An AI Assistant For Ableton Live That Hears What Plays

What The Live Bridge Reads

Miles connects to Live 11 and Live 12 through a small bridge, installed from Miles in one click. In Live's Settings, under Link/MIDI, you pick NolvraMILES as a control surface. From then on Miles can read:

• tempo, and whether Live is playing or recording
• your tracks and the devices on each one, including what is inside racks
• the selected track and its device chain
• plugin parameter values and preset names
• the MIDI notes in the clip you are looking at

The notes are turned into chords and a key on your computer. The full clip is not sent anywhere: what goes with your question is the reading, meaning the chords, the key and the position of up to twelve notes that sit outside the key.

That is enough for questions that would otherwise need a paragraph of setup. "Why does the bass disappear in the drop" can be answered knowing which devices are on the bass, what the compressor's threshold is and what key the chords in the clip are in.

Read-Only, On Purpose

The bridge only reads. It contains no call that sets a parameter, creates a clip or touches a track, and it is written that way deliberately. An assistant that can write to your set can also break it, usually while you were asking about something else. Miles cannot ruin a take, reorder a chain or delete a device. When it suggests a change, you make it.

If what you want is an agent that builds things in Live from a prompt, that is a different kind of tool. Miles is for the moment before you touch anything: working out what is actually going on.

The Ear: What It Hears In Live

On Mac, Miles listens to Ableton Live's audio output and nothing else: not your microphone, not your browser, not the rest of the system. On Windows it listens to Live when Live is running.

While Live plays, Miles measures on your computer:

• momentary, short-term and integrated loudness, true peak and loudness range
• the balance across six frequency bands
• the key and the chord that is sounding

Only these numbers go with your question. The audio does not leave your computer. You can turn the ear off in Miles's settings.

The Eye: What It Sees, And When

Some answers are on screen: a device in the wrong order, a track left soloed, a meter pinned at the top. With the eye on, Miles takes one still of your DAW window when you send a question and sends it with that question. It does not watch continuously or record video.

macOS asks for Screen Recording permission the first time, because that is how any app takes a picture of another app's window. You can turn the eye off at any time.

Bounces, Too

Not every question happens with Live open. Drag a WAV, AIFF, MP3 or FLAC onto Miles and it reads the key, the tempo, integrated loudness, true peak, the six-band balance, stereo correlation and whether the low end holds in mono. That happens on your computer, and Miles then explains what the numbers mean for the track. Loudness and true peak are marked as approximate: right for decisions, not for a delivery spec.

What To Ask

Write it the way you would say it to someone sitting next to you. Miles answers in the language you write in.

• "The kick sounds muddy against the 808. What's going on?"
• "Is this loud enough to send to mastering?"
• "What key is this clip in, and what would work as a fourth chord?"
• "Why does the drop feel smaller than the build?"
• "Is my low end OK in mono?"

Getting Started

Miles is in beta for Nolvra All-Access members. You sign in with your Nolvra account email and a six-digit code sent to that address. Open the panel with Option+Space, install the Live bridge from Miles in one click, select NolvraMILES in Live's Link/MIDI settings, and ask.

Ableton Live is where the ear, the eye and the bridge come together today. More DAWs are planned.

FAQ