Connecting dawling to Ableton Live

Install dawling, enable the Remote in Ableton, and you're producing.

dawling controls Ableton Live through a small control surface script called dawling Remote. The dawling app installs it for you on first launch — you just need to turn it on inside Ableton.

Before you start

  • macOS 12+ on Apple Silicon.
  • Ableton Live 10 or later (Suite, Standard, or Intro all work).

1. Install dawling

Open Terminal and paste:

curl -fsSL https://www.dawling.app/install.sh | bash

This downloads the latest build and copies dawling.app into /Applications. The same command is on the download page.

2. Launch dawling

Open dawling from /Applications. On first launch it installs the dawling Remote script into your Ableton User Library at:

~/Music/Ableton/User Library/Remote Scripts/dawling_Remote/

You'll see a status message confirming the install. dawling re-checks this folder every launch and updates the script in place when a new version ships.

3. Enable the Remote in Ableton

If Ableton was already running, fully quit and reopen it — Ableton only scans for control surface scripts at startup.

Then in Ableton:

  1. Open Preferences → Link, Tempo & MIDI.
  2. Under Control Surface, click any empty dropdown and select dawling Remote (no need to set the Input or Output rows next to it).
  3. Close Preferences.

4. Confirm the connection

Switch back to dawling. Within a second or two you should see a Connected indicator. If you don't, see dawling isn't connecting to Ableton.

5. (Paid plans) Install the MIDI Expansion pack

If you're on a paid plan, dawling can use the MIDI Expansion pack — a large library of MIDI patterns it draws from when sketching drums and melodies.

In dawling, open Settings → Expansion Packs and click Download next to MIDI Expansion (~4.3 GB). The download is resumable, so closing the app and coming back later is fine.

The pack is optional. dawling works without it — you just get a wider pool of source patterns when it's installed.

What's next

Try something simple — ask dawling to "set up a 124 BPM techno session" and watch tracks appear. Then read how to ask dawling for what you want.

Still stuck? Email support@dawling.app.