Output folder and Ableton version

Choose an output folder#

Plan2Live needs to know where to save finished sets. In the Output card on Confirm + Edit, press Choose Folder (or Change Folder), or set it in Settings → File Access → Output folder. There's no folder until you choose one, so the first time the GENERATE button says CHOOSE OUTPUT FOLDER →.

Pick an ordinary folder you can find again, like a "Live Sets" folder in your Music folder or on your show drive. Plan2Live won't save into a shortcut or a system location, and it tells you if you pick one.

What a finished set looks like#

Each build makes one project folder in your output folder:

• Friday Late Show Project/ — the project folder, named after your project.
• Friday Late Show Project/Friday Late Show.als — the Ableton Live set.
• Friday Late Show Project/Samples/Imported/ — a copy of every stem the set uses, one folder per song.

Because the stems are copied into the project, the project folder has everything the set needs. You can move it, or copy it to another Mac, as one folder. Your original stems folders are never changed.

If a project with the same name is already in the output folder, Plan2Live never overwrites it. It saves the new one under a free name and tells you which ("Saved as …, because … is already in …"), leaving the old folder exactly as it was.

Choose the Ableton version#

The Ableton Version menu (in the Output card, and in Settings → Plan2Live Status) sets which Live the set is made for. Live 12 is the default and the one we recommend: it's the version Plan2Live's sets are checked in.

The menu also lists Live 10 and Live 11 (a Live 11 set is made in Live 10's format: open it in Live 11 and save it once). Choose them only if the Mac you play from has an older Live, and check the set carefully before you use it.

With a Custom Template, the version comes from your template, and the menu says "Set by your template".

Output Style#

The Output Style card picks what the set is built into:

• Default Template: Plan2Live's own built-in layout, with markers, stems and routing. Nothing to set up.
• Custom Template: your own Ableton template. See Custom Templates.

The built-in template#

In the built-in Live 12 template, every song gets its own block of tracks, named after the song and its key:

• a Markers track (MIDI) with the song's sections;
• a Cues group with Click and Guide;
• a Stems group with Drums, Perc, Loop, Bass, EG 1–4, Synth FX, Synth Bass, Piano, Organ and Keys 1–6;
• BGVs.

Stem tracks a song doesn't use are left out of that song. The songs sit one after another in Arrangement View, in your set's order, and the tempo and time signature change at the start of each song.

Which edition of Live#

Use Ableton Live Standard or Suite. Live Intro allows 16 audio and MIDI tracks and Live Lite allows 8, and the built-in template has 22 for a single song, so Intro and Lite are too small for it. A set with several songs has a block of tracks for each one.