ableton-sheet-music-extension

This is an extension for Ableton Live, a popular music production program, that lets you see the notes in a MIDI clip displayed as traditional sheet music. MIDI clips in Ableton are typically viewed as colored bars on a piano roll grid, which is not how classically trained musicians read music. This extension bridges that gap by rendering the same notes as proper notation with staffs, clefs, and time signatures.

To use it, you right-click any MIDI clip in Ableton and choose "Show Chart" from the extensions menu. A window opens showing the clip as readable sheet music. From there you can transpose the notation for a specific instrument: if you're writing a part for an alto saxophone, for example, you can switch to that preset and the extension will automatically shift the written pitches and key signature to match how that instrument reads music. You can also adjust the rhythmic grid if the automatic detection is not quite right, override the time signature, and choose between a single staff or a grand staff for piano-style material.

When you're done, you can export the sheet music as a PDF, a PNG image, or a MusicXML file. MusicXML is a standard format that opens in notation programs like MuseScore or Dorico, so you can continue editing the sheet music outside Ableton.

Installing the extension requires Ableton Live version 12.4.5 or newer with the Extensions feature enabled, which was in beta at the time the README was written. You download a single file with the .ablx extension and drag it into Ableton's preferences. No extra software is needed to run it. If you want to modify or build it yourself, the project is written in TypeScript and requires the Ableton Extensions SDK, which you must obtain separately from Ableton.