement. Are there controls for that? I’d love to get control of muting parts and adjusting lengths etc. Also move on the time line , soon etc.
the Ableton LiveAPi doesn’t allow that yet, so there is nothing we can do . We cross are fingers to see some lines moving, it’s all in the hands of Ableton.
I had a successful gig with this last night – thought it was a bit risky but worth a shot, connected with the USB cable. Even if this was the only new feature it would be a great update! Going to treat myself to the template pack at some point.
Hi. I was just curious, what else was in your setup in addition to Touch-Able? I’ve been wanting to use this with USB.
fancy meeting you here!
I had a successful gig with this last night – thought it was a bit risky using it in a live situation so soon after its release, but the chance to connect with a USB cable sold it to me. Even if this was the only new feature it would be a great update! Going to treat myself to the template pack at some point.
Hi. I was just curious, what else was in your setup in addition to Touch-Able? I’ve been wanting to use this with USB.
fancy meeting you here!
I had a successful gig with this last night – thought it was a bit risky using it in a live situation so soon after its release, but the chance to connect with a USB cable sold it to me. Even if this was the only new feature it would be a great update! Going to treat myself to the template pack at some point.
fancy meeting you here!
Free upgrade for current users too!
Amazing! Well done team touch-able!
Free upgrade for current users too!
Amazing! Well done team touch-able!
Free upgrade for current users too!
Amazing! Well done team touch-able!
I remember using TouchOSC with a cable too, doesn’t seems to be a unique feature, no ?
BTW, This app GUI is slick !
I remember using TouchOSC with a cable too, doesn’t seems to be a unique feature, no ?
BTW, This app GUI is slick !
I remember using TouchOSC with a cable too, doesn’t seems to be a unique feature, no ?
BTW, This app GUI is slick !
The question I have is will this work with a monitor-less computer rig like a Mac Mini? If I set the computer up to boot into Live, can you select files etc without the monitor – basically I trying to get as close to Push as I can.
it’s not supposed to completely replace a monitor due to some stuffs that LiveAPI can;t allow like opening a set, saving, dealing with arrangement view…but most of the time if you work with push you won’t look at your monitor at all. TouchAble + Push is pure joy.
The question I have is will this work with a monitor-less computer rig like a Mac Mini? If I set the computer up to boot into Live, can you select files etc without the monitor – basically I trying to get as close to Push as I can.
it’s not supposed to completely replace a monitor due to some stuffs that LiveAPI can;t allow like opening a set, saving, dealing with arrangement view…but most of the time if you work with push you won’t look at your monitor at all. TouchAble + Push is pure joy.
The question I have is will this work with a monitor-less computer rig like a Mac Mini? If I set the computer up to boot into Live, can you select files etc without the monitor – basically I trying to get as close to Push as I can.
it’s not supposed to completely replace a monitor due to some stuffs that LiveAPI can;t allow like opening a set, saving, dealing with arrangement view…but most of the time if you work with push you won’t look at your monitor at all. TouchAble + Push is pure joy.
How well does it work on an iPad Mini?
As good as the other iPad. Mini is awesome for portability, and the system of menus within touchAble let you manage the size of the display pretty well I think.
This was the app that finally convinced me to buy an iPad.
How well does it work on an iPad Mini?
As good as the other iPad. Mini is awesome for portability, and the system of menus within touchAble let you manage the size of the display pretty well I think.
This was the app that finally convinced me to buy an iPad.
How well does it work on an iPad Mini?
As good as the other iPad. Mini is awesome for portability, and the system of menus within touchAble let you manage the size of the display pretty well I think.
This was the app that finally convinced me to buy an iPad.
The 1:1 UI for devices is such a no-brainer win. This is exactly what Reason needs, as the 760 pixel wide rack and micro buttons have become totally unusable on modern displays. Wanna stick to your skeuomorphic guns? Then let them touch the damn thing! Sorry, tangent. This looks ace. Buying.
Totally on you with this !
Ableton need to upgrade the ui so we can have bigger rack. Even on a 23″ it feels weird so on a 30″ must be retarded weird
The 1:1 UI for devices is such a no-brainer win. This is exactly what Reason needs, as the 760 pixel wide rack and micro buttons have become totally unusable on modern displays. Wanna stick to your skeuomorphic guns? Then let them touch the damn thing! Sorry, tangent. This looks ace. Buying.
Totally on you with this !
Ableton need to upgrade the ui so we can have bigger rack. Even on a 23″ it feels weird so on a 30″ must be retarded weird
The 1:1 UI for devices is such a no-brainer win. This is exactly what Reason needs, as the 760 pixel wide rack and micro buttons have become totally unusable on modern displays. Wanna stick to your skeuomorphic guns? Then let them touch the damn thing! Sorry, tangent. This looks ace. Buying.
Totally on you with this !
Ableton need to upgrade the ui so we can have bigger rack. Even on a 23″ it feels weird so on a 30″ must be retarded weird
Does anybody know if the device templates do also have a “blue hand” function – meaning they change accordingly to my browsing through Ableton via Push? I would love that.
yes it does! pure joy in the studio 🙂
Does anybody know if the device templates do also have a “blue hand” function – meaning they change accordingly to my browsing through Ableton via Push? I would love that.
yes it does! pure joy in the studio 🙂
Does anybody know if the device templates do also have a “blue hand” function – meaning they change accordingly to my browsing through Ableton via Push? I would love that.
yes it does! pure joy in the studio 🙂
Awesome
Awesome
Awesome
I’m new in this tablet + music stuff, is there anything like this on Android?
at the moment Livekontrol is the only one on the Android market.
I’m new in this tablet + music stuff, is there anything like this on Android?
at the moment Livekontrol is the only one on the Android market.
I’m new in this tablet + music stuff, is there anything like this on Android?
at the moment Livekontrol is the only one on the Android market.
why not an android version ??
Because by and large, Android devices are garbage. The inconsistency in response times would make it a nightmare to develop an app like this. I can’t find a comparable chart for tablets (just the raw numbers), but this should give you an idea of why an iOS device is the only viable option when milliseconds matter.
why not an android version ??
Because by and large, Android devices are garbage. The inconsistency in response times would make it a nightmare to develop an app like this. I can’t find a comparable chart for tablets (just the raw numbers), but this should give you an idea of why an iOS device is the only viable option when milliseconds matter.
why not an android version ??
Because by and large, Android devices are garbage. The inconsistency in response times would make it a nightmare to develop an app like this. I can’t find a comparable chart for tablets (just the raw numbers), but this should give you an idea of why an iOS device is the only viable option when milliseconds matter.
Communication via USB? This is awesome. I’m surprised no other controller has done it already. Apple should totally do this for Logic Remote. At times Logic response is very laggy.
I didn’t even think this was possible. Is there a chance Apple will squelch it?
yeah, same. I’d be curious to know how they did it, whether it’s a hack or officially support way of doing this…
Communication via USB? This is awesome. I’m surprised no other controller has done it already. Apple should totally do this for Logic Remote. At times Logic response is very laggy.
I didn’t even think this was possible. Is there a chance Apple will squelch it?
yeah, same. I’d be curious to know how they did it, whether it’s a hack or officially support way of doing this…
Communication via USB? This is awesome. I’m surprised no other controller has done it already. Apple should totally do this for Logic Remote. At times Logic response is very laggy.
I didn’t even think this was possible. Is there a chance Apple will squelch it?
yeah, same. I’d be curious to know how they did it, whether it’s a hack or officially support way of doing this…