Intech Studio Grid modules as a control surface for Ableton Live 12:
- EN16 (16 encoders): a mixer of 4 tracks (send, send, pan, volume per column) in Tracks mode, or the parameters of the selected device, 16 at a time, in Plugins mode. Works with any Live device or plugin; LEDs follow the values Live sends back.
- VSN1 (screen, 8 keys, 4 buttons, jog wheel): transport, track and device navigation, a jog that scrubs the timeline, and a 320×240 screen that mirrors the EN16.
It is an Ableton Remote Script (Python, runs inside Live) plus generated Grid Editor profiles (Lua, runs on the modules). New here? Start with the tutorial. A reference of every control: remote_script/Grid_Ableton/README.md.
- Ableton Live 12 (Live 12.4.3 or later can open a plugin's window from the Grid; older versions fall back to a keyboard shortcut).
- An Intech Studio EN16 and a VSN1 (VSN1L or VSN1R), and Grid Editor to store the profiles on them.
- Python 3 to generate the profiles.
deploy.shalso needs bash and rsync (standard on macOS).
- Run
./deploy.shin this folder (./deploy.sh --dry-runshows what it would change). It copies the Remote Script into Live's User Library and generates the Grid Editor profiles. - Restart Live. In Settings › Link, Tempo & MIDI, pick Grid_Ableton as a Control Surface with Input and Output = your Grid. On the Grid input port, turn Track and Remote off.
- In Grid Editor, load Grid Ableton EN16 on the EN16 and Grid Ableton VSN1L or VSN1R (the side your screen is on) on the VSN1, and press Store.
| Path | What it is | Installed to (macOS) |
|---|---|---|
remote_script/Grid_Ableton/ |
Ableton Remote Script (Python): reads Live, maps the EN16, sends the VSN1 screen data | ~/Music/Ableton/User Library/Remote Scripts/Grid_Ableton |
grid/make_profiles.py |
Generator of the Grid Editor profiles: the Lua that runs on the modules (LEDs, keys, screen drawing) | ~/Documents/grid-userdata/configs/Grid Ableton EN16 / VSN1L / VSN1R.json |
dumps/ |
Parameter list of each plugin, saved by the Remote Script when you select it; used to write curated banks (banks.py) |
brought back from Live's copy by deploy.sh |
deploy.sh |
Installs everything | — |
tools/check.py |
Checks that run without Live or the hardware | — |
tools/screenshots/ |
Renders the VSN1 screenshots in docs/images/ with the firmware's own drawing code |
— |
docs/TUTORIAL.md |
How to use it, with screenshots | — |
docs/IDEAS.md |
Where the project could go next | — |
This folder is the source: the installed copies are overwritten on every deploy, so edit files here only. After a deploy:
- Remote Script changed (
remote_script/): in Live's settings set the control surface to None and back to Grid_Ableton (changes to__init__.pyneed a Live restart). - Profiles changed (
grid/make_profiles.py): load them again in Grid Editor and press Store. Live does not need a restart.
The deploy first copies any new parameter dumps from Live's copy into dumps/, then installs the Remote Script (removing files that no longer exist here) and regenerates the profiles, keeping their ids so Grid Editor sees them as the same profiles.
macOS 26.6 with Ableton Live 12.2.5, Grid Editor 1.7.5, one EN16 and one VSN1. It has not been tried on Windows yet: reports are welcome.
All paths are the macOS defaults. If your Live User Library is somewhere else (Live's Settings › Library), set LIVE_DIR (and GRID_DIR for Grid Editor's configs folder) when running the deploy:
LIVE_DIR="/path/to/User Library/Remote Scripts/Grid_Ableton" ./deploy.shThe Remote Script and the profiles should work the same, but some things differ (untested):
| macOS | Windows (defaults) | |
|---|---|---|
| Remote Scripts | ~/Music/Ableton/User Library/Remote Scripts/ |
C:\Users\<you>\Documents\Ableton\User Library\Remote Scripts\ |
| Grid Editor profiles | ~/Documents/grid-userdata/configs/ |
usually C:\Users\<you>\Documents\grid-userdata\configs\ (check Grid Editor's settings) |
| Live log | ~/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live x.x.x/Log.txt |
C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\Log.txt |
deploy.shneeds bash, rsync and Python 3: run it from WSL or Git Bash withLIVE_DIRandGRID_DIRset, or install by hand: copyremote_script/Grid_Ableton/to the Remote Scripts folder and runpython grid/make_profiles.py <Grid Editor configs folder>.- On Live versions that can't open a plugin's window from a script, VSN1 key 7 types the Show/Hide Plug-In Windows shortcut.
make_profiles.pypicks it from the computer it runs on (Cmd+Option+P on macOS, Ctrl+Alt+P on Windows);--os macor--os windowsforces one.
- Grid Editor rejects any event script longer than 909 characters;
make_profiles.pystops with an error before writing a profile that breaks it. - Live before 12.4.3 cannot open a single plugin's window from a script (
is_editor_open): there, Plug-in Edit types the keyboard shortcut instead, so Live must be the active app. - Many plugins expose no parameters until you use Configure in Live (see the Remote Script README).
- The Remote Script logs to Live's
Log.txt(lines starting withGrid Ableton:).
Contributions are welcome: bug reports (with your OS, Live and Grid Editor versions), Windows testing, curated banks for plugins, and new features. This is a spare-time project, so replies may take a while: please open an issue to discuss a change before sending a pull request, so you don't spend time on something that may not be merged. You can also always fork it and take it your own way. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md; AGENTS.md explains the architecture, the MIDI/SysEx protocol, the platform limits and how to test without the hardware. Ideas for where to go next are in docs/IDEAS.md.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; see LICENSE for details.
Ableton and Live are trademarks of Ableton AG; Grid is a product of Intech Studio. This project is not affiliated with either.