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Have you built an Ableton MIDI remote script with Control Surface Studio but it’s not showing or working as expected in Ableton Live?
In this post I’ll walk you step by step through the most common reasons why this can happen and how to get your script working correctly.
Important: Don’t Forget the Orange Button
First and foremost, always remember these 2 important steps:
1. In Control Surface Studio – click the big orange ‘Generate Script In Ableton Live’ button or your latest script changes won’t be installed into Ableton Live at all!
2. For Ableton to see the above changes to your script – restart Ableton Live or if using Ableton Beta, click the ‘tools > reload MIDI remote scripts’ menu item (I explained how to get this menu item in another blog post).
Ok now that’s sorted, let’s get to the 5 steps…
Step 1: Check The Script Installation Location
If your script isn’t showing up in Live’s ‘Settings/Preferences > MIDI tab’, the first thing to check is whether it’s being installed to the correct location:
- In Control Surface Studio, go to the ‘App Settings’ menu.
- Ensure that the Ableton Live version is correctly set. Click ‘Browse’ to select the Ableton Live version you’re using.
Doing this will automatically update the ‘MIDI Remote Script Folder’ to the correct path for your version of Ableton. - If needed, you can manually adjust the folder path.
Step 2: Check MIDI Script Settings
Once you have your script showing in the ‘Settings/Preferences > MIDI tab > Control Surface’
(remember, your script name will be prefixed with ‘CSS’ at the start)
Check that you have all settings in here configured correcty.
- Set a ‘Control Surface’ menu to your script
- Set the input and out to your connected MIDI controller
- For the Input & Output Ports of your script, ensure ‘Track’ and ‘Remote’ are selected.
Step 3: Check For Log Errors
If your script is installed correctly but isn’t showing up in Ableton’s preferences > MIDI tab, then there may be an error in the script itself. Here’s how to check:
Look in the Log section, this is located in the bottom right panel of the ‘Script Editor’ in Control Surface Studio. Any errors generated by the script will appear in here.
(Error messages usually contain information which help you identify the problem in your script).
Important!
Each minor version of Ableton Live has its own log.txt file, so ensure that Control Surface Studio is monitoring the correct one in ‘App Settings > Ableton Live version’.
Compare this to the major/minor version in Ableton Live > About menu.
(If you have Ableton Live set to auto update, this may have updated in the background without you realising!)
Once this is setup correctly, if the script does have errors, they will display in the CSS log panel. If you’re unsure of what to do about any error messages, you can post on the forum or contact us for help.
It’s best to keep clearing the log each time you make a change, in order to only see the latest errors if more are generated when you reload the script. This will help avoid any confusion on if you have fixed an error or not.
Step 4: Check Controller Template MIDI
If you now have everything setup in Live and no errors showing in the log but mappings are still not working, double check the MIDI settings in the Controller Template for the inputs you are attempting to control a mapping with.
Open the settings menu for the input and check the MIDI Channel, Type, Value. Plus the Velocity settings.
A quick way to check this is, if you press/turn the input on the midi controller, its corresponding controller template input will momentarily highlight green if the MIDI data is configured correctly.
Step 5: Simplify Your Script for Testing
If you’re still encountering errors, try simplifying your script to isolate the problem:
- Start by removing all existing mappings from your script.
- Add just one mapping.
- Install the simplified script into Ableton Live.
- Reload the MIDI remote script (as shown in my previous email) or reload Ableton Live itself.
- Check if the script now appears in the Control Surface menu. If it does, add the next mapping, and so on.
To Sum Up
By following these steps, you should be able to troubleshoot and fix the majority of possible scripting issues. If you encounter further problems, you can search for your specific problem in the community forum, write a post to the community or contact us via email for more assistance.
keep an eye out for more helpful MIDI scripting tips from me, coming soon 🙌