How do I get named section markers in my Ableton set?
The short answer
Ableton Live marks places on the timeline with locators. Plan2Live writes them for you: it listens to each song's Guide on your Mac and puts a named section marker where each spoken cue starts, like Intro, Verse, Chorus or Bridge.
Its Markers menu has Regular locators, and two AbleSet styles: AbleSet Locators and AbleSet Sections. You choose one before you build.
Mac only (macOS 14.6 or later, Apple Silicon or Intel) · Ableton Live Standard or Suite
How Plan2Live does it
The four marker styles
- Regular (the default): one locator at the start of each section.
- AbleSet Locators: a locator with the song's title, one for each section, and a SONG END locator.
- AbleSet Sections: a locator with the song's title, and the sections as clips on a Sections track.
- Off: no Guide reading and no section markers.
What the markers are called
Plan2Live knows the usual section words, like Intro, Verse (and Verse 1, Verse 2), Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Post-Chorus, Bridge, Refrain, Tag, Vamp, Turnaround, Interlude, Instrumental, Breakdown, Outro and Ending. A COUNT marker always sits at the very start, and if there's music before the first spoken cue, Plan2Live adds an INTRO there.
When there are no spoken names
- If the Guide has timing but no names it recognizes, the sections follow the Guide and they're numbered.
- If a song has no Guide at all, its sections are spaced evenly.
- A song without spoken cues can get the placeholder markers COUNT, SECTION 1 and ENDING. The finished card lists those songs.
- Either way, you can rename any marker in Live.
Section names from Planning Center
For a set imported from Planning Center, you can take the section names from the song's arrangement sections in Planning Center instead: choose Planning Center Labels in the Options card.
If you run the set with AbleSet
AbleSet is a separate app, made by another company, for controlling an Ableton Live set during a show. Plan2Live only builds the set. Pick AbleSet Locators or AbleSet Sections before you build. We haven't tested these sets in AbleSet ourselves yet, so open the set in AbleSet and check it well before a show. For how AbleSet reads a set, see AbleSet's own documentation.
What it doesn't do
- Named sections need spoken cues on the Guide, or Planning Center sections. Otherwise the markers are numbered or placeholders.
- Guide reading has been tested on Apple Silicon Macs.
- It doesn't play the set. You run it in Ableton Live, like a set you made yourself.