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Tips for Using Ableton Live’s MIDI Preferences

Updated: Aug 11, 2022

In this article, we'll look at tips using MIDI Preferences, and when to choose the right settings for different use cases.



We’ll cover the following 4 things in this post…


  1. How to setup a MIDI controller/ keyboard to play instruments

  2. How to control Ableton Live with knobs on a MIDI controller

  3. Using a Control Surface

  4. Mapping 3rd Party Plugin Parameters

1. How to setup a MIDI keyboard to play instruments in Ableton Live

Below is a screenshot from the MIDI activity section of Ableton. This view is located in the upper-right corner of Ableton Live’s screen. This is a great quick reference to know if you’re getting any MIDI signal in and out of Ableton.



Let’s go to Live –> Preferences. In our Link/ Tempo/ MIDI tab we turn on our MIDI controller's Input to TRACK to play MIDI notes into clips, etc.